Friday, July 31, 2026

Writing advice from Hoffer

 If I could pass on only one bit of advice to young people who want to write, it would be this: 

That which is unique and worthwhile in us makes itself felt only in flashes. If we do not know how to catch and savor the flashes we are without growth and without exhilaration.

 

That’s No. 80 in Eric Hoffer’s Reflections on the Human Condition. Hoffer was talking about all creative work, but I thought about writing.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once took the time to convince a young Henry David Thoreau to keep a journal. It wasn’t apparent to anyone but Emerson, but Henry had a talent for catching those flashes.

• Source: Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the Human Condition; New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1974, p. 51.

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