There is need for some kind of make-believe in order to face death unflinchingly. To our real, naked selves there is not… — 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
A free society is as much a threat to the intellectual's sense of worth as an automated economy is to the workingman's… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Mass movements do not usually rise until the prevailing order has been discredited. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
A plant needs roots in order to grow. With man it is the other way around: only when he grows does he… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
In an adequate social order, the untalented should be able to acquire a sense of usefulness and of growth without interfering with… — 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
