Quotes By Eric Hoffer

I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind.

It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativeness, and the playground is the optimal milieu for the unfolding of his capacities and talents.

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

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

There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate wherever they meet.

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

We feel free when we escape - even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire.

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

A man by himself is in bad company.

The greatest weariness comes from work not done.

When people are bored it is primarily with themselves.

Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength.

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

Self-esteem and self-contempt have specific odors; they can be smelled.

Call not that man wretched, who whatever ills he suffers, has a child to love.

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

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

We have rudiments of reverence for the human body, but we consider as nothing the rape of the human mind.

There is sublime thieving in all giving. Someone gives us all he has and we are his.

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

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

With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.

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.

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

The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.

Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.

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

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

Action is at bottom a swinging and flailing of the arms to regain one's balance and keep afloat.

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.