« All Self Quotes · Eric Hoffer's Page
Self Quotes by Eric Hoffer
- The ruthlessness born of self-seeking is ineffectual compared with the ruthlessness sustained by dedication to a holy cause. God wishes, said Calvin, that one should…
- Unity and self-sacrifice, of themselves, even when fostered by the most noble means, produce a facility for hating. Even when men league themselves mightily together…
- The burning conviction that we have a holy duty towards others is often a way of attaching our drowning selves to a passing raft. What…
- Only the individual who has come to terms with his self can have a dispassionate attitude toward the world.
- Self-righteousness is a manifestation of self-contempt.
- The short-lived self, teetering on the edge of extinction, is the only thing that can ever really matter.
- 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…
- Rudeness luxuriates in the absence of self-respect.
- It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world.
- 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,…
- 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.
- 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
- The revulsion from an unwanted self, and the impulse to forget it, mask it, slough it off and lose it, produce both a readiness to…
- The vigor of a mass movement stems from the propensity of its followers for united action and self-sacrifice. When we ascribe the success of a…
- The ideal of self-advancement which the civilizing west offers to backward populations brings with it the plague of individual frustration. All the advantages brought by…
- When our individual interests and prospects do not seem worth living for, we are in desperate need for something apart from us to live for.…
- Poverty when coupled with creativeness is usually free of frustration. This is true of the poor artisan skilled in his trade and of the poor…
- Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem.
- Self-esteem and self-contempt have specific odors; they can be smelled.
- Where everything is possible miracles become commonplaces, but the familiar ceases to be self-evident.
- Nationalist pride, like other variants of pride, can be a substitute for self-respect.
More Self Quotes
- I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self. — Aristotle
- One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation. — Arthur Ashe
- Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is. — Isaac Asimov
- Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self. — Francis of Assisi
- That which has not a real excellency and value in it self, entertains no longer than the giddy Humour which recommended it… — Mary Astell
- Real education should educate us out of self into something far finer; into a selflessness which links us with all humanity. — Nancy Astor
- It's extraordinary how self-obsessed human beings are. The things that people always go on about is, 'tell us about us', 'tell us… — David Attenborough
- Every autobiography is concerned with two characters, a Don Quixote, the Ego, and a Sancho Panza, the Self. — Wystan Hugh Auden
- Washington is like a self-sealing tank on a military aircraft. When a bullet passes through, it closes up. — Dean Acheson
- A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower… — Marcus Aurelius
- What wild imaginations one forms where dear self is concerned! How sure to be mistaken! — Jane Austen
- We grow older, but we do not change. We become more sophisticated, but at bottom we continue to resemble our young selves,… — Paul Auster