With vocal and choral music, first and foremost, it's the text. Not only do I need to serve the text, but the text - when I'm doing it right - acts as the perfect 'blueprint', and all the architecture is there. The poet has done the heavy lifting, so my job is to find the soul of the poem and then somehow translate that into music.
Eric Whitacre
Related I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES Are you taking us to the beach?" - Dan Cahill JUDE WATSON It looks ancient," - Amy Cahill JUDE WATSON It SMELLS ancient," - Dan Cahill JUDE WATSON Palm trees were fanned by a warm, light breeze, and they rolled down their windows to smell the sea. JUDE WATSON We have tears in our eyes As we wave our goodbyes, We so loved being with you, we three. ROALD DAHL Let's head out to the ruins." - Dan Cahill ROLAND SMITH Integrity is not everything, but it is the only thing that matters. JEFFREY FRY It was because they were two parts of a whole. He did not belong to her. And she did not belong to h... RENEE AHDIEH Cease with the displays of false modesty. The entire palace knows about it." A feeling of warmt... RENEE AHDIEH Do you know why I adore roses?" Shahrzad untied the knot of his tikka sash with deliberate slowness.... RENEE AHDIEH Where were you?" Shahrzad tried to control the tremor in her voice. "Not where I should have b... RENEE AHDIEH As always. As ever. As a rose to the sun. RENEE AHDIEH It's all to do with the training: you can do a lot if you're properly trained. QUEEN ELIZABETH II Like all best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters and... QUEEN ELIZABETH II My husband has quite simply been my strength and stay all these years, and I owe him a debt greater ... QUEEN ELIZABETH II It is easy enough to define what the Commonwealth is not. Indeed this is quite a popular pastime. QUEEN ELIZABETH II I have to be seen to be believed. QUEEN ELIZABETH II I have in sincerity pledged myself to your service, as so many of you are pledged to mine. Throughou... QUEEN ELIZABETH II I hope that tomorrow we can all, wherever we are, join in expressing our grief at Diana's loss, ... QUEEN ELIZABETH II I myself prefer my New Zealand eggs for breakfast. QUEEN ELIZABETH II The British constitution has always been puzzling and always will be. QUEEN ELIZABETH II I have behind me not only the splendid traditions and the annals of more than a thousand years but t... QUEEN ELIZABETH II To what greater inspiration and counsel can we turn than to the imperishable truth to be found in th... QUEEN ELIZABETH II What were once only hopes for the future have now come to pass; it is almost exactly 13 years since ... QUEEN ELIZABETH II First, I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being. In good... QUEEN ELIZABETH II I cannot lead you into battle. I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something e... QUEEN ELIZABETH II To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past I extend my sincere thoughts an... QUEEN ELIZABETH II Grief is the price we pay for love. QUEEN ELIZABETH II The upward course of a nation's history is due in the long run to the soundness of heart of its ... QUEEN ELIZABETH II At its heart, engineering is about using science to find creative, practical solutions. It is a nobl... QUEEN ELIZABETH II At Christmas, I am always struck by how the spirit of togetherness lies also at the heart of the Chr... QUEEN ELIZABETH II For many, Christmas is also a time for coming together. But for others, service will come first. QUEEN ELIZABETH II The lessons from the peace process are clear; whatever life throws at us, our individual responses w... QUEEN ELIZABETH II I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your s... QUEEN ELIZABETH II Therefore I am sure that this, my Coronation, is not the symbol of a power and a splendor that are g... QUEEN ELIZABETH II We lost the American colonies because we lacked the statesmanship to know the right time and the man... QUEEN ELIZABETH II Madam President, speaking here in Dublin Castle it is impossible to ignore the weight of history, as... QUEEN ELIZABETH II These wretched babies don't come until they are ready. QUEEN ELIZABETH II I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of ... QUEEN ELIZABETH II The events that I have attended to mark my Diamond Jubilee have been a humbling experience. It has t... QUEEN ELIZABETH II In remembering the appalling suffering of war on both sides, we recognise how precious is the peace ... QUEEN ELIZABETH II Like all the best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters... QUEEN ELIZABETH II No one who knew Diana will ever forget her. Millions of others who never met her, but felt they knew... QUEEN ELIZABETH II I have been aware all the time that my peoples, spread far and wide throughout every continent and o... QUEEN ELIZABETH II The warm sound of her laughter stole through Khalid's skin, heating the coldest reaches of his soul. RENEE AHDIEH Lots of the time, the music came to me before the