Quotes By Eric Hoffer

Children are the keys of paradise.

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.

It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny.

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.

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

The weakness of a soul is proportionate to the number of truths that must be kept from it.

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

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

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.

Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible.

To spell out the obvious is often to call it in question.

Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem.

Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.

Every intense desire is perhaps a desire to be different from what we are.

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

The real Antichrist is he who turns the wine of an original idea into the water of mediocrity.

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.

Where everything is possible miracles become commonplaces, but the familiar ceases to be self-evident.

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.

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

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

Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.

It sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.

Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.

Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.

Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent.

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

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.

To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.

A nation without dregs and malcontents is orderly, peaceful and pleasant, but perhaps without the seed of things to come.