"It sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents"
About this Quote
Eric Hoffer, the longshoreman-philosopher, suggests that burning desire does more than push people toward goals; it can change what they are capable of. Intense wanting focuses attention, lengthens tolerance for frustration, and makes sustained practice feel necessary rather than optional. Over time, that persistence resembles talent. Research on deliberate practice has long argued that skill grows where effort is targeted, feedback is sought, and repetition is relentless. Desire supplies the energy for all three.
It also rearranges the landscape of chance. People who want something badly keep showing up, ask more questions, notice small openings, and risk rejection more often. That behavior increases the number of encounters with luck, so new paths appear that look like opportunities created from nothing. The world did not objectively change; the seeker did, and the changed habits call forth possibilities that indifference would have missed.
Hoffer adds a careful hedge: it sometimes seems. He knew that effort alone does not erase structural barriers, and that survivorship bias can romanticize grit. He also studied the dark side of ardor. In The True Believer he warned how unmoored intensity can slide into fanaticism, where desire narrows judgment and turns energy destructive. The same force that builds skill can also distort perception if it is not tethered to reflection and restraint.
His own life gives the insight texture. An autodidact who labored on the docks and wrote in spare hours, Hoffer watched how curiosity and tenacity forged his vocation. He did not inherit a scholar’s credential; he manufactured a thinker’s habits.
The line is both empowering and cautionary. Desire is an engine, not a guarantee. When joined to disciplined practice, openness to feedback, and ethical purpose, it not only changes external circumstances but remodels the self, turning capacity into something that looks like talent and scarcity into a field of emerging chances.
It also rearranges the landscape of chance. People who want something badly keep showing up, ask more questions, notice small openings, and risk rejection more often. That behavior increases the number of encounters with luck, so new paths appear that look like opportunities created from nothing. The world did not objectively change; the seeker did, and the changed habits call forth possibilities that indifference would have missed.
Hoffer adds a careful hedge: it sometimes seems. He knew that effort alone does not erase structural barriers, and that survivorship bias can romanticize grit. He also studied the dark side of ardor. In The True Believer he warned how unmoored intensity can slide into fanaticism, where desire narrows judgment and turns energy destructive. The same force that builds skill can also distort perception if it is not tethered to reflection and restraint.
His own life gives the insight texture. An autodidact who labored on the docks and wrote in spare hours, Hoffer watched how curiosity and tenacity forged his vocation. He did not inherit a scholar’s credential; he manufactured a thinker’s habits.
The line is both empowering and cautionary. Desire is an engine, not a guarantee. When joined to disciplined practice, openness to feedback, and ethical purpose, it not only changes external circumstances but remodels the self, turning capacity into something that looks like talent and scarcity into a field of emerging chances.
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| Topic | Motivational |
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