Quotes By Eric Hoffer

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.

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

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

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

A great man's greatest good luck is to die at the right time.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent.

The greatest weariness comes from work not done.

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.

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

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

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.