Eric Hoffer – 37 Quotes

37 Quotes by Eric Hoffer

Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength.

– Eric Hoffer

The greatest weariness comes from work not done.

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

The fear of becoming a ‘has-been’ keeps some people from becoming anything.

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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.

– Eric Hoffer

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

– Eric Hoffer

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.

– Eric Hoffer

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.

– Eric Hoffer

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.

– Eric Hoffer

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.

– Eric Hoffer