There is in even the most selfish passion a large element of self-abnegation. It is startling to realize that what we call… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
“We acquire a sense of worth either by realizing our talents, or by keeping busy, or by identifying ourselves with something apart… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Only the individual who has come to terms with his self can have a dispassionate attitude toward the world. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
“The patriotic fervor of a population is not always in direct proportion to its well-being and the fair dealing of its government.… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
“There is even in the most selfish passion a large element of self-abnegation. It is startling to realize that we call extreme… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The chief burden of the frustrated is the consciousness of a blemished, ineffectual self, and their chief desire is to slough off… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The short-lived self, teetering on the edge of extinction, is the only thing that can ever really matter. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
It is apparently vital that we should be in the dark about ourselves not to be clear about our intentions, fears, and… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Unless a man has talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. Of what avail is freedom to choose… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share 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… — 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
It is the individual only who is timeless. Societies, cultures, and civilizations -- past and present -- are often incomprehensible to outsiders,… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The autonomous individual, striving to realize himself and prove his worth, has created all that is great in literature, art, music, science… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The burning conviction that we have a holy duty towards others is often a way of attaching our drowning selves to a… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Marriage has for women many equivalents of joining a mass movement. It offers them a new purpose in life, a new future… — 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 individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
A successful social technique consists perhaps in finding unobjectionable means for individual self-assertion. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
People unfit for freedom - who cannot do much with it - are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
There is a totalitarian regime inside every one of us. We are ruled by a ruthless politburo which sets our norms and… — 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
