Even the sober desire for progress is sustained by faith—faith in the intrinsic goodness of human nature and in the omnipotence of science. It is a defiant and blasphemous faith, not unlike that held by the men who set out to build a "city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven" and who believed that "nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Eric Hoffer
Related I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you... C. JOYBELL C. Without moral progress, stimulated by faith in God, immorality in all its forms will proliferate and... JAMES E. FAUST Faith belongs to the human spirit. Faith is faith. Humanity is divided by religion, religion is the ... C. JOYBELL C. May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God has to have faith in us and, consideri... W. H. AUDEN May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God has to have faith in us and, consideri... W. H. AUDEN I know nothing of the science of astrology and I consider it to be a science, if it is a science, of... MAHATMA GANDHI Feast of Thomas Aquinas, Priest, Teacher of the Faith, 1274 We have all the reason in the world to... JOHN TILLOTSON This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, ... BIBLE A person who has sympathy for mankind in the lump, faith in its future progress, and desire to serve... IRVING BABBITT Richard Dawkins regards faith as an evil to be eliminated; he takes all religious faith to be blind ... JOHN C. LENNOX It is not great faith, but true faith, that saves; and the salvation lies not in the faith, but in t... CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON What if initially they had named you Faith and me Hope, but afterwards they forgot who of us had whi... IGOR ELISEEV Science has a simple faith, which transcends utility. Nearly all men of science, all men of learning... VANNEVAR BUSH We have Gideon because we don't want always to be speaking of our faith in abstract, otherworldly, i... DEAN G. STROUD It's a most peculiar psychology—this business of 'Science is based on faith too, so there!' Typica... ELIEZER YUDKOWSKY Continuing a short series on education: What are the gifts of biblical faith to the secular univ... GEORGE A. BUTTRICK Commemoration of Petroc, Abbot of Padstow, 6th century Faith is indeed the energy of our whole uni... B. F. WESTCOTT How do you know if something is real? That’s easy. Does it change you? Does it form you? Does it g... C. JOYBELL C. The scientific method gives us
information by testing and repeating observable things so that we
can... LEWIS N. ROE Too much reason limits man to the physical world and blinds his imagination to the greater things th... JOHN KRAMER Mis-information is rampant in this great age of mass-information. While we have more access to learn... DAVID D. FLOWERS Commemoration of Nicholas Ferrar, Deacon, Founder of the Little Gidding Community, 1637 There is ... DAG HAMMARSKJÖLD Continuing a short series on topics of Christian apologetics: In the rare cases where faith appea... E. L. MASCALL Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus m... BIBLE Faith itself is a horrible mechanism that stunts the growth of ideas. It also stunts the act of ques... JOE ROGAN Democracy is a way of life controlled by a working faith in the possibilities of human nature. Belie... JOHN DEWEY The Biggest Threat to our Democracy, Freedoms and Future is Leadership that fosters and Appeases the... MICHAEL HARRIS And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto th... BIBLE The mark of a real man, is a man who can allow himself to fall deeply in love with a woman. But the ... C. JOYBELL C. The process of secularisation arises not from the loss of faith but from the loss of social interest... CHRISTOPHER HENRY DAWSON (All the grief she had suffered over her lifetime had moulded her face into a mask of eternal sadnes... JEAN SASSON Not only the studying and writing of history but also the honoring of it both represent affirmations... GEORGE F. KENNAN As one looks back through the ages, all the great men are men of faith: the Newtons, Faradays, Darwi... SIR WILFRED T. GRENFELL Science has a simple faith, which transcends utility. It is the faith that it is the privilege of ma... VANNEVAR BUSH Science has a simple faith, which transcends utility. It is the faith that it is the privilege of ... VANNEVAR BUSH Commemoration of Pandita Mary Ramabai, Translator of the Scriptures, 1922 Ultimate confidence i... REINHOLD NIEBUHR Faith is the soul's consciousness of its Divine relationship and exalted destiny. It is the recognit... GEORGE SPRINGS MERRIAM It is wrong to suppose that for Paul faith is a meritorious act on man's part, which wins salvation,... C. HAROLD DODD Those who are preparing for the coming of Christ should be sober, and watch unto prayer, for our adv... ELLEN G. WHITE Hope, what if initially they had named you Faith and me Hope, but afterwards they forgot who of us h... IGOR ELISEEV The fundamental idea which defines a human being as a Muslim is the declaration of