Eric Hoffer Quotes

Most popular Eric Hoffer Quotes

We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves. - Eric Hoffer quote.
We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.

lying lies self-deception

Youth itself is a talent—a perishable talent. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Youth itself is a talent—a perishable talent.

youth

Animals often strike us as passionate machines. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Animals often strike us as passionate machines.
— Eric Hoffer Reflections on the Human Condition

animals

Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem.
— Eric Hoffer

self-esteem

Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.

rudeness

Every extreme attitude is a flight from the self. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Every extreme attitude is a flight from the self.

attitude extremism

To wrong those we hate is to add fuel to our hatred. - Eric Hoffer quote.
To wrong those we hate is to add fuel to our hatred.
— Eric Hoffer The True Believer

hate

There are no chaste minds.  Minds copulate wherever they meet. - Eric Hoffer quote.
There are no chaste minds.  Minds copulate wherever they meet.
— Eric Hoffer Reflections on the Human Condition

mind

Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.
— Eric Hoffer The True Believer

hate purpose of life

Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.

kindness

We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand. - Eric Hoffer quote.
We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.
— Eric Hoffer The True Believer

certainty

The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness. - Eric Hoffer quote.
The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.

happiness

It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor. - Eric Hoffer quote.
It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor.
— Eric Hoffer

neighbors

Many of the insights of the saint stem from his experience as a sinner. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Many of the insights of the saint stem from his experience as a sinner.

saint

Add a few drops of venom to a half truth and you have an absolute truth. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Add a few drops of venom to a half truth and you have an absolute truth.

truth

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. - Eric Hoffer quote.
When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.

conformity mankind

It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak. - Eric Hoffer quote.
It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.

weakness evil power

The only way to predict the future is to have the power to shape the future. - Eric Hoffer quote.
The only way to predict the future is to have the power to shape the future.
— Eric Hoffer
Fair play is primarily not blaming others for anything that is wrong with us. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Fair play is primarily not blaming others for anything that is wrong with us.
— Eric Hoffer
Originality is deliberate and forced, and partakes of the nature of a protest. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Originality is deliberate and forced, and partakes of the nature of a protest.

originality protest

We feel free when we escape—even if it be but from the frying pan into the fire. - Eric Hoffer quote.
We feel free when we escape—even if it be but from the frying pan into the fire.
— Eric Hoffer

freedom

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings. - Eric Hoffer quote.
The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.
— Eric Hoffer Reflections On The Human Condition

gratitude

Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.
— Eric Hoffer

ignorance

It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise.  This is as true of men as of dogs. - Eric Hoffer quote.
It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise.  This is as true of men as of dogs.
— Eric Hoffer in The New York Times

loneliness

Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and turns into a racket. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and turns into a racket.
— Eric Hoffer
The intellectuals and the young, booted and spurred, feel themselves born to ride us. - Eric Hoffer quote.
The intellectuals and the young, booted and spurred, feel themselves born to ride us.
— Eric Hoffer First Things, Last Things

intellectualism

It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt. - Eric Hoffer quote.
It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt.
— Eric Hoffer The True Believer

revolution

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

disagreement

It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities. - Eric Hoffer quote.
It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.
— Eric Hoffer Reflections on the Human Condition

obstacles

Action is at bottom a swinging and flailing of the arms to regain one's balance and keep afloat. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Action is at bottom a swinging and flailing of the arms to regain one's balance and keep afloat.

action

The hardest thing to cope with is not selfishness or vanity or deceitfulness, but sheer stupidity. - Eric Hoffer quote.
The hardest thing to cope with is not selfishness or vanity or deceitfulness, but sheer stupidity.

stupidity

We have rudiments of reverence for the human body, but we consider as nothing the rape of the human mind. - Eric Hoffer quote.
We have rudiments of reverence for the human body, but we consider as nothing the rape of the human mind.

mind

Nowhere at present is there such a measureless loathing of their country by educated people as in America. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Nowhere at present is there such a measureless loathing of their country by educated people as in America.
— Eric Hoffer First Things, Last Things

intellectuals

Naïveté in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Naïveté in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity.

stupidity vanity

The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist. - Eric Hoffer quote.
The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist.
— Eric Hoffer The True Believer

leadership vision

There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure.  The failure is a stranger in his own house. - Eric Hoffer quote.
There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure.  The failure is a stranger in his own house.

