There is in us a tendency to locate the shaping forces of our existence outside ourselves. Success and failure are unavoidably related in our minds w… - Eric Hoffer

people with a sense of fulfillment think it is a good world and would like to conserve it as it is, while the frustrated favor radical change.

Success and failure are unavoidably related in our minds with the state of things around us

There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth anew each day; we have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak, for life.

Propaganda ... serves more to justify ourselves than to convince others; and the more reason we have to feel guilty, the more fervent our propaganda.

The chief difference between me and others is that I have plenty of time — not only because I am without a multitude of responsibilities and without daily tasks, which demand attention: But also because I am basically without ambition. Neither the present nor the future has claims on me.