text, so I had to find the text that matched the m... BRIAN CROSBY I think sometimes there is no right thing. ROSAMUND HODGE We'll sort of get over the marriage first and then maybe look at the kids. But obviously we want... PRINCE WILLIAM Family is the most important thing in the world. PRINCESS DIANA You philosophers are lucky men. You write on paper and paper is patient. Unfortunate Empress that I ... CATHERINE THE GREAT With the right help, children have a good chance of overcoming their issues while they are still you... KATE MIDDLETON As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. KING SOLOMON I don't mind a big fascinator. I think there is more scope for artwork in a fascinator rather th... ZARA PHILLIPS I was always told from the hat-makers that you should have your hair up because it shows the hat mor... ZARA PHILLIPS I don't think I'll still be riding at 40. There are a couple of people who are still riding ... ZARA PHILLIPS My dad's not a big talker. ZARA PHILLIPS My dad can be pretty critical sometimes. ZARA PHILLIPS I'd love to have kids, but not at the moment. ZARA PHILLIPS You cannot make horses 'safe.' ZARA PHILLIPS Virtually everything that gets printed about me is wrong anyway, so it doesn't really matter wha... ZARA PHILLIPS It's stupid to say that I don't like being in the public eye, but I don't like doing stu... ZARA PHILLIPS I'm an affectionate person. ZARA PHILLIPS People still text me to say that there is something about me in the paper, and what really annoys me... ZARA PHILLIPS Sometimes people will come up in the street and say: 'My daughter loves you, will you sign an au... ZARA PHILLIPS Taking part in an Olympics on home ground is something you dream about. ZARA PHILLIPS My brother and I have been able to get on and have been very lucky to do things with our family that... ZARA PHILLIPS I don't think about the media. ZARA PHILLIPS I love the sport and being competitive. ZARA PHILLIPS The horses are all characters, all personalities. Some you get along with, some you don't, some ... ZARA PHILLIPS I hate having my picture taken. ZARA PHILLIPS Unfortunately in sport it's either good or bad. You've got to take the highs and the lows. ZARA PHILLIPS My mother is massively into sailing, so we always had Musto clothes, and it went on from there, real... ZARA PHILLIPS The senior members of the royal family work very hard and I don't think people quite realise tha... ZARA PHILLIPS In our sport you're very lucky to find a horse of a lifetime and I found mine relatively early. ... ZARA PHILLIPS I don't have a stylist, and I do most of my shopping online, just because it's easier. I don... ZARA PHILLIPS I think Facebook's dangerous. So many people I know get into trouble with Facebook... I'd ra... ZARA PHILLIPS I'm not a princess anyway so I find that quite weird to be labelled as one. ZARA PHILLIPS Smoking is hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, and dangerous to the lungs. KING JAMES I My dear mamma is quite right when she says that we must lay down principles and not depart from them... MARIE ANTOINETTE I never make a trip to the United States without visiting a supermarket. To me they are more fascina... WALLIS SIMPSON PS: It's all gossip about the prince. I'm not in the habit of taking my girlfriends' bea... WALLIS SIMPSON I am so anxious for you not to abdicate and I think the fact that you do is going to put me in the w... WALLIS SIMPSON I hate this place. I shall hate it to my grave. WALLIS SIMPSON I look a hundred and weigh 110 - you won't love me when you see the wreck England has made me. WALLIS SIMPSON A woman's life can really be a succession of lives, each revolving around some emotionally compe... WALLIS SIMPSON Never explain, never complain. WALLIS SIMPSON You have no idea how hard it is to live out a great romance. WALLIS SIMPSON I have always had the courage for the new things that life sometimes offers. WALLIS SIMPSON For a gallant spirit there can never be defeat. WALLIS SIMPSON Forgive me for not writing but this man is exhausting. WALLIS SIMPSON You can never be too rich or too thin. WALLIS SIMPSON A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. KING SOLOMON It seems to me that man is made to act rather than to know: the principles of things escape our most... FREDERICK THE GREAT Addiction is a hugely complex and destructive disease, and its impact can be simply devastating. All... KATE MIDDLETON There is nothing new except what has been forgotten. MARIE ANTOINETTE I have seen all, I have heard all, I have forgotten all. MARIE ANTOINETTE I think change needs to be egoless. It's not about my leaving my fingerprints or a legacy. It... QUEEN RANIA OF JORDAN We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat. They do not exist. QUEEN VICTORIA I can make a lord, but only God can make a gentleman. KING JAMES I
More Eric Whitacre
