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Eric Hoffer Quotes
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Famous Eric Hoffer Quotations
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Eric Hoffer (July 25, 1902 (or 1898) - May 21, 1983) was an American social writer and philosopher. He produced ten books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983 by President of the United States Ronald Reagan. His first book, The True Believer, published in 1951, was widely recognized as a classic, receiving critical acclaim from both scholars and laymen
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- A preoccupation with the future not only prevents us from seeing the present as it is but often prompts us to rearrange the past. Eric Hoffer »
- Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power. Eric Hoffer »
- Action is at bottom a swinging and flailing of the arms to regain one's balance and keep afloat. Eric Hoffer »
- America is still the best country for the common man -- white or black ... if he can't make it here he won't make it anywhere else. Eric Hoffer »
- Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves. Eric Hoffer »
- If a society is to preserve stability and a degree of continuity, it must learn how to keep its adolescents from imposing their tastes, values, and fantasies on everyday life. Eric Hoffer »
- In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned find themselves equipped to live in a world which no longer exists. Eric Hoffer »
- It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak. Eric Hoffer »
- It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor. Eric Hoffer »
- It is when power is wedded to chronic fear that it becomes formidable. Eric Hoffer »
- Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible. Eric Hoffer »
- Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about. And since we know least about ourselves, we are ready to believe all that is said about us. Hence the mysterious power of both flattery and calumny. Eric Hoffer »
- 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. Eric Hoffer »
- Perhaps a modern society can remain stable only by eliminating adolescence, by giving its young, from the age of ten, the skills, responsibilities, and rewards of grownups, and opportunites for action in all spheres of life. Adolescence should be a time of useful action, while book learning and scholarship should be a preoccupation of adults. Eric Hoffer »
- Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. Eric Hoffer »
- The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do. Eric Hoffer »
- The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything. Eric Hoffer »
- The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist. Eric Hoffer »
- 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. Eric Hoffer »
- 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 »
- The poor on the borderline of starvation live purposeful lives. To be engaged in a desperate struggle for food and shelter is to be wholly free from a sense of futility. Eric Hoffer »
- There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other. Eric Hoffer »
- To spell out the obvious is often to call it in question. Eric Hoffer »
- We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the fact that many inventions had their birth as toys. Eric Hoffer »
- 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. Eric Hoffer »
- When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. Eric Hoffer »
- 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. Eric Hoffer »
- Woe to him inside a nonconformist clique who does not conform with nonconformity. Eric Hoffer »
- You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you. Eric Hoffer »
- You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy. Eric Hoffer »
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