Eric Hoffer

(1902 - 1983)

It is a sign of a creeping inner death when we no longer can praise the living.

Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer

(1902 - 1983)

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

Eric Hoffer

Sir Ralph Richardson, quoted in New York Herald Tribune, May 19, 1946

(1902 - 1983)

Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people from coughing.

Sir Ralph Richardson, quoted in New York Herald Tribune, May 19, 1946

Eric Hoffer

(1902 - 1983)

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

Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer

(1902 - 1983)

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.

Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer

(1902 - 1983)

Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.

Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer

(1902 - 1983)

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

Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer

(1902 - 1983)

The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.

Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer, "The True Believer", 1951

(1902 - 1983)

The poor on the borderline of starvation live purposeful lives. To be engaged in a desperate struggle for food and shelter is to be wholly free from a sense of futility.

Eric Hoffer, "The True Believer", 1951

Eric Hoffer

(1902 - 1983)

We cannot be sure that we have something to live for unless we are ready to die for it.

Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer

(1902 - 1983)

Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer

(1902 - 1983)

We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the fact that many inventions had their birth as toys.

Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer

(1902 - 1983)

We often use strong language not to express a powerful emotion but to evoke it in us.

Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer

(1902 - 1983)

The Greeks invented logic but were not fooled by it.

Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer

(1902 - 1983)

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

Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer

(1902 - 1983)

The most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their way, and must compensate for what they miss by realizing and cultivating their capacities and talents.

Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer

(1902 - 1983)

All leaders strive to turn their followers into children.

Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer

(1902 - 1983)

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

Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer

(1902 - 1983)

The wise learn from the experience of others, and the creative know how to make a crumb of experience go a long way.

Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer

(1902 - 1983)

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

Eric Hoffer