The urge to escape our real self is also an urge to escape the rational and the obvious. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The real persuaders are our appetites, our fears and above all our vanity. The skillful propagandist stirs and coaches these internal persuaders. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
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
The real Antichrist is he who turns the wine of an original idea into the water of mediocrity. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Where freedom is real, equality is the passion of the masses. Where equality is real, freedom is the passion of a small… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The desire to be different from the people we live with is sometimes the result of our rejection- real or imagined- by… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical believer is… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The real "haves" are they who can acquire freedom, self-confidence, and even riches without depriving others of them. They acquire all of… — 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
Friendship Never explain -- your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe it anyway. A real friend never… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
To our real, naked selves there is not a thing on earth or in heaven worth dying for. It is only when… — 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
