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
Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Animals can learn, but it is not by learning that they become dogs, cats, or horses. Only man has to learn to… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Man staggers through life yapped at by his reason, pulled and shoved by his appetites, whispered to by fears, beckoned by hopes.… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
There is a perfect ant, a perfect bee, but man is perpetually unfinished...Moreover, the incurable unfinishedness keeps man perpetually immature, perpetually capable… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
When we are in competition with ourselves, and match our todays against our yesterdays, we derive encouragement from past misfortunes and blemishes.… — 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
It is the acquisition of skills in particular, irrespective of their utility, that is potent in making life meaningful. Since man has… — 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
One wonders whether a generation that demands instant satisfaction of all its needs and instant solution of the world's problems will produce… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
This food-and-shelter theory concerning man's efforts is without insight. Our most persistent and spectacular efforts are concerned not with the preservation of… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
There is a grandeur in the uniformity of the mass. When a fashion, a dance, a song, a slogan or a joke… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Nature attains perfection, but man never does. There is a perfect ant, a perfect bee, but man is perpetually unfinished. He is… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Religion is not a matter of God, church, holy cause, etc. These are but accessories. The source of religious preoccupation is in… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
When watching men of power in action it must be always kept in mind that, whether they know it or not, their… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. We join a mass movement to… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Man is a luxury loving animal. Take away play, fancies, and luxuries, and you will turn man into a dull, sluggish creature,… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
For men to plunge headlong into an undertaking of vast change, they must be intensely discontented yet not destitute, and they must… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The monstrous evils of the twentieth century have shown us that the greediest money grubbers are gentle doves compared with money-hating wolves… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Man is eminently a storyteller. His search for a purpose, a cause, an ideal, a mission and the like is largely a… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The atheist is a religious person. He believes in atheism as though it were a new religion. According to Renan, "The day… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
God alone is satisfied with what He is and can proclaim: "I am what I am." Unlike God, man strives with all… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The birth of the new constitutes a crisis, and its mastery calls for a crude and simple cast of mind -- the… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Take man's most fantastic invention- God. Man invents God in the image of his longings, in the image of what he wants… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
It is remarkable by how much a pinch of malice enhances the penetrating power of an idea or an opinion. Our ears,… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The main effect of a real revolution is perhaps that it sweeps away those who do not know how to wish, and… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
To make of human affairs a coherent, precise, predictable whole one must ignore or suppress man as he really is. It is… — 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
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
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
The creative mind is the playful mind. Philosophy is the play and dance of ideas. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share
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
“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
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
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
Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share
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
Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share
This food-and-shelter theory concerning man's efforts is without insight. The desire for praise is more imperative than the desire for food and shelter — Eric Hoffer Copy Share
