Self Quotes by Eric Hoffer

“Every extreme attitude is a flight from the self.”

— Eric Hoffer

Rudeness luxuriates in the absence of self-respect.

— Eric Hoffer

Dissipation is a form of self-sacrifice.

— Eric Hoffer

Every extreme attitude is a fight from the self.

— Eric Hoffer

Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us.

— Eric Hoffer

Self-righteousness is a manifestation of self-contempt.

— Eric Hoffer

How much easier is self-sacrifice than self-realization!

— Eric Hoffer

Only the individual who has come to terms with his self can have a dispassionate attitude toward the world.

— Eric Hoffer

Excesses are essentially gestures. It is easy to be extremely cruel, magnanimous, humble or self-sacrificing when we see ourselves as actors in…

— Eric Hoffer

We probably have a greater love for those we support than for those who support us. Our vanity carries more weight than…

— Eric Hoffer

The self-despisers are less intent on their own increase than on the diminution of others. Where self-esteem is unobtainable, envy takes the…

— Eric Hoffer

It is our talents rusting unused within us that secrete the poison of self-doubt into our bloodstream.

— Eric Hoffer

A successful social technique consists perhaps in finding unobjectionable means for individual self-assertion.

— Eric Hoffer

Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide…

— Eric Hoffer

There is a guilty conscience behind every brazen word and act and behind every manifestation of self-righteousness.

— Eric Hoffer

“We can never really be prepared for that which is wholly new. We have to adjust ourselves, and every radical adjustment is…

— Eric Hoffer

Nature is a self-made machine, more perfectly automated than any automated machine. To create something in the image of nature is to…

— Eric Hoffer

A mass movement attracts and holds a following not because it can satisfy the desire for self-advancement, but because it can satisfy…

— Eric Hoffer

Crude absurdities, trivial nonsense, and sublime truths are equally potent in readying people for self-sacrifice if they are accepted as the sole,…

— Eric Hoffer

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

Unless a man has talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. Of what avail is freedom to choose…

— Eric Hoffer

The compulsion to take ourselves seriously is in inverse proportion to our creative capacity. When the creative flow dries up, all we…

— Eric Hoffer

Nothing so bolsters our self-confidence and reconciles us with ourselves as the continuous ability to create; to see things grow and develop…

— Eric Hoffer

The leader personifies the certitude of the creed and the defiance and grandeur of power. He articulates and justifies the resentment damned…

— Eric Hoffer

The most effective way to silence our guilty conscience is to convince ourselves and others that those we have sinned against are…

— Eric Hoffer

The weak are not a noble breed. Their sublime deeds of faith, daring, and self-sacrifice usually spring from questionable motives. The weak…

— Eric Hoffer

In man's life, the absence of an essential component usually leads to the adoption of a substitute. The substitute is usually embraced…

— Eric Hoffer

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

Poverty when coupled with creativeness is usually free of frustration. This is true of the poor artisan skilled in his trade and…

— Eric Hoffer

[The designated or chosen leader tries to] articulate and justify the resentment dammed up in the souls of the frustrated. He kindles…

— Eric Hoffer

The chief burden of the frustrated is the consciousness of a blemished, ineffectual self, and their chief desire is to slough off…

— Eric Hoffer

The urge to escape our real self is also an urge to escape the rational and the obvious.

— Eric Hoffer

The act of self-denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others.

— Eric Hoffer

It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world.

— Eric Hoffer

It needs some intelligence to be truly selfish. The unintelligent can only be self-righteous.

— Eric Hoffer

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

The burning conviction that we have a holy duty toward others is often a way of attaching our drowning selves to a…

— Eric Hoffer

The short-lived self, teetering on the edge of extinction, is the only thing that can ever really matter.

— Eric Hoffer

Faith, enthusiasm, and passionate intensity in general are substitutes for the self-confidence born of experience and the possession of skill. Where there…

— Eric Hoffer

You accept certain unlovely things about yourself and manage to live with them. The atonement for such an acceptance is that you…

— Eric Hoffer