Writer · American · 1902 – 1983 · 114 quotes
Self-esteem and self-contempt have specific odors; they can be smelled.
Eric Hoffer
Writer · American · 1902 – 1983
There is sublime thieving in all giving. Someone gives us all he has and we are his.
It is not so much the example of others we imitate as the reflection of ourselves in their eyes and the echo of ourselves in their words.
It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor.
Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.
There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmarks of a fugitive.
The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.
Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.
To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.
The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.
Craving, not having, is the mother of a reckless giving of oneself.
Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.
The world leans on us. When we sag, the whole world seems to droop.
We feel free when we escape - even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire.
You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy.
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.
What greater reassurance can the weak have than that they are like anyone else?
An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head.
With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.
In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.
The misery of a child is interesting to a mother, the misery of a young man is interesting to a young woman, the misery of an old man is interesting to nobody.
The greatest weariness comes from work not done.
When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.
When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and the strong; it easily becomes a fashion.
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.
We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.
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.
Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.
One of the marks of a truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of action - the ability to pass directly from thought to action.
Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing impulse. We are drawn back to where we came from.
Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem.
Sometimes we feel the loss of a prejudice as a loss of vigor.
A heresy can spring only from a system that is in full vigor.
There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate wherever they meet.
It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativeness, and the playground is the optimal milieu for the unfolding of his capacities and talents.
To spell out the obvious is often to call it in question.
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.
Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength.
When people are bored it is primarily with themselves.
Dissipation is a form of self-sacrifice.
We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.
A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed.
Animals often strike us as passionate machines.
Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent.
Unpredictability, too, can become monotonous.
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.
To the old, the new is usually bad news.
