The less satisfaction we derive from being ourselves, the greater is our desire to be like others. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The oppressed want above all to imitate their oppressors; they want to retaliate. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
A war is not won if the defeated enemy has not been turned into a friend. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Humility is not renunciation of pride but the substitution of one pride for another. — 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
Even in slight things the experience of the new is rarely without some stirring of foreboding. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its antihumanity. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
True loyalty between individuals is possible only in a loose and relatively free society. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Those who are in love with the present can be cruel and corrupt but not genuinely vicious. They cannot be methodically and… — 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… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
A preoccupation with the future not only prevents us from seeing the present as it is but often prompts us to rearrange… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
We have to adjust ourselves, and every radical adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem: we undergo a test, we have to prove… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else - we are… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
What are we when we are alone? Some, when they are alone, cease to exist. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Radicalism itself ceases to be radical when absorbed mainly in preserving its control over a society or an economy. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
There is no reason why humanity cannot be served equally by weighty and trivial motives. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Originality is deliberate and forced, and partakes of the nature of a protest. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
In every passionate pursuit, the pursuit counts more than the object pursued. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Often, the thing we pursue most passionately is but a substitute for the one thing we really want and cannot have. — 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
