Here, we’ve compiled a list of the best Eric Hoffer Quotes. Let’s look at these pieces of wisdom. We definitely have something to learn from them!
1
Whenever you trace the origin of a skill or practices which played a crucial role in the ascent of man, we usually reach the realm of play.
2
The pleasure we derive from doing favors is partly in the feeling it gives us that we are not altogether worthless. It is a pleasant surprise to ourselves.
3
Unpredictability, too, can become monotonous.
4
Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing impulse. We are drawn back to where we came from.
5
Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want to do.
6
Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent.
7
The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.
8
Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing impulse. We are drawn back to where we came from.
9
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.
10
Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.
11
Facts are counterrevolutionary.
12
An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head.
13
To know a person’s religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.
14
The beginning of thought is in disagreement – not only with others but also with ourselves.
15
Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent.
16
We are more prone to generalize the bad than the good. We assume that the bad is more potent and contagious.
17
A great man’s greatest good luck is to die at the right time.
18
Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners.
19
To the old, the new is usually bad news.
20
There is probably an element of malice in our readiness to overestimate people – we are, as it were, laying up for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting them down to size.
21
It would be difficult to exaggerate the degree to which we are influenced by those we influence.
22
Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man’s spirit than when we win his heart.
23
The world leans on us. When we sag, the whole world seems to droop.
24
It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one’s neighbor.
25
Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.
26
There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate wherever they meet.
27
It is futile to judge a kind deed by its motives. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.
28
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
29
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
30
The greatest weariness comes from work not done.
31
It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression.
32
There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate wherever they meet.
33
We are more prone to generalize the bad than the good. We assume that the bad is more potent and contagious.
34
The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.
35
Craving, not having, is the mother of a reckless giving of oneself.
36
It is the around-the-corner brand of hope that prompts people to action, while the distant hope acts as an opiate.
37
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.
38
It is a sign of creeping inner death when we can no longer praise the living.
39
Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.
40
Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.
41
Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains.
42
The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully.
43
Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.
44
Whenever you trace the origin of a skill or practices which played a crucial role in the ascent of man, we usually reach the realm of play.
45
Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.
46
It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn.
47
Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength.
48
Children are the keys of paradise.
49
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.
50
Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy – the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.
51
It sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.
52
The suspicious mind believes more than it doubts. It believes in a formidable and ineradicable evil lurking in every person.
53
There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
54
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.
55
There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
56
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.
57
The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.
58
Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.
59
It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn.
60
Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.
61
Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners.
62
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.
63
You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.
64
It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt.
65
The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future.
66
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.
67
A nation without dregs and malcontents is orderly, peaceful and pleasant, but perhaps without the seed of things to come.
68
Nationalist pride, like other variants of pride, can be a substitute for self-respect.
69
It almost seems that nobody can hate America as much as native Americans. America needs new immigrants to love and cherish it.
70
Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man’s spirit than when we win his heart.
71
We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.
72
Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible.
73
To spell out the obvious is often to call it in question.
74
Animals often strike us as passionate machines.
75
It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny.
76
Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.
77
When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.
78
It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt.
79
Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.
80
We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.
81
We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about.
82
The greatest weariness comes from work not done.
83
We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.
84
A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed.
85
The real Antichrist is he who turns the wine of an original idea into the water of mediocrity.
86
We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true; they ruin our dreams.
87
Man was nature’s mistake she neglected to finish him and she has never ceased paying for her mistake.
88
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.
89
Take away hatred from some people, and you have men without faith.
90
We have rudiments of reverence for the human body, but we consider as nothing the rape of the human mind.
91
The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist.
92
The fear of becoming a ‘has-been’ keeps some people from becoming anything.
93
It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.
94
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.
95
Craving, not having, is the mother of a reckless giving of oneself.
96
It almost seems that nobody can hate America as much as native Americans. America needs new immigrants to love and cherish it.
97
We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: change prepares the ground for revolution.
98
Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem.
99
An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head.
100
Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something.
101
Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.
102
There is probably an element of malice in our readiness to overestimate people – we are, as it were, laying up for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting them down to size.
103
Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.
104
Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.
105
It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one’s neighbor.
106
In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
107
To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.
108
Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength.
109
It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.
110
To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.
111
The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.
