Spiritual stagnation ensues when man's environment becomes unpredictable or when his inner life is made wholly predictable. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Man's chief goal in life is still to become and stay human, and defend his achievements against the encroachment of nature. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The majority prove their worth by keeping busy. A busy life is the nearest thing to a purposeful life. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
It is a sign of creeping inner death when we can no longer praise the living. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
When you automate an industry you modernize it; when you automate a life you primitivize it. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
It is a sign of a creeping inner death when we no longer can praise the living. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
For many people, an excuse is better than an achievement because an achievement, no matter how great, leaves you having to prove… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Man staggers through life yapped at by his reason, pulled and shoved by his appetites, whispered to by fears, beckoned by hopes.… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
I want to be remebered for the smile I gave them when they couldnt find there own. For the happieness that they… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The poor on the borderline of starvation live purposeful lives. To be engaged in a desperate struggle for food and shelter is… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
We need not only a purpose in life to give meaning to our existence but also something to give meaning to our… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
It is the fate of every great achievement to be pounced upon by pedants and imitators who drain it of life and… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
An easygoing person is probably more accessible to the realization of eternity--the endless flow of life and death--than one who takes his… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
However much we talk of the inexorable laws governing the life of individuals and of societies, we remain at the bottom convinced… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Unlike the pattern which seems to prevail in the rest of life, in the human species the weak not only survive but… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The chief burden of the frustrated is the consciousness of a blemished, ineffectual self, and their chief desire is to slough off… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
All mass movements generate in their adherents a readiness to die and a proclivity for united action; all of them, irrespective of… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The well adjusted make poor prophets. A pleasant existence blinds us to the possibilities of drastic change. We cling to what we… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The necessary has never been man's top priority. The passionate pursuit of the nonessential and the extravagant is one of the chief… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The genuine creator creates something that has a life of its own, something that can exist and function without him. This is… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
When our individual interests and prospects do not seem worth living for, we are in desperate need for something apart from us… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
In man's life, the absence of an essential component usually leads to the adoption of a substitute. The substitute is usually embraced… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
...in the shaping of a life, chance and the ability to respond to chance are everything. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
To lose one's life is but to lose the present; and, clearly, to lose a defiled, worthless present is not to lose… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
To have a grievance is to have a purpose in life. It not infrequently happens that those who hunger for hope give… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
To a man utterly without a sense of belonging, mere life is all that matters. It is the only reality in an… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
If a society is to preserve stability and a degree of continuity, it must learn how to keep its adolescents from imposing… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
A passionate obsession with the outside world or the private lives of others is an attempt to compensate for a lack of… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Should Americans begin to hate foreigners wholeheartedly, it will be an indication that they have lost confidence in their own way of… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
“Passionate hatreds can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. These people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The burning conviction that we have a holy duty toward others is often a way of attaching our drowning selves to a… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Man is eminently a storyteller. His search for a purpose, a cause, an ideal, a mission and the like is largely a… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The truth seems to be that propaganda on its own cannot force its way into unwilling minds; neither can it inculcate something wholly new;… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share
When grubbing for necessities man is still an animal. He becomes uniquely human when he reaches out for the superfluous and extravagant. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share
Our originality shows itself most strikingly not in what we wholly originate but in what we do with that which we borrow from others. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share
The creative mind is the playful mind. Philosophy is the play and dance of ideas. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share
It is also plausible that those movements with the greatest inner contradiction and between profession and practice - that is to say with a… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share
“In the alchemy of man's soul almost all noble attributes--courage, honor, love, hope, faith, duty, loyalty, etc.--can be transmuted into ruthlessness. Compassion alone stands… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share
The act of self-denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others. The impression somehow prevails that the… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share
A nation without dregs and malcontents, is orderly, decent, peaceful and pleasant, but perhaps without the seed of things to come — Eric Hoffer Copy Share
Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share
There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share
Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share
This food-and-shelter theory concerning man's efforts is without insight. The desire for praise is more imperative than the desire for food and shelter — Eric Hoffer Copy Share
