Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

power faith corruption absolutes

About Eric Hoffer

Portrait of Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer (July 25, 1902 – May 21, 1983) was an American philosopher and social critic. A moderate with an atypical working-class background, Hoffer wrote ten books over his career and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983. His first book, The True Believer (1951), was widely...

More quotations from Eric Hoffer

Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains.

skill faith mountains

There are similarities between absolute power and absolute faith: a demand for absolute obedience, a readiness to attempt the impossible, a bias for simple solutionsto cut the knot rather than unravel it, the viewing of compromise as surrender. Both absolute power and absolute faith are instruments of dehumanization. Hence, absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

A preoccupation with the future not only prevents us from seeing the present as it is but often prompts us to rearrange the past.

Measure not the work until the day's out and the labor done.

Rational arguments don't usually work on religious people. Otherwise, there wouldn't be religious people.

More quotations tagged with “corruption”

Vote early and vote often.

humor democracy corruption

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

—George Bernard Shaw

power ignorance democracy corruption incompetence

Cynics regarded everybody as equally corrupt… Idealists regarded everybody as equally corrupt, except themselves.

—Robert Anton Wilson

cynicism idealism corruption

Money does not corrupt people. What corrupts people is lack of affection.… Money is simply the bandage which wounded people put over their wounds.

—Margaret Halsey

money corruption affection healing wounds

Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

power faith corruption

History

26 Feb 2016 Added