Top 15 Eric Hoffer Quotes

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

Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.

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 lie the loudest when we lie to ourselves.

Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.

People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.

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

Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all the unifying agents. Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a god, but never without a belief in a devil.

The Jews are a peculiar people: Things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.

Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people, and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it. Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey threw out a million Greeks and Algeria a million Frenchmen. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese — and no one says a word about refugees.

But in the case of Israel, the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis. Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace.

Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world.

When people are bored, it is primarily with their own selves that they are bored.

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.

Anger is the prelude to courage.

We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities but its own talents.

Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.