The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The purpose of philosophers is to show people what is right under their noses. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
It is thus with most of us; we are what other people say we are. We know ourselves chiefly by hearsay. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
It is always safe to assume that people are more subtle and less sensitive than they seem. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Nowhere at present is there such a measureless loathing of their country by educated people as in America, — 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
It was the craving to be a one and only people which impelled the ancient Hebrews to invent a one and only… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The desire to be different from the people we live with is sometimes the result of our rejection- real or imagined- by… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else - we are… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone. Those who could not thrive when… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Some people have no original ideas because they do not think well enough of themselves to consider their ideas worth noticing and… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Crude absurdities, trivial nonsense, and sublime truths are equally potent in readying people for self-sacrifice if they are accepted as the sole,… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. Originality is deliberate and forced, and partakes of… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments. We need people to bear witness… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Freedom means freedom from forces and circumstances which would turn man into a thing, which would impose on man the passivity and… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The untalented are more at ease in a society that gives them valid alibis for not achieving than in one where opportunities… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
People haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
People whose lives are barren and insecure seem to show a greater willingness to obey than people who are self-sufficient and self-confident.… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Our doubts about ourselves cannot be banished except by working at that which is the one and only thing we know we… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
I could never figure out or probably did not take the trouble to figure out what the great philosophical problems are about.… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Give people pride and they'll live on bread and water, bless their exploiters, and even die for them. Self-surrender is a transaction… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The technique of a mass movement aims to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as a cure. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people's faces as unfinished as their minds. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
However different the holy causes people die for, they perhaps die basically for the same thing. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
If the Communists win Europe and a large part of the world, it will not be because they know how to stir… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
People in a hurry cannot think, cannot grow, nor can they decay. They are preserved in a state of perpetual puerility. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
There is probably an element of malice in our readiness to overestimate people - we are, as it were, laying up for… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
It is the around-the-corner brand of hope that prompts people to action, while the distant hope acts as an opiate. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
people with a sense of fulfillment think it is a good world and would like to conserve it as it is, while… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
...the majority of people cannot endure the bareness and futility of their lives unless they have some ardent dedication, or some passionate… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
In a modern society people can live without hope only when kept dazed and out of breath by incessant hustling. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
A compilation of what outstanding people said or wrote at the age of 20 would make a collection of asinine pronouncements. — 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
