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Naivete in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity.

Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind. -Eric Hoffer.

The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist.

It is remarkable by how much a pinch of malice enhances the penetrating power of an idea or an opinion. Our ears, it seems, are wonderfully attuned to sneers and evil reports about our fellow men.

There is always a chance that he who sets himself up as his brother's keeper will end up by being his jail-keeper.

The individual's most vital need is to prove his worth, and this usually means an insatiable hunger for action. For it is only the few who can acquire a sense of worth by developing and employing their capacities and talents. The majority prove their worth by keeping busy.

They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort. They ascribe failure to a lack of inspiration or ability, or to misfortune, rather than to insufficient application. At the core of every true talent there is an awareness of the difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that by persistence and patience something worthwhile will be realized. Thus talent is a species of vigor.

It is remarkable by how much a pinch of malice enhances the penetrating power of an idea or an opinion. Our ears, it seems, are wonderfully attuned to sneers and evil reports about our fellow men.

To have a grievance is to have a purpose in life.

It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny.

Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.

To spell out the obvious is often to call it in question.

It is the pull of opposite poles that stretches souls. And only stretched souls make music.

There is apparently no surer way of turning a thing into its opposite than by exaggerating it

When people are fee to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. Originality is deliberate and forced, and partakes of the nature of a protest.

Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want to do.

To spell out the obvious is often to call it in question.

It is a talent of the weak to persuade themselves that they suffer for something when they suffer from something; that they are showing the way when they are running away; that they see the light when they feel the heat; that they are chosen when they are shunned.

It would be difficult to exaggerate the degree to which we are influenced by those we influence.

The real persuaders are our appetites, our fears and above all our vanity. The skillful propagandist stirs and coaches these internal persuaders.