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
Both Faith and Terror are instruments for the elimination of individual self-respect. Terror crushes the autonomy of self-respect, where Faith obtains its… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
In products of the human mind, simplicity marks the end of a process of refining, while complexity marks a primitive stage. Michelangelo… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
It is the acquisition of skills in particular, irrespective of their utility, that is potent in making life meaningful. Since man has… — 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
The aspiration toward freedom is the most essentially human of all human manifestations. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
To make of human affairs a coherent, precise, predictable whole one must ignore or suppress man as he really is. It is… — 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
Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their way, and must compensate… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which… — 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
The unpredictability inherent in human affairs is due largely to the fact that the by-products of a human process are more fateful… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Even the sober desire for progress is sustained by faith—faith in the intrinsic goodness of human nature and in the omnipotence of… — 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
In human affairs every solution serves only to sharpen the problem, to show us more clearly what we are up against. There… — 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
How rare it is to come across a piece of writing that is unambiguous, unqualified, and also unblurred by understatements or subtleties,… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
All great art is revolutionary because it touches upon the reality of man and questions the reality of the various transitory forms… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Sensuality reconciles us with the human race. The misanthropy of the old is due in large part to the fading of the… — 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 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
Totalitarianism spells simplification: an enormous reduction in the variety of aims, motives, interests, human types, and, above all, in the categories and… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Whoever originated the cliche that money is the root of all evil knew hardly anything about the nature of evil and very… — 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 central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people.… — 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 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
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 Image
The creative mind is the playful mind. Philosophy is the play and dance of ideas. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
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 Image
The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
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 Image
