Quotes by Eric Hoffer

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

"To have a grievance is to have a purpose in life."

"There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other."

"Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership."

"It is a sign of creeping inner death when we can no longer praise the living."

"The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully."

"Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience."

"When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths."

"We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about."

"It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn."

"We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand."

"It is the around-the-corner brand of hope that prompts people to action, while the distant hope acts as an opiate."

"Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains."

"Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength."

"It is remarkable by how much a pinch of malice enhances the penetrating power of an idea or an opinion. Our ears, it seems, are wonderfully attuned to sneers and evil reports about our fellow men."

"It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak."

"Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something."

"Take away hatred from some people, and you have men without faith."

"Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves."

"Man was nature's mistake she neglected to finish him and she has never ceased paying for her mistake."

"Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature."

"The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian despot who wants to turn them into puppets."

"One of the marks of a truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of action - the ability to pass directly from thought to action."

"Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart."

"It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor."

"Even in slight things the experience of the new is rarely without some stirring of foreboding."

"Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners."

"Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true."

"We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true they ruin our dreams."

"Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy - the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation."

"To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance."

"It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression."

"There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his own house."

"The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle."

"Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us."

"The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything."

"In times of change learners inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."

"We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: change prepares the ground for revolution."

"The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness."

"A low capacity for getting along with those near us often goes hand in hand with a high receptivity to the idea of the brotherhood of men."

"We have perhaps a natural fear of ends. We would rather be always on the way than arrive. Given the means, we hang on to them and often forget the ends."

"When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other."

"The greatest weariness comes from work not done."

"The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future."