Eric Hoffer Quotes, Quotations, and Sayings

268 Famous Quotes by Eric Hoffer
“The capacity for getting along with our neighbor depends to a large extent on the capacity for getting along with ourselves. The self-respecting individual will try to be as tolerant of his neighbor's shortcomings as he is of his own.”
Psychological subjects Quotes
“You accept certain unlovely things about yourself and manage to live with them. The atonement for such an acceptance is that you make allowances for others - that you cleanse yourself of the sin of self-righteousness.”
Psychological subjects Quotes
“We can never really be prepared for that which is wholly new. We have to adjust ourselves, and every radical adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem: we undergo a test, we have to prove ourselves. It needs inordinate self-confidence to face drastic change without inner trembling.”
Psychological subjects Quotes
“Self-righteousness is a manifestation of self-contempt.”
Psychological subjects Quotes
“It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world.”
Psychological subjects Quotes
“Lack of sensitivity is perhaps basically an unawareness of ourselves.”
Psychological subjects Quotes
“It is the acquisition of skills in particular, irrespective of their utility, that is potent in making life meaningful. Since man has no inborn skills, the survival of the species has depended on the ability to acquire and perfect skills. Hence the mastery of skills is a uniquely human activity and yields deep satisfaction.”
Psychological subjects Quotes
“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. All the passionate pursuits of the weak are in some degree a striving to escape, blur, or disguise an unwanted self. It is a striving shot through with malice, envy, self-deception, and a host of petty impulses; yet it often culminates in superb achievements.”
Psychological subjects Quotes
“Unlike the pattern which seems to prevail in the rest of life, in the human species the weak not only survive but often triumph over the strong. The self-hatred inherent in the weak unlocks energies far more formidable then those mobilized by an ordinary struggle for existence.”
Psychological subjects Quotes
“It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor.”
Relationships Quotes
“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.”
Religion / beliefs Quotes
“The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian despot who wants to turn them into puppets.”
Religion / beliefs Quotes
“The devil personifies not the nature that is around us but the nature that is within us- the infinitely ferocious and cunning prehuman creature that is still within us, sealed in the subconscious cellars of the psyche.”
Religion / beliefs Quotes
“Those of little faith are of little hatred.”
Religion / beliefs Quotes
“Faith, enthusiasm, and passionate intensity in general are substitutes for the self-confidence born of experience and the possession of skill. Where there is the necessary skill to move mountains there is no need for the faith that moves mountains.”
Religion / beliefs Quotes
“In man's life, the absence of an essential component usually leads to the adoption of a substitute. The substitute is usually embraced with vehemence and extremism, for we have to convince ourselves that what we took as second choice is the best there ever was. Thus blind faith is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves; insatiable desire a substitute for hope; accumulation a substitute for growth; fervent hustling a substitute for purposeful action; and pride a substitute for an unattainable self-respect.”
Religion / beliefs Quotes
“Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves.”
Religion / beliefs Quotes
“It needs fanatical faith to rationalize our cowardice.”
Religion / beliefs Quotes
“When we debunk a fanatical faith or prejudice, we do not strike at the root of fanaticism. We merely prevent its leaking out at a certain point, with the likely result that it will leak out at some other point. Thus by denigrating prevailing beliefs and loyalties, the militant man of words unwittingly creates in the disillusioned masses a hunger for faith. For the majority of people cannot endure the barrenness and futility of their lives unless they have some ardent dedication, or some passionate pursuit in which they can lose themselves. Thus, in spite of himself, the scoffing man of words becomes the precursor of a new faith.”
Religion / beliefs Quotes
“How much easier is self-sacrifice than self-realization!”
Self-sacrifice Quotes
“Quite often the social doctors become part of the disease.”
Society Quotes
“When grubbing for necessities man is still an animal. He becomes uniquely human when he reaches out for the superfluous and extravagant.”
Society Quotes
“Conservatism is sometimes a symptom of sterility. Those who have nothing in them that can grow and develop must cling to what they have in beliefs, ideas and possessions. The sterile radical, too, is basically conservative. He is afraid to let go of the ideas and beliefs he picked up in his youth lest his life be seen as empty and wasted.”
Society Quotes
“The fanatic is not really a stickler to principle. He embraces a cause not primarily because of its justness or holiness but because of his desperate need for something to hold onto.”
Society Quotes
“Though they seem at opposite poles, fanatics of all kinds are actually crowded together at one end. It is the fanatic and the moderate who are poles apart and never meet.”
Society Quotes
« Previous  [1-25]  [26-50]  [51-75]  [76-100]  [101-125]  [126-150]  [151-175]  [176-200]  [201-225]  [226-250]  [251-268]   Next »