faith: that there... FEISAL ABDUL RAUF Commemoration of Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1012 Faith knows nothing of external ... NICHOLAS BERDYEEV So endeth the story of the winning of Excalibur, and may God give unto you in your life, that you ma... HOWARD PYLE I oppose any belief that contradicts experimental evidence as determined by the methods of science. ... ALAN LIGHTMAN [THE DAILY BREATH] In today's world we seem to have a conflict between science and the ex... DRAGOS BRATASANU Feast of Charles, King & Martyr, 1649 Whatever task God is calling us to, if it is yours, it is m... PAUL K. JEWETT I'm afraid that in the United States of America today the prevailing doctrine of justification is no... R.C. SPROUL What do you mean by faith? Is faith enough for Man? Should he be satisfied with faith alone? Is ther... CLIFFORD D. SIMAK Wake up to a brand new day and realize why you woke up to meet the day! Live to the end of another d... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH Life is not a game. Still, in this life, we choose the games we live to play. J.R. RIM Faith is a kind of winged intellect. The great workmen of history have been men who believed like gi... CHARLES HENRY PARKHURST When the challenges of mortality come, and they come for all of us, it may seem hard to have faith a... ROBERT BEVERLY HALE But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the p... BIBLE There's a reason we refer to "leaps of faith" - because the decision to consent to any notion of div... ELIZABETH GILBERT Form-criticism... has made an end of the false notion, which for a long time dominated critical scho... GUENTHER BORNKAMM In the family, in interpersonal relationships, even in friendship, faith is tremendously important. ... GREG GRAFFIN I know that I had not faith, unless the faith of a devil, the faith of Judas, that speculative, noti... JOHN WESLEY The battle is not physical, it is spiritual and your mind is the battleground. Keep your mind pure a... JEANETTE CORON Given that religious faith is an intrinsic element of human experience, it is best to approach and e... JON MEACHAM This story is not and never was meant to challenge anyone's faith; however, if one's faith can be sh... CHRISTOPHER MOORE A man drank and became drunk, next he said, now i am delivered from my enemies and then walked into ... SOTONYE ANGA Commemoration of Margery Kempe, Mystic, after 1433 If you believe, where are your works? Your fai... GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA When one gives up the Christian faith, one pulls the right to Christian morality out from under one'... FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE Still, the belief in God was essentially a question of faith. Even for those, like Jeremy, who belie... NICHOLAS SPARKS Lord, help us to choose humility over pride. Help us to choose love over our reputation. ANDRENA SAWYER Absoballylutely top hole, wot. A and B the C of D I'd say. . . Above and Beyond the Call of Duty. BRIAN JACQUES Everyone would like to have stronger faith. By themselves, the scriptures may not strengthen your fa... JOHN BYTHEWAY His life seemed like a deck of cards, and in the midst of all those two’s and three’s someone ha... TEKOA MANNING ... always keep in mind that an article of faith is not something that the faithful assume. Faith, f... MORTIMER J. ADLER What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to ... ANONYMOUS Feast of Anselm, Abbot of Le Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher, 1109 I hear men praying eve... PHILLIPS BROOKS A miracle is an event which creates faith. That is the purpose and nature of miracles. Frauds deceiv... GEORGE BERNARD SHAW We think having faith means being convinced God exists in the same way we are convinced a chair exis... GORDON ATKINSON Maybe that's what praying is all about. Maybe it's not just asking God to forgive us for bad things ... SARAH DARER LITTMAN Faith is not Desire. Faith is Will. Desires are things that need to be satisfied, whereas Will is a ... PAULO COELHO I make mistakes. That's what I do. I speak without thinking, I act without knowing. I d... CANDACE BUSHNELL Some nonreligious people are disgruntled by the word "faith," feeling that it has no connection to t... KENTETSU TAKAMORI Holiness is the strength of the soul. It comes by faith and through obedience to God's laws and ... JAMES E. FAUST Jesus says to anyone who uses their faith or lack of faith to excuse their acts of disobedience to h... DIETRICH BONHOEFFER I will have the faith... not the faith they want me to have, but another kind of faith which is of m... FRANK MCCOURT I know that faith made my life possible and that of many others like me... Reason hardly warranted A... HELEN KELLER Faith is an act of a finite being who is grasped by, and turned to, the infinite. PAUL TILLICH POVERTY, n. A file provided for the teeth of the rats of reform. The number of plans for its aboliti... AMBROSE BIERCE (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enem... BIBLE You must save what you can of your life; you musn't lose it all simply because you've lost a part. HENRY JAMES Science has sometimes been said to be opposed to faith, and inconsistent with it. But all science, i... TRYON EDWARDS Science has sometimes been said to be opposed to faith, and inconsistent with it. But all science,... TYRON EDWARDS Science has sometimes been said to be opposed to faith, and inconsistent with it. But all science, i... TRYON EDWARDS I'm fucking the grave, I thought, I'm bringing the dead back to life... