Eric Hoffer Quotes
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What greater reassurance can the weak have than that they are like anyone else?
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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.
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The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.
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The misery of a child is interesting to a mother, the misery of a young man is interesting to a young woman, the misery of an old man is interesting to nobody.
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It is remarkable by how much a pinch of malice enhances the penetrating power of an idea or an opinion. Our ears, it seems, are wonderfully attuned to sneers and evil reports about our fellow men.
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We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.
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We have rudiments of reverence for the human body, but we consider as nothing the rape of the human mind.
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Self-esteem and self-contempt have specific odors; they can be smelled.
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The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything.
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Action is at bottom a swinging and flailing of the arms to regain one's balance and keep afloat.
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Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.
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A man by himself is in bad company.
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The real Antichrist is he who turns the wine of an original idea into the water of mediocrity.
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Animals often strike us as passionate machines.
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We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.
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It would be difficult to exaggerate the degree to which we are influenced by those we influence.
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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.
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To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.
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Craving, not having, is the mother of a reckless giving of oneself.
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I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind.
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There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
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In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
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Dissipation is a form of self-sacrifice.
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It is futile to judge a kind deed by its motives. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.