Skip to content

Identity Quotes by Eric Hoffer

24 Identity quotes by Eric Hoffer

All Identity quotes Eric Hoffer’s page

Eric Hoffer’s twenty‑four reflections on identity weave together his sharp social commentary with personal insight. This collection offers a thoughtful balance of philosophy and everyday relevance, perfect for readers who enjoy a nuanced look at how we see ourselves within larger currents.

Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

“Every extreme attitude is a flight from the self.”

Image

The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.

Image

Self-righteousness is a manifestation of self-contempt.

Image

How much easier is self-sacrifice than self-realization!

Image

Only the individual who has come to terms with his self can have a dispassionate attitude toward the world.

Image

A successful social technique consists perhaps in finding unobjectionable means for individual self-assertion.

Image

It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world.

Image

The short-lived self, teetering on the edge of extinction, is the only thing that can ever really matter.

Image

“There is even in the most selfish passion a large element of self-abnegation. It is startling to realize that we call extreme…

Image

Unless a man has talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. Of what avail is freedom to choose…

Image

The autonomous individual, striving to realize himself and prove his worth, has created all that is great in literature, art, music, science…

Image

The revulsion from an unwanted self, and the impulse to forget it, mask it, slough it off and lose it, produce both…

Image

There is in even the most selfish passion a large element of self-abnegation. It is startling to realize that what we call…

Image

The chief burden of the frustrated is the consciousness of a blemished, ineffectual self, and their chief desire is to slough off…

Image

Faith in humanity, in posterity, in the destiny of one's religion, nation, race, party or family-what is it but the visualization of…

Image

There is a totalitarian regime inside every one of us. We are ruled by a ruthless politburo which sets our norms and…

Image

“The patriotic fervor of a population is not always in direct proportion to its well-being and the fair dealing of its government.…

Image

The burning conviction that we have a holy duty towards others is often a way of attaching our drowning selves to a…

Image

“We acquire a sense of worth either by realizing our talents, or by keeping busy, or by identifying ourselves with something apart…

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…

Image

Marriage has for women many equivalents of joining a mass movement. It offers them a new purpose in life, a new future…

Image

It is the individual only who is timeless. Societies, cultures, and civilizations -- past and present -- are often incomprehensible to outsiders,…

Image

People unfit for freedom - who cannot do much with it - are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an…

Image

It is apparently vital that we should be in the dark about ourselves not to be clear about our intentions, fears, and…

Image

Other authors on Identity

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;…

Image

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

Image

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

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.

Image

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

Image

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

Image

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

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…

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…

Image

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

Image

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

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…

Image