The impulse to think, to philosophize and spin beauty and brilliance out of mind and soul, is somehow the offspring of resistance — of an effort to overcome an apparently insurmountable obstacle. Hence cultural creativeness is more likely to flourish in an atmosphere of restriction, of an imposed pattern of thought and behavior, than in one of total freedom.

— Eric Hoffer Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)

More quotes by Eric Hoffer

The True Believer (1951)

The True Believer (1951)

Israel's Peculiar Position (1968)

The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)

Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)

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