The frustrated follow a leader less because of their faith that he is leading them to a promised land than because of… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Unity and self-sacrifice, of themselves, even when fostered by the most noble means, produce a facility for hating. Even when men league… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
All mass movements avail themselves of action as a means of unification. The conflicts a mass movement seeks and incites serve not… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Good writing , like gold , combines lustrous lucidity with high density. What this means is good writing is packed with hints. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
To believe that if we could have but this or that we would be happy is to suppress the realization that the… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
A multitude of words is probably the most formidable means of blurring and obscuring thought. There is no thought, however momentous, that… — 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
To some, freedom means the opportunity to do what they want to do; to most it means not to do what they… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Retribution often means that we eventually do to ourselves what we have done unto others. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
A successful social technique consists perhaps in finding unobjectionable means for individual self-assertion. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The vigor of a mass movement stems from the propensity of its followers for united action and self-sacrifice. When we ascribe the… — 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