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I realized that day that blessings come in a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes. CRAIG GROESCHEL I'm always highly irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It i... FLANNERY O'CONNOR Our nation's Head Start students deserve to be served by the very best organizations willing to lend... JOHN BOEHNER It may be a procession of faithful failures that enriches the soil of godly success. Faithful action... DESMOND TUTU That in such righteousness
To them by faith imputed they may find
Justification towards God, a... JOHN MILTON The best thing you can do for your kids is to show them God working in you on a daily basis. CRAIG GROESCHEL But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall asc... BIBLE The essence of faith … is the idea that that which man wishes actually is: he wishes to be immorta... LUDWIG FEUERBACH Romans 3:19-26. To help us examine that passage, I will quote it here in its entirety. Now we know t... JERRY BRIDGES I don't think she's a lesbian. I think she just ran out of men. [Charlotte] SEX AND THE CITY
More Eric Hoffer
Children are the keys of paradise. ERIC HOFFER It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor. ERIC HOFFER Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature. ERIC HOFFER Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy - the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and ... ERIC HOFFER The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future. ERIC HOFFER It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to le... ERIC HOFFER Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us... ERIC HOFFER Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength. ERIC HOFFER The beginning of thought is in disagreement - not only with others but also with ourselves. ERIC HOFFER We feel free when we escape - even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire. ERIC HOFFER We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about. ERIC HOFFER The nature of a society is largely determined by the direction in which talent and ambition flowby t... ERIC HOFFER The compulsion to take ourselves seriously is in inverse proportion to our creative capacity. When t... ERIC HOFFER How much easier is self-sacrifice than self-realization! ERIC HOFFER There is probably an element of malice in the readiness to overestimate people; we are laying up for... ERIC HOFFER It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is as true of men as of dogs. ERIC HOFFER A soul that is reluctant to share does not as a rule have much of its own. Miserliness is here a sym... ERIC HOFFER There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other. ERIC HOFFER Marriage has for women many equivalents of joining a mass movement. It offers them a new purpose in ... ERIC HOFFER The individual's most vital need is to prove his worth, and this usually means an insatiable hunger ... ERIC HOFFER It is a talent of the weak to persuade themselves that they suffer for something when they suffer f... ERIC HOFFER The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself. ERIC HOFFER Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want to... ERIC HOFFER The greatest weariness comes from work not done. ERIC HOFFER Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind. -Eric Hoffer. ERIC HOFFER One of the marks of a truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of... ERIC HOFFER The link between ideas and action is rarely direct. There is almost always an intermediate step in w... ERIC HOFFER Death has but one terror, that it has no tomorrow. ERIC HOFFER The most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their ... ERIC HOFFER The technique of a mass movement aims to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as ... ERIC HOFFER Laughter to begin with was probably glee at the misfortunes of others. The baring of the teeth in l... ERIC HOFFER Crude absurdities, trivial nonsense, and sublime truths are equally potent in readying people for se... ERIC HOFFER Lack of sensitivity is perhaps basically an unawareness of ourselves. ERIC HOFFER Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions ... ERIC HOFFER The fact is that up to now a free society has not been good for the intellectual. It has neither ac... ERIC HOFFER When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common... ERIC HOFFER Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. The resentment of the weak does