failure

It is the around-the-corner brand of hope that prompts people to action, while the distant hope acts as an opiate. - Eric Hoffer quote.
It is the around-the-corner brand of hope that prompts people to action, while the distant hope acts as an opiate.
— Eric Hoffer The Ordeal of Change

hope

Resistance, whether to one's appetites or to the ways of the world, is a chief factor in the shaping of character. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Resistance, whether to one's appetites or to the ways of the world, is a chief factor in the shaping of character.
— Eric Hoffer The Ordeal of Change

character

The pleasure we derive from doing favors is partly in the feeling it gives us that we are not altogether worthless. - Eric Hoffer quote.
The pleasure we derive from doing favors is partly in the feeling it gives us that we are not altogether worthless.
— Eric Hoffer

helping others

Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains.
— Eric Hoffer

technology

There is probably nothing more sublime than discontent transmuted into a work of art, a scientific discovery, and so on. - Eric Hoffer quote.
There is probably nothing more sublime than discontent transmuted into a work of art, a scientific discovery, and so on.
— Eric Hoffer Working and Thinking on the Waterfront: A Journal

discontent

It is a perplexing and unpleasant truth that when men have something worth fighting for, they do not feel like fighting. - Eric Hoffer quote.
It is a perplexing and unpleasant truth that when men have something worth fighting for, they do not feel like fighting.
— Eric Hoffer The True Believer

action morals apathy

The burning conviction that we have a holy duty toward others is often a way of attaching our drowning selves to a passing raft. - Eric Hoffer quote.
The burning conviction that we have a holy duty toward others is often a way of attaching our drowning selves to a passing raft.
— Eric Hoffer

duty

When grubbing for necessities man is still an animal.  He becomes uniquely human when he reaches out for the superfluous and extravagant. - Eric Hoffer quote.
When grubbing for necessities man is still an animal.  He becomes uniquely human when he reaches out for the superfluous and extravagant.
— Eric Hoffer Working and Thinking on the Waterfront: A Journal

necessity

It is not so much the example of others we imitate as the reflection of ourselves in their eyes and the echo of ourselves in their words. - Eric Hoffer quote.
It is not so much the example of others we imitate as the reflection of ourselves in their eyes and the echo of ourselves in their words.

example

Compassion is probably the only antitoxin of the soul.  Where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Compassion is probably the only antitoxin of the soul.  Where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.
— Eric Hoffer The Passionate State of Mind, and Other Aphorisms

compassion

When hopes and dreams are loose in the streets, it is well for the timid to lock doors, shutter windows, and lie low until the wrath has passed. - Eric Hoffer quote.
When hopes and dreams are loose in the streets, it is well for the timid to lock doors, shutter windows, and lie low until the wrath has passed.
— Eric Hoffer The True Believer

hope

A ruling intelligentsia, whether in Europe, Asia or Africa, treats the masses as raw material to be experimented on, processed, and wasted at will. - Eric Hoffer quote.
A ruling intelligentsia, whether in Europe, Asia or Africa, treats the masses as raw material to be experimented on, processed, and wasted at will.
— Eric Hoffer The Temper of Our Time

intellectualism

The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self. - Eric Hoffer quote.
The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self.
— Eric Hoffer The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms

fanaticism

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. - Eric Hoffer quote.
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.
— Eric Hoffer Reflections on the Human Condition

change

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. - Eric Hoffer quote.
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.

talent desire

The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is, rather, born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. - Eric Hoffer quote.
The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is, rather, born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life.
— Eric Hoffer

impatience

The control of our being is not unlike the combination of a safe.  One turn of the know rarely unlocks the safe.  Each advance and retreat is a step toward one's goal. - Eric Hoffer quote.
The control of our being is not unlike the combination of a safe.  One turn of the know rarely unlocks the safe.  Each advance and retreat is a step toward one's goal.

self-control

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. - Eric Hoffer quote.
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.
— Eric Hoffer The True Believer

excellence

We need not only a purpose in life to give meaning to our existence but also something to give meaning to our suffering.  We need as much something to suffer for as something to live for. - Eric Hoffer quote.
We need not only a purpose in life to give meaning to our existence but also something to give meaning to our suffering.  We need as much something to suffer for as something to live for.
— Eric Hoffer Reflections on the Human Condition

suffering purpose of life

Old age equalizes—we are aware that what is happening to us has happened to untold numbers from the beginning of time.  When we are young we act as if we were the first young people in the world. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Old age equalizes—we are aware that what is happening to us has happened to untold numbers from the beginning of time.  When we are young we act as if we were the first young people in the world.
— Eric Hoffer Reflections on the Human Condition

old age

The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world. - Eric Hoffer quote.
The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world.
— Eric Hoffer The True Believer

revolution

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. - Eric Hoffer quote.
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.
— Eric Hoffer

introspection know yourself flattery

Discontent is at the root of the creative process: the most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their way, and must compensate for what they miss by realizing and cultivating their capacities and talents. - Eric Hoffer quote.
Discontent is at the root of the creative process: the most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their way, and must compensate for what they miss by realizing and cultivating their capacities and talents.
— Eric Hoffer The Ordeal of Change

creativity

There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth anew each day: we have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak, for life. - Eric Hoffer quote.
There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth anew each day: we have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak, for life.

excuses

Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.
— Eric Hoffer
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.
— Eric Hoffer Reflections on the Human Condition

future learning