Eric Hoffer quotes - page 15

One might equate growing up with a mistrust of words. A mature person trusts his eyes more than his ears. Irrationality often manifests itself in upholding the word against the evidence of the eyes. Children, savages and true believers remember far less what they have seen than what they have heard. (Eric Hoffer)
The superficiality of the American is the result of his hustling. It needs leisure to think things out it needs leisure to mature. People in a hurry cannot think, cannot grow, nor can they decay. They are preserved in a state of perpetual puerility. View quote
Eric Hoffer
Perhaps our originality manifests itself most strikingly in what we do with that which we did not originate. To discover something wholly new can be a matter of chance, of idle tinkering, or even of the chronic dissatisfaction of the untalented. View quote
Eric Hoffer
In the shaping of a life, chance and the ability to respond to chance are everything. View quote
Eric Hoffer
Actual creativeness is a matter of moments. One has to piece together the minute grains to make a lump. And it is so easy to miss the momentary flashes, it is like sluicing in placer mining. He who lets the flakes float by has nothing to show for his trouble. View quote
Eric Hoffer
Successful action tends to become an end in itself. View quote
Eric Hoffer
It is thus with most of us; we are what other people say we are. We know ourselves chiefly by hearsay. View quote
Eric Hoffer
The momentous statements I come across are at best a storm in a teacup. There are quite a number of people who have a vested interest in the stuff, make a noble living out of it, and they conspire with one another to keep it alive. View quote
Eric Hoffer
The mind must be able to be "elsewhere." This needs time. View quote
Eric Hoffer
The explosive component in the contemporary scene is not the clamor of the masses but the self-righteous claims of a multitude of graduates from schools and universities. This army of scribes is clamoring for a society in which planning, regulation, and supervision are paramount and the prerogative of the educated. View quote
Eric Hoffer
The rejection of approximations and the insistence on absolutes are the manifestation of a nihilism that loathes freedom, tolerance, and equity. (Eric Hoffer)
The weak are not a noble breed. Their sublime deeds of faith, daring, and self-sacrifice usually spring from questionable motives. The weak hate not wickedness but weakness; and one instance of their hatred of weakness is hatred of self. View quote
Eric Hoffer
One wonders whether a generation that demands instant satisfaction of all its needs and instant solution of the world's problems will produce anything of lasting value. View quote
Eric Hoffer
The significant point is that 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. View quote
Eric Hoffer
We are ready to sacrifice our true, transitory self for the imaginary eternal self we are building. View quote
Eric Hoffer
Frequently misquoted as "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." View quote
Eric Hoffer
There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. View quote
Eric Hoffer
Some of the worst tyrannies of our day genuinely are "vowed" to the service of mankind, yet can function only by pitting neighbor against neighbor. The all-seeing eye of a totalitarian regime is usually the watchful eye of the next-door neighbor. View quote
Eric Hoffer
There is hardly a single instance of cultural vigor marked by moderation in expression. View quote
Eric Hoffer
The corruption inherent in absolute power derives from the fact that such power is never free from the tendency to turn man into a thing, and press him back into the matrix of nature from which he has risen. For the impulse of power is to turn every variable into a constant, and give to commands the inexorableness and relentlessness of laws of nature. Hence absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes. The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep. The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its anti-humanity. View quote
Eric Hoffer
When, for whatever reason, self-esteem is unattainable, the autonomous individual becomes a highly explosive entity. He turns away from an unpromising self and plunges into the pursuit of pride - the explosive substitute for self-esteem. All social disturbances and upheavals have their roots in crises of individual self-esteem, and the great endeavor in which the masses most readily unite is basically a search for pride. (Eric Hoffer)
Originality is not something continuous but something intermittent - a flash of the briefest duration. One must have the time and be watchful (be attuned) to catch the flash and fix it. View quote
Eric Hoffer
Men of talent have to be goaded to engage in creative work. The groans and laments of even the most gifted and prolific echo through the ages. View quote
Eric Hoffer
How rare it is to come across a piece of writing that is unambiguous, unqualified, and also unblurred by understatements or subtleties, and yet at the same time urbane and tolerant. View quote
Eric Hoffer
If you have nothing to say and want badly to say it, then all the words in all the dictionaries will not suffice. View quote
Eric Hoffer