There is apparently no surer way of turning a thing into its opposite than by exaggerating it — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
In human affairs, the best stimulus for running ahead is to have something we must run from. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
True loyalty between individuals is possible only in a loose and relatively free society. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
A society that refuses to strive for superfluities is likely to end up lacking in necessities. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Spiritual stagnation ensues when man's environment becomes unpredictable or when his inner life is made wholly predictable. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The rule seems to be that those who find no difficulty in deceiving themselves are easily deceived by others. They are easily… — 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
It is a perplexing and unpleasant truth that when men already have "something worth fighting for,they do not feel like fighting. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Though they seem at opposite poles, fanatics of all kinds are actually crowded together at one end. It is the fanatic and… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
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 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
To most of us nothing is so invisible as an unpleasant truth. Though it is held before our eyes, pushed under our… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The revulsion from an unwanted self, and the impulse to forget it, mask it, slough it off and lose it, produce both… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The nineteenth century planted the words which the twentieth century ripened into the atrocities of Stalin and Hitler. There is hardly an… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
We know that words cannot move mountains, but they can move the multitude; and men are more ready to fight and die… — 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
Proselytizing is more a passionate search for something not yet found than a desire to bestow upon the world something we already… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
What the intellectual craves above all else is to be taken seriously, to be treated as a decisive force in shaping history.… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The ideal of self-advancement which the civilizing west offers to backward populations brings with it the plague of individual frustration. All the… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Conservatism is sometimes a symptom of sterility. Those who have nothing in them that can grow and develop must cling to what… — 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 vigor of a mass movement stems from the propensity of its followers for united action and self-sacrifice. When we ascribe the… — 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
A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrine and promises but by the refuge it offers from… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The fanatic is not really a stickler to principle. He embraces a cause not primarily because of its justness or holiness but… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
One of the surprising privileges of intellectuals is that they are free to be scandalously asinine without harming their reputations. — 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… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Man is a luxury loving animal. Take away play, fancies, and luxuries, and you will turn man into a dull, sluggish creature,… — 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
