Individual Quotes by Eric Hoffer

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

— Eric Hoffer

To the creative individual all experience is seminal-all events are equidistant from new ideasand insights.

— Eric Hoffer

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

— Eric Hoffer

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

— Eric Hoffer

Faith is primarily a process of identification; the process by which the individual ceases to be himself and becomes part of something…

— Eric Hoffer

True loyalty between individuals is possible only in a loose and relatively free society.

— Eric Hoffer

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

— Eric Hoffer

There is no telling to what extremes of cruelty and ruthlessness a man will go when he is freed from the fears,…

— Eric Hoffer

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

— Eric Hoffer

The individual's most vital need is to prove his worth, and this usually means an insatiable hunger for action. For it is…

— Eric Hoffer

Collective unity is not the result of the brotherly love of the faithful for each other. The loyalty of the true believer…

— Eric Hoffer

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. Originality is deliberate and forced, and partakes of…

— Eric Hoffer

The capacity for getting along with our neighbor depends to a large extent on the capacity for getting along with ourselves. The…

— Eric Hoffer

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

— Eric Hoffer

There is no telling to what extremes of cruelty and ruthlessness a man will go when he is freed from the fears,…

— Eric Hoffer

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

— Eric Hoffer

Poverty when coupled with creativeness is usually free of frustration. This is true of the poor artisan skilled in his trade and…

— Eric Hoffer

However much we talk of the inexorable laws governing the life of individuals and of societies, we remain at the bottom convinced…

— Eric Hoffer

Every device employed to bolster individual freedom must have as its chief purpose the impairment of the absoluteness of power. The indications…

— Eric Hoffer

A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrine and promises but by the refuge it offers from…

— Eric Hoffer

Imitation is often a shortcut to a solution. We copy when we lack the inclination, the ability or the time to work…

— Eric Hoffer

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

The impression somehow prevails that the true believer, particularly the religious individual, is a humble person. The truth is that the surrendering…

— Eric Hoffer

Both the revolutionary and the creative individual are perpetual juveniles. The revolutionary does not grow up because he cannot grow, while the…

— Eric Hoffer

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

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

— Eric Hoffer

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

— Eric Hoffer

The education explosion is producing a vast number of people who want to live significant, important lives but lack the ability to…

— Eric Hoffer

When we lose our individual independence in the corporateness of a mass movement, we find a new freedom — freedom to hate,…

— Eric Hoffer

When our individual interests and prospects do not seem worth living for, we are in desperate need for something apart from us…

— Eric Hoffer

The act of self-denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others. The impression somehow prevails…

— Eric Hoffer

When watching men of power in action it must be always kept in mind that, whether they know it or not, their…

— Eric Hoffer

Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. We join a mass movement to…

— Eric Hoffer