A Quote by Eric Hoffer

It is to escape the responsibility for failure that the weak so eagerly throw themselves into grandiose undertakings.

Eric Hoffer

Quote Topics

Eagerly Escape Failure Grandiose Responsibility Themselves Throw Undertakings Weak

Quote Author

Eric Hoffer
American - Writer
July 25, 1898 - May 21, 1983

I was attacked the other night for being grandiose. I would just want you to note: Lincoln standing at Council Bluffs was grandiose. The Wright Brothers standing at Kitty Hawk were grandiose. John F. Kennedy was grandiose. I accept the charge that I am grandiose and that Americans are instinctively grandiose.

Newt Gingrich

Faced with today's problems and disappointments , many people will try to escape from their responsibility. Escape in selfishness, escape in sexual pleasure, escape in drugs, escape in violence, escape in indifference and cynical attitudes. I propose to you the option of love, which is the opposite of escape.

Pope John Paul II

People who to back and chastise themselves, or second guess themselves, for making a wrong decision or a weak decision continues to set themselves up for failure in future decisions simply because they don't trust themselves.

Jeffrey Gitomer

Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. We join a mass movement to escape from individual responsibility, or, in the words of an ardent young Nazi, to be free from freedom. It was not sheer hypocrisy when the rank-and-file Nazis declared themselves not guilty of all the enormities they had committed. They considered themselves cheated and maligned when made to shoulder responsibility for obeying orders. Had they not joined the Nazi movement in order to be free from responsibility?

Eric Hoffer

Should there be anyone who feels he is too weak to do better because of that greatest of fears, the fear of failure, there is no more comforting assurance to be had than the words of the Lord: 'My Grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them' (Ether 12:27)

Thomas S. Monson

In the great undertakings, there is glory, even in failure.

Lee Iacocca

No class or group or party in Germany could escape its share of responsibility for the abandonment of the democratic Republic and the advent of Adolf Hitler. The cardinal error of the Germans who opposed Nazism was their failure to unite against it.

William L. Shirer

A good work ethic is not so much a concern for hard work but rather one for responsibility. There have been a great many men and women who have in fact used work or hustle or selfish ambition as an escape from real responsibility, an escape from purpose. In matters such as these, the hard worker is just as dysfunctional as the sloth.

Criss Jami

The great escape of our times is escape from personal responsibility for the consequences of one's own behavior.

Thomas Sowell

I guess I don't have a grandiose view of the world in general, and I never believe it when someone else has a grandiose moment.

Richard Linklater

I am grandiose because I live a grandiose life; what’s wrong with that?

Charlie Sheen

The ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus taught his students that what happens to them is not as important as what they believe happens to them. In this engaging and provocative book, Eldon Taylor provides his readers with specific ways in which their beliefs can lead to success or failure in their life undertakings. Each chapter provides nuggets of wisdom as well as road maps for guiding them toward greater self-understanding, balance, responsibility, and compassion.

Stanley Krippner

An artist's responsibility is a lot. I can't deny and escape from the responsibility. You have to be very guarded about your personal behaviour, future plans, etc.

Chiranjeevi

It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression.

Eric Hoffer

There is nothing rarer than a man who can be trusted never to throw away happiness, however eagerly he sometimes grasps it. In history we are as frequently interested in our own doom.