Eric Hoffer Quotes

Anger is the prelude to courage.

The greatest weariness comes from work not done.

We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.

The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares no...

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

The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim a...

If free enterprise becomes a proselytizing holy cause, it will be a sign that its workability and ad...

Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all the unifying agents. Mass movements can rise ...

Jesus was not a Christian, nor was Marx a Marxist.

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

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

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

Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.

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

In the alchemy of man's soul almost all noble attributes--courage, honor, love, hope, faith, duty, l...

In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find them...

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

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

Not actual suffering but the hope of better things incites people to revolt.

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

We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire cr...

We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true they ruin our dreams.

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

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

Even the sober desire for progress is sustained by faith—faith in the intrinsic goodness of human na...

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

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

The sick in soul insist that it is humanity that is sick, and they are the surgeons to operate on it...

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

We are made kind by being kind.

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

Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart.

A preoccupation with the future not only prevents us from seeing the present as it is but often pro...

The genuine artist is as much a dissatisfied person as the revolutionary yet how diametrically oppo...

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

We have perhaps a natural fear of ends. We would rather be always on the way than arrive. Given the ...

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

In a world of change, the learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned shall find themselves ...

We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire cr...

It is the individual only who is timeless. Societies, cultures, and civilizations -- past and presen...

Fear is uncertainty.

Children are the keys of paradise.

It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.

Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but...

Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem.

It is a perplexing and unpleasant truth that when men already have 'something worth fighting for' t...

The passion to get ahead is sometimes born of the fear lest we be left behind.

The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares no...

We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true they ruin our dreams.

The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything.

If a society is to preserve stability and a degree of continuity, it must learn how to keep its adol...

Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. ...

The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready is he to claim a...

Power corrupts the few while weakness corrupts the many.

Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.

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

There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his ow...

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

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

They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort. They ascribe failure to a lack of inspi...

To believe that if only we had this or that we would be happy or to pursue any excessive desire di...

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

The poor on the borderline of starvation live purposeful lives. To be engaged in a desperate struggl...

It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor.

Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing...

It is a sign of creeping inner death when we can no longer praise the living.

In times of change learners inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped...

Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners.

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

Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength.

Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling o...

Faith is primarily a process of identification the process by which the individual ceases to be him...

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

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

Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us...

In times of change learners inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped...

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

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

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

There is a radicalism in all getting and a conservatism in all keeping. Lovemaking is radical whil...

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

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

Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.

The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future.

It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativeness and the playground is ...

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

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

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

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

We lie the loudest when we lie to ourselves.

Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about. And since we know least about o...

There is perhaps some hope to be derived from the fact that in most instances where an attempt to re...

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

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

Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain whether of our worth or worthlessness ...

If the Communists win Europe and a large part of the world, it will not be because they know how to ...

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

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

In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipp...