If the Communists win Europe and a large part of the world, it will not be because they know how to stir… — 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
Only the individual who has come to terms with his self can have a dispassionate attitude toward the world. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
It seems that when we are oppressed by the knowledge of our worthlessness we do not see ourselves as lower than some… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The craving to change the world is perhaps a reflection of the craving to change ourselves. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem empty. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
I can never forget that one of the most gifted, best educated nations in the world, of its own free will, surrendered… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The sick in soul insist that it is humanity that is sick, and they are the surgeons to operate on it. They… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
Resistance, whether to one's appetites or to the ways of the world, is a chief factor in the shaping of character. — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else - we are… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
people with a sense of fulfillment think it is a good world and would like to conserve it as it is, while… — 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
Proselytizing is more a passionate search for something not yet found than a desire to bestow upon the world something we already… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world. — 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
In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
All mass movements strive, therefore, to interpose a fact-proof screen between the faithful and the realities of the world. They do this… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
It is a juvenile notion that a society needs a lofty purpose and a shining vision to achieve much. Both in the… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The autonomous individual, striving to realize himself and prove his worth, has created all that is great in literature, art, music, science… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
[The designated or chosen leader tries to] articulate and justify the resentment dammed up in the souls of the frustrated. He kindles… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
For though ours is a godless age, it is the very opposite of irreligious. The true believer is everywhere on the march,… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
The wisdom of others remains dull till it is writ over with our own blood. We are essentially apart from the world;… — Eric Hoffer Copy Share Image
A passionate obsession with the outside world or the private lives of others is an attempt to compensate for a lack of… — 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