I don't know if it is a spiritual, physiological or psychological phenomenon, but I believe now ... ERIC WHITACRE There must be four or five hundred choirs here in London alone. In a way, there's nowhere else o... ERIC WHITACRE When I went to college at the University of Nevada back in Las Vegas, I got tricked into singing in ... ERIC WHITACRE I wouldn't say that I'm actually trying to cause chills in the audience, but certainly my go... ERIC WHITACRE People in chorus tends to be much more emotional or at least wear their hearts on their sleeve. They... ERIC WHITACRE The virtual choir would never replace live music or a real choir, but the same sort of focus and int... ERIC WHITACRE I wanted to be a rock star. I dreamed of it, and that's all I dreamed of. To be more accurate, I... ERIC WHITACRE Since I first fell in love with choral music when I was 18 and began composing at 21, I've been ... ERIC WHITACRE Many composers use software to write music - programs like Finale or Sibelius. There are also record... ERIC WHITACRE I'm not a culture snob. So while, of course, I think the Mozart 'Requiem' or, say, Beeth... ERIC WHITACRE As a composer, I know that all sorts of sounds I hear are making their way into my brain and soul an... ERIC WHITACRE For me, the virtual choir has taught me that, if anything, the Internet builds these post-national t... ERIC WHITACRE I'm a self-confessed geek, and my whole concept of music at first was entirely electronic. In ma... ERIC WHITACRE To have a live choir there on the stage and then these singers from different countries signing with... ERIC WHITACRE I write music that sounds complex but isn't. I frankly never think in terms of theory. ERIC WHITACRE When you look back on music history, it falls into these neat periods, but of course, the period you... ERIC WHITACRE For the first six or eight months at Juilliard I felt paralysed. I didn't know what I was doing. ERIC WHITACRE I can't write music unless I'm deeply connected to it and that connection almost always come... ERIC WHITACRE When I had my first experiences of choral singing, the dissonance of those close harmonies was so ex... ERIC WHITACRE I'm not an atheist, but I'm not a Christian, either. ERIC WHITACRE A really good poem is full of music. ERIC WHITACRE The AT&T name has a proud and storied heritage, as well as unparalleled recognition around the globe... EDWARD WHITACRE An application scoring 148 may get funded and 149 might not. (The NIH) has to draw a line where the ... CAROLINE WHITACRE You can't just sit around and do nothing while you're waiting - you have to kind of piggyback on som... CAROLINE WHITACRE Together, we will lead the way into a new era of converged and bundled communications, video, and en... EDWARD WHITACRE If we were somehow able to sign one franchise agreement every week of the year, it's going to take u... EDWARD WHITACRE The new AT and T has gotten off to a very strong start. EDWARD WHITACRE Though we are trimming capital expenditures in 2002, we will continue to invest capital in the right... EDWARD WHITACRE We commend the commission, under the leadership of Chairman Martin, for recognizing the reality of t... EDWARD WHITACRE We have not determined any time frame ... but it certainly a terrific option that's available. EDWARD WHITACRE We will provide a competitive, integrated mix of local, long distance, Internet and high-speed data ... EDWARD WHITACRE This transaction ? will transform us from a regional company to a new kind of company that uses its ... EDWARD WHITACRE The AT&T brand reflects what customers are looking for. They want the latest technology and services... EDWARD WHITACRE Each time you submit a grant, it's almost a year down the drain. CAROLINE WHITACRE AT&T will not block access to the public Internet or degrade service, period. ED WHITACRE This merger is a logical next step that creates substantial value for customers and stockholders of ... ED WHITACRE There's been a lot of talk about this in order to scare people into thinking that access to the Inte... ED WHITACRE It's a realization that the world is changing and it's changing faster and faster. We saw that the s... ED WHITACRE We literally have hundreds of competitors coming in every day; it's nothing like the old days. If we... ED WHITACRE This merger is a logical next step. ED WHITACRE No partnership between two independent companies, no matter how well run, can match the speed, effec... ED WHITACRE It was the right thing for the company, ED WHITACRE This is the brand that will lead the industry in delivering the next generation of communicati... ED WHITACRE This is a superior management team. They are the best in the industry, and I am confident they will ... ED WHITACRE TARP is funded by taxpayers, so there are many rules about how that money can and can't be used.... EDWARD WHITACRE, JR. No partnership between two independent companies, no matter how well run, can match the speed, effec... EDWARD WHITACRE, JR. Be willing to step outside your comfort zone once in a while; take the risks in life that seem worth... EDWARD WHITACRE, JR. I'm a pretty average guy and want to keep