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Men Quotes by Eric Hoffer

70 Men quotes by Eric Hoffer

All Men quotes Eric Hoffer’s page

When grubbing for basics, a man is still an animal, but reaching for the extra makes him uniquely human. The quotes say that the desire for praise can outweigh the need for food and shelter, and that loneliness often creates the loudest noise. They also note that power feels arbitrary to the overly fearful.

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A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding,

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Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden.

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Rudeness is the weak man's limitation of strength.

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Take away hatred from some people, and you have men without faith.

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It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is true of men as of dogs.

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Nature attains perfection, but man never does.

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A man's worth is what he is divided by what he thinks he is.

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Man's chief goal in life is still to become and stay human, and defend his achievements against the encroachment of nature.

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Absolute power turns its possessors not into a God but an anti-God. For God turned clay into men, while the absolute despot…

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Men of thought seldom work well together, whereas between men of action there is usually an easy camaraderie.

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Spiritual stagnation ensues when man's environment becomes unpredictable or when his inner life is made wholly predictable.

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America is still the best country for the common man -- white or black ... if he can't make it here he…

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Vaguely at first, then more distinctly, I realized that man is an eternal stranger on this planet.

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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…

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It is a perplexing and unpleasant truth that when men already have "something worth fighting for,they do not feel like fighting.

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The nineteenth century planted the words which the twentieth century ripened into the atrocities of Stalin and Hitler. There is hardly an…

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Freedom means freedom from forces and circumstances which would turn man into a thing, which would impose on man the passivity and…

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When we are in competition with ourselves, and match our todays against our yesterdays, we derive encouragement from past misfortunes and blemishes.…

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There is a perfect ant, a perfect bee, but man is perpetually unfinished...Moreover, the incurable unfinishedness keeps man perpetually immature, perpetually capable…

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Man staggers through life yapped at by his reason, pulled and shoved by his appetites, whispered to by fears, beckoned by hopes.…

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Nature is a self-made machine, more perfectly automated than any automated machine. To create something in the image of nature is to…

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The necessary has never been man's top priority. The passionate pursuit of the nonessential and the extravagant is one of the chief…

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Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart. For we can…

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In the alchemy of man's soul almost all noble attributes- courage, honor, love, hope, faith, duty, loyalty, and so on - can…

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Even the sober desire for progress is sustained by faith—faith in the intrinsic goodness of human nature and in the omnipotence of…

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There is no telling to what extremes of cruelty and ruthlessness a man will go when he is freed from the fears,…

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It is a juvenile notion that a society needs a lofty purpose and a shining vision to achieve much. Both in the…

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The Paleolithic hunters who painted the unsurpassed animal murals on the ceiling of the cave at Altamira had only rudimentary tools. Art…

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We know that words cannot move mountains, but they can move the multitude; and men are more ready to fight and die…

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In man's life, the absence of an essential component usually leads to the adoption of a substitute. The substitute is usually embraced…

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Nature attains perfection, but man never does. There is a perfect ant, a perfect bee, but man is perpetually unfinished. He is…

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Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want…

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To a man utterly without a sense of belonging, mere life is all that matters. It is the only reality in an…

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A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind…

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A plant needs roots in order to grow. With man it is the other way around: only when he grows does he…

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All great art is revolutionary because it touches upon the reality of man and questions the reality of the various transitory forms…

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When grubbing for necessities man is still an animal. He becomes uniquely human when he reaches out for the superfluous and extravagant.

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A low capacity for getting along with those near us often goes hand in hand with a high receptivity to the idea…

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Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which…

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Animals can learn, but it is not by learning that they become dogs, cats, or horses. Only man has to learn to…

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More by Eric Hoffer

The truth seems to be that propaganda on its own cannot force its way into unwilling minds; neither can it inculcate something wholly new;…

When grubbing for necessities man is still an animal. He becomes uniquely human when he reaches out for the superfluous and extravagant.

“We lie the loudest when we lie to ourselves.”

Our originality shows itself most strikingly not in what we wholly originate but in what we do with that which we borrow from others.

The creative mind is the playful mind. Philosophy is the play and dance of ideas.

It is also plausible that those movements with the greatest inner contradiction and between profession and practice - that is to say with a…

The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully.

“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…

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…

A nation without dregs and malcontents, is orderly, decent, peaceful and pleasant, but perhaps without the seed of things to come

Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.

There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still…

A war is not won if the defeated enemy has not been turned into a friend.

Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible.

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