Eric Hoffer Quotes

471 quotes in 4535 categories

• In every passionate pursuit, the pursuit counts more than the object pursued.
• The Americans are poor haters in international affairs because of their innate feeling of superiority over all foreigners. An American's hatred for a fellow American.is…
• We are unified both by hating in common and by being hated in common.
• The desire to belong is partly a desire to lose oneself.
• It is the acquisition of skills in particular, irrespective of their utility, that is potent in making life meaningful. Since man has no inborn skills,…
• Animals can learn, but it is not by learning that they become dogs, cats, or horses. Only man has to learn to become what he…
• The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its antihumanity.
• There is a close connection between lack of confidence and the passionate state of mind.
• There is no reason why humanity cannot be served equally by weighty and trivial motives.
• Passionate intensity may serve as a substitute for confidence.
• The impression somehow prevails that the true believer, particularly the religious individual, is a humble person. The truth is that the surrendering and humbling of…
• Unlike the pattern which seems to prevail in the rest of life, in the human species the weak not only survive but often triumph over…
• The weak are not a noble breed. Their sublime deeds of faith, daring, and self-sacrifice usually spring from questionable motives. The weak hate not wickedness…
• It needs some intelligence to be truly selfish. The unintelligent can only be self-righteous.
• Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know. One often obtains a clue to…
• Those of little faith are of little hatred.
• It needs fanatical faith to rationalize our cowardice.
• The devil personifies not the nature that is around us but the nature that is within us- the infinitely ferocious and cunning prehuman creature that…
• Faith, enthusiasm, and passionate intensity in general are substitutes for the self-confidence born of experience and the possession of skill. Where there is the necessary…
• Crude absurdities, trivial nonsense, and sublime truths are equally potent in readying people for self-sacrifice if they are accepted as the sole, eternal truth

Browse Eric Hoffer Quotes by Category