Eric Hoffer Quotes

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

The beginning of thought is in disagreement - not only with others but also with ourselves.

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.

Rudeness is a weak persons imitation of strength.

There is in even the most selfish passion a large element of self-abnegation. It is startling to realize that what we call extreme self-seeking is actually self-renunciation. The miser, health addict, glory chaser and their like are not far behind the selfless in the exercise of self-sacrifice.

The enemy — the indispensible devil of every mass movement — is omnipresent. He plots both outside and inside the ranks of the faithful. It is his voice that speaks through the mouth of the dissenter, and the deviationists are his stooges. If anything goes wrong within the movement, it is his doing. It is the sacred duty of the true believer to be suspicious. He must be constantly on the lookout for saboteurs, spies and traitors.

Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing impulse. We are drawn back to where we came from.

There is not an idea that cannot be expressed in 200 words. But the writer must know precisely what he wants to say. If you have nothing to say and want badly to say it, then all the words in all the dictionaries will not suffice.

It is maintained that a society is free only when dissenting minorities have room to throw their weight around. As a matter of fact, a dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority. 41

Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.

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

The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle. The reason that the inferior elements of a nation can exert a marked influence on its course is that they are wholly without reverence toward the present. They see their lives and the present as spoiled beyond remedy and they are ready to waste and wreck both: hence their recklessness and their will to chaos and anarchy.

It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt.

The loyalty of the true believer is to the whole — the church, party, nation — and not to his fellow true believer.

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