Eric Hoffer Quotes

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

Rudeness is the weak man's limitation of strength.

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

The greatest weariness comes from work not done.

No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments.

A nation without dregs and malcontents is orderly, peaceful and pleasant, but perhaps without the seed of things to come.

Far more critical than what we know or what we don't know is what we don't want to know.

Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains.

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.

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.

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

We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.

The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian despot who wants to turn them into puppets.

Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.

A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority.

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.

We are made kind by being kind.

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

Without a sense of proportion there can be neither good taste nor genuine intelligence, nor perhaps moral integrity.

It is part of the formidableness of a genuine mass movement that the self-sacrifice it promotes includes also a sacrifice of some of the moral sense, which cramps and restrains our nature.

Add a few drops of venom to a half truth and you have an absolute truth.

You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy.

There is apparently no surer way of turning a thing into its opposite than by exaggerating it

The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an inner uncertainty than a deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more against the doubt within than the assailant without.

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

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

Naivete in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity.

Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible.

When you automate an industry you modernize it; when you automate a life you primitivize it.

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

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

A soul that is reluctant to share does not as a rule have much of its own. Miserliness is here a symptom of meagerness.

To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.

Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.

To spell out the obvious is often to call it in question.

Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves.

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

It is easier to hate an enemy with much good in him than one who is all bad. We cannot hate those we despise.

We see through others only when we see through ourselves.

You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone.

Rudeness luxuriates in the absence of self-respect.

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

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

We usually see only the things we are looking for- so much so that we sometimes see them where they are not.

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

It would be difficult to exaggerate the degree to which we are influenced by those we influence.

With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.

Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want to do.

What greater reassurance can the weak have than that they are like anyone else?