a low profile. I don't want the world necessarily ... EDWARD WHITACRE, JR. AT&T will not block access to the public Internet or degrade service, period. EDWARD WHITACRE, JR. Find your passion is in life, and do what you can to integrate that into your work life. That's ... EDWARD WHITACRE, JR. My goal in coming to General Motors was to help restore profitability, build a strong market positio... EDWARD WHITACRE, JR. I am honored to be able to serve GM at this critical juncture and take part in its reinvention. EDWARD WHITACRE, JR. If someone wants to transmit a high-quality service with no interruptions and 'guaranteed this, ... EDWARD WHITACRE, JR. This merger is a logical next step that creates substantial value for customers and stockholders of ... EDWARD WHITACRE, JR. So long as TARP money is wrapped up in GM, the company will never shake its 'Government Motors... EDWARD WHITACRE, JR. At AT&T, I learned an awful lot about people, and how important it is to have the right people i... EDWARD WHITACRE, JR. When I got to GM they were using a matrix method of management which means everybody has more than o... EDWARD WHITACRE, JR. I don't know anything about cars. A business is a business, and I think I can learn about cars. ... EDWARD WHITACRE, JR. None of us has control over the economy, the job market, or anything else in the global sense. But w... EDWARD WHITACRE, JR. You constantly hear about voter fraud... but you don't see huge amounts of vote fraud out there. ERIC HOLDER We must never stop fighting for a vision of American democracy in which we strive for and encourage ... ERIC SCHNEIDERMAN Children are the keys of paradise. ERIC HOFFER It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor. ERIC HOFFER Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature. ERIC HOFFER Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy - the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and ... ERIC HOFFER The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future. ERIC HOFFER It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to le... ERIC HOFFER Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us... ERIC HOFFER Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength. ERIC HOFFER The beginning of thought is in disagreement - not only with others but also with ourselves. ERIC HOFFER We feel free when we escape - even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire. ERIC HOFFER We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about. ERIC HOFFER One of the things I learned is that you've got to deal with the underlying social problems if yo... ERIC HOLDER I've been hearing this since I first joined the Reds organization, that I'm going to be the ... ERIC DAVIS I can understand why a single parent, working two jobs, would find it easier to stop at McDonald'... ERIC SCHLOSSER Nothing stops the man who desires to achieve. Every obstacle is simply a course to develop his achie... ERIC BUTTERWORTH Consultant: any ordinary guy more than fifty miles from home. ERIC SEVAREID If you sequence a cancerous tumor, you should be able to tailor the therapy according to the root ca... ERIC TOPOL A brain scan may reveal the neural signs of anxiety, but a Kokoschka painting, or a Schiele self-por... ERIC KANDEL I want to be remembered for my poop jokes. Those are the most important kind. ERIC ANDRE A loser doesn't know what he'll do if he loses, but talks about what he'll do if he wins... ERIC BERNE Google was founded to get information to everybody. A by-product of that strategy is that we invente... ERIC SCHMIDT When someone makes a claim against the state, that person must legally verify that the facts in the ... ERIC SCHNEIDERMAN Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have ... ERIC HOLDER Television is a lot of fun. It's faster-paced. The schedule is really desirable, I guess. But as... ERIC DANE It takes a lot of energy to be negative. You have to work at it. But smiling is painless. I'd ra... ERIC DAVIS I like Velvet Underground, but I was never really hardcore into them. I like them, and I like Nico, ... ERIC ANDRE If someone is too perfect they won't look good. Imperfection is important. ERIC CANTONA I love cheese and biscuits, the stronger the better. ERIC BRISTOW Why should citizenship be a matter of birth? The premise held by those who want to end birthright ci... ERIC LIU I am a Buddhist, therefore I should not be collecting anything - however, I have a collection of Bud... ERIC RIPERT First paying gig, I got 20 bucks. I played at some really weird venue. I don't remember the venu... ERIC ANDRE Why my interest in writers? Well, I'm one, and many of my friends are writers. I know what it... ERIC BROWN When Bryan Price taught me how to throw a changeup, he made me see myself. All my life, I've bee... ERIC LIU I have two bowls of confidence for breakfast each morning. ERIC BRISTOW If you are going to make a change, make it big and bold. Walk up to the biggest guy on the block, st... ERIC SHINSEKI With