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Eric Hoffer Quotes - Page 5

All Quotes Acceptance Achievement Age Ambition Anxiety Art Atheism Atheist Attitude Awareness Balance Belief Business Change Character Children Communism Compassion Conformity Conservatism Country Creativity Death Deception Dedication Desire Destiny Devil Diversity Doubt Dying Education Effort Energy Environment Envy Equality Evil Excellence Experience Failure Faith Fashion Fate Fear Feelings Fighting Freedom Frustration Future Generosity Giving Glory Growing Up Growth Happiness Hate Hatred Heart History Home Hope Humanity Humility Hunger Ignorance Impulse Independence Individuality Inspirational Integrity Judging Justice Kindness Knowledge Language Laughter Leadership Learning Liberty Life Literature Loneliness Love Loyalty Lying Manifestation Motivational Nature Opportunity Originality Overcoming Passion Past Philosophy Power Prejudice Pride Propaganda Prophet Protest Purpose Quality Reality Reflection Rejection Religion Resentment Respect Responsibility Righteousness Running Sacrifice Sadness Self Confidence Self Esteem Self Respect Sin Society Soul Spring Success Suffering Talent Teaching Technology Time Tolerance Truth Unity Vision Water Weakness Winning Wisdom Work Writing Youth

We usually see only the things we are looking for- so much so that we sometimes see them where they are not.

We usually see only the things we are looking for- so much so that we sometimes see them where they are not.

Sometimes

Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and the strong; it easily becomes a fashion.

Fashion, Strong, Numbers

Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

The pleasure we derive from doing favors is partly in the feeling it gives us that we are not altogether worthless. It is a pleasant surprise to ourselves.

Giving, Feelings, Literature

Eric Hoffer (1955). “The passionate state of mind, and other aphorisms”

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

Love, Meaningful, Pregnancy

New York Times Magazine 15 Feb. 1959, p. 12

What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people's faces as unfinished as their minds.

People, Mind, Faces

"Reflections on the Human Condition". Book by Eric Hoffer, section 89, 1973.

Fair play is primarily not blaming others for anything that is wrong with us.

Success, Sports, Play

Children are the keys of paradise.

Children, Reality, Keys

We can remember minutely and precisely only the things which never really happened to us.

Remember, Happened

"Thoughts of Eric Hoffer", Including: 'Absolute Faith Corrupts Absolutely'" by Eric Hoffer, The New York Times Magazine (p. 55, 57), April 25, 1971.

To be fully alive is to feel that everything is possible.

Alive, Feels

Eric Hoffer (1969). “Working and Thinking on the Waterfront: A Journal, June 1958-May 1959”

Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves.

Eye, Acceptance, Self

Eric Hoffer (1980). “The True Believer”

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

Fate, Frustration, Destiny

Eric Hoffer (1955). “The passionate state of mind, and other aphorisms”

Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.

Faith, History, Literature

ERIC HOFFER (1963). “THE TRUE BELIEVER”

Religion is not a matter of God, church, holy cause, etc. These are but accessories. The source of religious preoccupation is in the self, or rather the rejection of the self. Dedication in the obverse side of self-rejection. Man alone is a religious animal because, as Montaigne points out, it is a malady confined to man, and not seen in any other creature, to hate and despise ourselves.

Religious, Hate, Animal

Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

Those who would sacrifice a generation to realize an ideal are the enemies of mankind.

Sacrifice, Enemy, Generations

Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

When people are bored it is primarily with themselves.

Bores You, People, Boredom

Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression.

Winning, Generosity, Weakness

Eric Hoffer (1963). “The Ordeal of Change”

Men of thought seldom work well together, whereas between men of action there is usually an easy camaraderie.

Men, Together, Action

Eric Hoffer (1980). “The True Believer”

Ours is a golden age of minorities. At no time in the past have dissident minorities felt so much at home and had so much room to throw their weight around. They speak and act as if they were "the people," and what they abominate most is the dissent of the majority.

Home, Past, People

Eric Hoffer (1977). “In our time”, McNally & Loftin Publishers

People unfit for freedom - who cannot do much with it - are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an attribute of a "have" type of self. It says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities. The desire for power is basically an attribute of a "have not" type of self.

Equality, Self, People

Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

We see through others only when we see through ourselves.

Insight

Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

We run fastest and farthest when we run from ourselves.

Running, Society

Eric Hoffer (1980). “The True Believer”

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.

Frustration, Confusion, Want

Eric Hoffer (1980). “The True Believer”

A multitude of words is probably the most formidable means of blurring and obscuring thought. There is no thought, however momentous, that cannot be expressed lucidly in 200 words.

Mean, Formidable, Multitudes

"Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook" by Tom Bethell in "Harper's Magazine", Entry (1954), July 2005.

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

Games, History, Political

ERIC HOFFER (1963). “THE TRUE BELIEVER”

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

Art, Philosophy, History

Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

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