Quotes by Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer

American writer

Lived from: 1902 - 1983

Category: Writers (Contemporary) Country: FlagUnited States

Born: 25 july 1902 Died: 21 may 1983

  • Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about. And since we know least about ourselves, we are ready to believe all that is said about us. Hence the mysterious power of both flattery and calumny.
  • It almost seems that nobody can hate America as much as native Americans. America needs new immigrants to love and cherish it.
  • The wisdom of others remains dull till it is writ over with our own blood. We are essentially apart from the world; it bursts into our consciousness only when it sinks its teeth and nails into us.
  • To the excessively fearful the chief characteristic of power is its arbitrariness. Man had to gain enormously in confidence before he could conceive an all-powerful God who obeys his own laws.
  • Social improvement is attained more readily by a concern with the quality of results than with the purity of motives.
  • Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear. Thus a feeling of utter unworthiness can be a source of courage.
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  • A great man's greatest good luck is to die at the right time.
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  • Intolerance is the ''Do Not Touch'' sign on something that cannot bear touching. We do not mind having our hair ruffled, but we will not tolerate any familiarity with the toupee which covers our baldness.
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  • Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.
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  • No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments. We need people to bear witness against our inner judge, who keeps book on our shortcomings and transgressions. We need people to convince us that we are not as bad as we think we are.
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  • There is a totalitarian regime inside every one of us. We are ruled by a ruthless politburo which sets our norms and drives us from one five-year plan to another. The autonomous individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.
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  • 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.
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  • A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed.
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  • A heresy can spring only from a system that is in full vigor.
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  • A soul that is reluctant to share does not as a rule have much of its own. Miserliness is here a symptom of meagerness.
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  • A successful social technique consists perhaps in finding unobjectionable means for individual self-assertion.
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  • Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
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  • Action is at bottom a swinging and flailing of the arms to regain one's balance and keep afloat.
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  • An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head.
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  • Animals often strike us as passionate machines.
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  • Capitalism is at its liberating best in a noncapitalist environment. The crypto-businessman is the true revolutionary in a Communist country.
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  • Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.
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  • Death has but one terror, that it has no tomorrow.
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  • Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy - the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.
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  • Dissipation is a form of self-sacrifice.
    ― Eric Hoffer
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  • Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem.
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What are the most famous quotes from Eric Hoffer?

The two most famous quotes from Eric Hoffer are:

  • "A great man's greatest good luck is to die at the right time."
  • "Intolerance is the ''Do Not Touch'' sign on something that cannot bear touching. We do not mind having our hair ruffled, but we will not tolerate any familiarity with the toupee which covers our baldness."

When did Eric Hoffer live?

Eric Hoffer was born in 1902 and died in the year 1983.