breathtaking rapidity, we are destroying all that was lovely to look at and turning America int... ERIC SEVAREID You know, you grow up with the image of John Travolta being super cool - 'Saturday Night Fever,&... ERIC STOLTZ The nature of a society is largely determined by the direction in which talent and ambition flowby t... ERIC HOFFER The compulsion to take ourselves seriously is in inverse proportion to our creative capacity. When t... ERIC HOFFER How much easier is self-sacrifice than self-realization! ERIC HOFFER There is probably an element of malice in the readiness to overestimate people; we are laying up for... ERIC HOFFER It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is as true of men as of dogs. ERIC HOFFER I have a Tinder account. Now I've done Bumble, and I've tried this other one, and the way I ... ERIC STONESTREET At Tenafly High, I was lucky to have some dedicated teachers; I'm especially indebted to my calc... ERIC MASKIN If your goal is to make money, becoming an entrepreneur is a sucker's bet. Sure, some entreprene... ERIC RIES All I ever wanted to do was get a great job on a TV show. When I read 'Modern Family' and st... ERIC STONESTREET My wife is a real camper; it's a nice way to bond. ERIC MCCORMACK Great businessmen are creators. ERIC CANTONA I'll tell you one thing about me: I'm very private. I always have been private. People think... ERIC DICKERSON Within that dream of working with your partner, you want to be able to separate and have a home life... ERIC WINTER There is no greater country on Earth for entrepreneurship than America. In every category, from the ... ERIC RIES If what I've been told is true - and I believe it is, General David Petraeus, a commander with s... ERIC MASSA There are certain mutations you can find across cancers in different organs. ERIC TOPOL There are estimates that 2 to 3 percent of cancers in the U.S. each year are engendered by exposure ... ERIC TOPOL As with almost every significant aspect of the Bush presidency, its handling of 9/11 was a catastrop... ERIC ALTERMAN I am, and always will be, a blues guitarist. ERIC CLAPTON There's a roots nature to Appalachia - the origins of folk and bluegrass. I know guys there who ... ERIC CHURCH A soul that is reluctant to share does not as a rule have much of its own. Miserliness is here a sym... ERIC HOFFER There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other. ERIC HOFFER Marriage has for women many equivalents of joining a mass movement. It offers them a new purpose in ... ERIC HOFFER The individual's most vital need is to prove his worth, and this usually means an insatiable hunger ... ERIC HOFFER Sharks have been swimming the oceans unchallenged for thousands of years; chances are, the species t... ERIC GELMAN Lightning is the shorthand of a storm, and tells of chaos. ERIC MACKAY The Boomers will eventually have to accept that it is not possible to stay forever young or to stop ... ERIC LIU When a bank calls in a loan, it obviously hurts the customer in question. But it also adversely affe... ERIC MASKIN It is a talent of the weak to persuade themselves that they suffer for something when they suffer f... ERIC HOFFER Mass is resistance to motion. ERIC PARSLOW One of the keys to wealth is to understand why & how the distance from 1 to 1 million is greater tha... ERIC PARSLOW The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself. ERIC HOFFER Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want to... ERIC HOFFER Whether it is an attempt to bomb the New York City subway system, an attempt to bring down an airpla... ERIC HOLDER 'The Simpsons' is like Charlie Parker or Marlon Brando or Richard Pryor: Comedy couldn't... ERIC ANDRE The greatest weariness comes from work not done. ERIC HOFFER Anything and everything, physical or otherwise, is defined by its absence. ERIC PARSLOW Life is the dynamic, creative edge of reality. ERIC PARSLOW Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind. -Eric Hoffer. ERIC HOFFER The bigger the information media, the less courage and freedom they follow. Bigness means weakness. ERIC SEVAREID The bigger the information media, the less courage and freedom they allow. Bigness means weakness. ERIC SEVAREID One of the marks of a truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of... ERIC HOFFER The link between ideas and action is rarely direct. There is almost always an intermediate step in w... ERIC HOFFER Remembering is something God asks us to do over �... ERIC IRIVUZUMUGABE Death has but one terror, that it has no tomorrow. ERIC HOFFER The most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their ... ERIC HOFFER The technique of a mass movement aims to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as ... ERIC HOFFER Laughter to begin with was probably glee at the misfortunes of others. The baring of the teeth in l... ERIC HOFFER Crude absurdities, trivial nonsense, and sublime truths are equally potent in readying people for se... ERIC HOFFER Lack of