Eric Hoffer Quotes


When you automate an industry you modernize it; when you automate a life you primitivize it. Eric Hoffer Modern 2,325
Every great cause begins as a movement becomes a business and eventually degenerates into a racket. Eric Hoffer Politics 209
The beginning of thought is in disagreement - not only with others but also with ourselves. Eric Hoffer Beginning 154
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them. Eric Hoffer Respect 143
The real persuaders are our appetites, our fears and above all our vanity. The skillful propagandist stirs and coaches these internal persuaders. Eric Hoffer Persuasion 141
Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Eric Hoffer Empty 129
Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves. Eric Hoffer Propaganda 122
Naivete in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity. Eric Hoffer Ignorance 120
The suspicious mind believes more than it doubts. It believes in a formidable and ineradicable evil lurking in every person. Eric Hoffer Doubt 120
We lie the loudest when we lie to ourselves. Eric Hoffer Lies 116
Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless. Eric Hoffer Kindness 113
The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future. Eric Hoffer Power 109
Man is eminently a storyteller. His search for a purpose, a cause, an ideal, a mission and the like is largely a search for a plot and a pattern in the development of his life story -- a story that is basically without meaning or pattern. Eric Hoffer Storytelling 107
Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature. Eric Hoffer Ability 107
The creative mind is the playful mind. Philosophy is the play and dance of ideas. Eric Hoffer Philosophy 105
Self-esteem and self-contempt have specific odors; they can be smelled. Eric Hoffer Identity 104
We feel free when we escape - even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire. Eric Hoffer Escape 98
Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength. Eric Hoffer Strength 98
Craving, not having, is the mother of a reckless giving of oneself. Eric Hoffer Craving 97
Thought is a process of exaggeration. The refusal to exaggerate is not infrequently an alibi for the disinclination to think or praise. Eric Hoffer Exaggeration 93
There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmarks of a fugitive. Eric Hoffer Passion 93
The self-styled intellectual who is impotent with pen and ink hungers to write history with sword and blood. Eric Hoffer Books 93
If a society is to preserve stability and a degree of continuity, it must know how to keep its adolescents from imposing their tastes, attitudes, values and fantasies on everyday life. Eric Hoffer Youth 93
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. Eric Hoffer Faith 92
A man by himself is in bad company. Eric Hoffer Solitude 92
We have rudiments of reverence for the human body, but we consider as nothing the rape of the human mind. Eric Hoffer Body 91
It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativeness, and the playground is the optimal milieu for the unfolding of his capacities and talents. Eric Hoffer PlayGames 90
We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves. Eric Hoffer DeceptionLying 90
Sometimes we feel the loss of a prejudice as a loss of vigor. Eric Hoffer Prejudice 90
The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist. Eric Hoffer Idealist 89
When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and the strong; it easily becomes a fashion. Eric Hoffer CowardiceWeakness 88
We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true they ruin our dreams. Eric Hoffer dreams 88
To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance. Eric Hoffer Faith 88
To grow old is to grow common. 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 Age 87
The real antichrist is he who turns the wine of an original idea into the water of mediocrity. Eric Hoffer Mediocrity 87
A nation without dregs and malcontents is orderly, peaceful and pleasant, but perhaps without the seed of things to come. Eric Hoffer Come 87
There is radicalism in all getting and conservatism in all keeping. Lovemaking is radical, while marriage is conservative. Eric Hoffer Marriage 87
Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem. Eric Hoffer Adjustment 85
Take away play, fancies and luxuries and you will turn man into a dull, sluggish creature, barely energetic enough to obtain a bare subsistence. Eric Hoffer Wealth 85
There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his own house. Eric Hoffer Loneliness 84
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. Eric Hoffer Space 84
Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something. Eric Hoffer Trust 84
We can remember minutely and precisely only the things which never really happened to us. Eric Hoffer 84
We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about. Eric Hoffer Prejudice 84
To the excessively fearful the chief characteristic of power is its arbitrariness. Man had to gain enormously in confidence before he could conceive an all-powerful God who obeys his own laws. Eric Hoffer Power 83
It is a sign of a creeping inner death when we no longer can praise the living. Eric Hoffer Death 83
More significant than the fact that poets write abstrusely, painters paint abstractly, and composers compose unintelligible music is that people should admire what they cannot understand; indeed, admire that which has no meaning or principle. Eric Hoffer Obscurity 82
To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are. Eric Hoffer Change 82
Every intense desire is perhaps a desire to be different from what we are. Eric Hoffer Different 81
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. Eric Hoffer Cutting 81

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