Eric Hoffer Quotes

471 quotes in 4535 categories

• The less satisfaction we derive from being ourselves, the greater is our desire to be like others.
• The craving to change the world is perhaps a reflection of the craving to change ourselves.
• The chief burden of the frustrated is the consciousness of a blemished, ineffectual self, and their chief desire is to slough off the unwanted self…
• Nature attains perfection, but man never does. There is a perfect ant, a perfect bee, but man is perpetually unfinished. He is both an unfinished…
• Commitment becomes hysterical when those who have nothing to give advocate generosity, and those who have nothing to give up preach renunciation.
• Rudeness luxuriates in the absence of self-respect.
• The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an inner uncertainty than a deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more against the doubt within than…
• It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world.
• All prayers and hopes are a reaching-out for coincidences.
• No one is truly literate who cannot read his own heart.
• We usually see only the things we are looking for- so much so that we sometimes see them where they are not.
• We cannot hate those who we despise.
• The well-adjusted make poor prophets.
• The most effective way to silence our guilty conscience is to convince ourselves and others that those we have sinned against are indeed depraved creatures,…
• When the weak want to give an impression of strength they hint menacingly at their capacity for evil. It is by its promise of a…
• What are we when we are alone? Some, when they are alone, cease to exist.
• To be aware how fruitful the playful mood can be is to be immune to the propaganda of the alienated, which extols resentment as a…
• The genuine creator creates something that has a life of its own, something that can exist and function without him. This is true not only…
• We often use strong language not to express a powerful emotion but to evoke it in us.
• There is no alienation that a little power will not cure.

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