sensitivity is perhaps basically an unawareness of ourselves. ERIC HOFFER Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions ... ERIC HOFFER The fact is that up to now a free society has not been good for the intellectual. It has neither ac... ERIC HOFFER As I railed on and on, I became increasingly energied and excited by my own misery and misanthropy u... ERIC WEINER For the skeptic there remains only one consolation: if there should be such a thing as superhuman ... ERIC AMBLER Geniuses are always marginalized to one degree or another. Someone wholly invested in the status quo... ERIC WEINER It's my duty as a human being to be pissed off ERIC BOGOSIAN I know what I want to hear. I want to hear the "Believe it or Not" song. I want to play that shit lo... ERIC SPITZNAGEL The chief cause of problems is solutions. ERIC SEVAREID When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common... ERIC HOFFER Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. The resentment of the weak does not spring... ERIC HOFFER Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart. For we can... ERIC HOFFER Freedom means freedom from forces and circumstances which would turn man into a thing, which would i... ERIC HOFFER To the excessively fearful the chief characteristic of power is its arbitrariness. Man had to gain e... ERIC HOFFER For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be.... ERIC ROTH The moment a little boy is concerned with which is a jay and which is a sparrow, he can no longer se... ERIC BERNE It is a well known fact that Abraham Lincoln spent much of his spare time visiting wounded soldiers ... ERIC FONER Life doesn't make any sense, and we all pretend it does. Comedy's job is to point out that it doesn'... ERIC IDLE Nationalist pride, like other variants of pride, can be a substitute for self-respect. ERIC HOFFER It is the stretched soul that makes music, and souls are stretched by the pull of opposites --opposi... ERIC HOFFER There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmar... ERIC HOFFER The passion to get ahead is sometimes born of the fear lest we be left behind. ERIC HOFFER It sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents. ERIC HOFFER It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities. ERIC HOFFER It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor. ERIC HOFFER Nature is a self-made machine, more perfectly automated than any automated machine. To create someth... ERIC HOFFER Lightning is the shorthand of a storm, and tells of chaos. ERIC MACKAY The real persuaders are our appetites, our fears and above all our vanity. The skillful propagandist... ERIC HOFFER It is the individual only who is timeless. Societies, cultures, and civilizations -- past and presen... ERIC HOFFER Naivete in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stu... ERIC HOFFER An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anyth... ERIC HOFFER Self-esteem and self-contempt have specific odors; they can be smelled. ERIC HOFFER No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments. We need p... ERIC HOFFER One of the best things to do sometimes is simply to be. ERIC BUTTERWORTH The remarkable thing is that it is the crowded life that is most easily remembered. A life full of t... ERIC HOFFER In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find them... ERIC HOFFER I loved learning, it was school I hated. I used to cut school to go learn something. ERIC JENSEN It would be difficult to exaggerate the degree to which we are influenced by those we influence. ERIC HOFFER Animals often strike us as passionate machines. ERIC HOFFER The superficiality of the American is the result of his hustling. It needs leisure to think things o... ERIC HOFFER The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim a... ERIC HOFFER We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true; they ruin our dreams. ERIC HOFFER You've got to create a dream. You've got to uphold the dream. If you can't, go back to the factory o... ERIC BURDON If you think you can do it, you can. ERIC LINDROS Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy -- the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and... ERIC HOFFER Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about. And since we know least about o... ERIC HOFFER The effectiveness of a doctrine does not come from its meaning but from its certitude. No doctrine h... ERIC HOFFER Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change. GOLNIK ERIC We don't change what we are, we change what we think what we are. ERIC BUTTERWORTH A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed. ERIC HOFFER There is perhaps no more reliable indicator of a society's ripeness for a mass movement than the pre... ERIC HOFFER The self-styled intellectual who is impotent with pen and ink hungers to write history with sword an... ERIC HOFFER We can never really be prepared for that which is wholly new. We have to adjust ourselves, and every... ERIC HOFFER