Eric Hoffer Quotes

Faith is primarily a process of identification the process by which the individual ceases to be himself and becomes part of something eternal.

In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

However much we guard against it we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us.

No one is truly literate who cannot read his own heart.

The beginning of thought is in disagreement - not only with others but also with ourselves.

Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about. And since we know least about ourselves we are ready to believe all that is said about us. Hence the mysterious power of both flattery and calumny.

We are made kind by being kind.

The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.

The poor on the borderline of starvation live purposeful lives. To be engaged in a desperate struggle for food and shelter is to be wholly free from a sense of futility.

The game of History is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle.

It is always safe to assume that people are more subtle and less sensitive than they seem.

The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.

Fear is uncertainty.

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.

If free enterprise becomes a proselytizing holy cause, it will be a sign that its workability and advantages have ceased to be self-evident.

Fair play with others is primarily not blaming them for anything that is wrong with us.

To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.

Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain whether of our worth or worthlessness we are almost impervious to fear. Thus a feeling of utter unworthiness can be a source of courage.

Even in slight things the experience of the new is rarely without some stirring of foreboding.

Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.

Anger is the prelude to courage.

Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.

If the Communists win Europe and a large part of the world, it will not be because they know how to stir up discontent or how to infect people with hatred, but because they know how to preach hope.

The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready is he to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause.

When people are bored, it is primarily with their own selves that they are bored.

It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands new undertakings and new forms of expression.

There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.

The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.

People in a hurry cannot think cannot grow nor can they decay. They are preserved in a state of perpetual puerility.

We feel free when we escape - even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire.

It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn.

There is perhaps some hope to be derived from the fact that in most instances where an attempt to realize an ideal society gave birth to the ugliness and violence of a prolonged active mass movement the experiment was made on a vast scale and with a heterogeneous population. Such was the case in the rise of Christianity and Islam, and in the French, Russian and Nazi revolutions. The promising communal settlements in the small state of Israel and the successful programs of socialization in the small Scandinavian states indicate perhaps that when the attempt to realize an ideal society is undertaken by a small nation with a more or less homogeneous population it can proceed and succeed in an atmosphere which is neither hectic nor coercive.

To believe that if only we had this or that we would be happy or to pursue any excessive desire diverts us from seeing that happiness depends on an adequate self.

There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail.

It is thus with most of us we are what other people say we are. We know ourselves chiefly by hearsay.

It is the around-the-corner brand of hope that prompts people to action while the distant hope acts as an opiate.

A preoccupation with the future not only prevents us from seeing the present as it is but often prompts us to rearrange the past.

Ideas have significance for him only as a prelude to action.

We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities but its own talents.

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

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

When people are bored it is primarily with their own selves that they are bored.

Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy - the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.

Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and turns into a racket.

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.

The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause.

When people are free to do as they please they usually imitate each other.

Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all the unifying agents. Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a god, but never without a belief in a devil.

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

Treasure the memories of past misfortunes they constitute our bank of fortitude.

It is the individual only who is timeless. Societies, cultures, and civilizations -- past and present -- are often incomprehensible to outsiders, but the individual's hungers, anxieties, dreams, and preoccupations have remained unchanged through the millenia.

Many of the insights of the saint stem from his experience as a sinner.

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 persistence and patience something worthwhile will be realized. Thus talent is a species of vigor. (Eric Hoffer 1902-1983)

Power corrupts the few while weakness corrupts the many.

It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativeness and the playground is the optimal milieu for the unfolding of his capacities.

If a society is to preserve stability and a degree of continuity, it must learn how to keep its adolescents from imposing their tastes, values, and fantasies on everyday life.

In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.

Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem.

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

In the alchemy of man's soul almost all noble attributes--courage, honor, love, hope, faith, duty, loyalty, etc.--can be transmuted into ruthlessness. Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us. Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.Nature has no compassion. It is, in the words of William Blake, "a creation that groans, living on the death; where fish and bird and beast and tree and metal and stone live by devouring." Nature accepts no excuses and the only punishment it knows is death.