not spring... ERIC HOFFER Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart. For we can... ERIC HOFFER Freedom means freedom from forces and circumstances which would turn man into a thing, which would i... ERIC HOFFER To the excessively fearful the chief characteristic of power is its arbitrariness. Man had to gain e... ERIC HOFFER Nationalist pride, like other variants of pride, can be a substitute for self-respect. ERIC HOFFER It is the stretched soul that makes music, and souls are stretched by the pull of opposites --opposi... ERIC HOFFER There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmar... ERIC HOFFER The passion to get ahead is sometimes born of the fear lest we be left behind. ERIC HOFFER It sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents. ERIC HOFFER It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities. ERIC HOFFER It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor. ERIC HOFFER Nature is a self-made machine, more perfectly automated than any automated machine. To create someth... ERIC HOFFER The real persuaders are our appetites, our fears and above all our vanity. The skillful propagandist... ERIC HOFFER It is the individual only who is timeless. Societies, cultures, and civilizations -- past and presen... ERIC HOFFER Naivete in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stu... ERIC HOFFER An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anyth... ERIC HOFFER Self-esteem and self-contempt have specific odors; they can be smelled. ERIC HOFFER No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments. We need p... ERIC HOFFER The remarkable thing is that it is the crowded life that is most easily remembered. A life full of t... ERIC HOFFER In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find them... ERIC HOFFER It would be difficult to exaggerate the degree to which we are influenced by those we influence. ERIC HOFFER Animals often strike us as passionate machines. ERIC HOFFER The superficiality of the American is the result of his hustling. It needs leisure to think things o... ERIC HOFFER The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim a... ERIC HOFFER We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true; they ruin our dreams. ERIC HOFFER Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy -- the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and... ERIC HOFFER Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about. And since we know least about o... ERIC HOFFER The effectiveness of a doctrine does not come from its meaning but from its certitude. No doctrine h... ERIC HOFFER A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed. ERIC HOFFER There is perhaps no more reliable indicator of a society's ripeness for a mass movement than the pre... ERIC HOFFER The self-styled intellectual who is impotent with pen and ink hungers to write history with sword an... ERIC HOFFER We can never really be prepared for that which is wholly new. We have to adjust ourselves, and every... ERIC HOFFER A successful social technique consists perhaps in finding unobjectionable means for individual self-... ERIC HOFFER To spell out the obvious is often to call it in question. ERIC HOFFER We never say so much as when we do not quite know what we want to say. We need few words when we hav... ERIC HOFFER To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are. ERIC HOFFER The well adjusted make poor prophets. A pleasant existence blinds us to the possibilities of drastic... ERIC HOFFER Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible. ERIC HOFFER The suspicious mind believes more than it doubts. It believes in a formidable and ineradicable evil ... ERIC HOFFER Dissipation is a form of self-sacrifice. ERIC HOFFER Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but... ERIC HOFFER We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves. ERIC HOFFER Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power. ERIC HOFFER They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort. They ascribe failure to a lack of inspi... ERIC HOFFER There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his ow... ERIC HOFFER Facts are counterrevolutionary. ERIC HOFFER It is remarkable by how much a pinch of malice enhances the penetrating power of an idea or an opini... ERIC HOFFER A great man's greatest good luck is to die at the right time. ERIC HOFFER Man was nature's mistake --she neglected to finish him -- and she has never ceased paying for her mi... ERIC HOFFER The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in th... ERIC HOFFER It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak. ERIC HOFFER You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you. ERIC HOFFER Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, ... ERIC HOFFER The birth of the new constitutes a crisis, and its mastery calls for a crude and simple cast of mind... ERIC HOFFER To the old, the new is usually bad news. ERIC HOFFER The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything. ERIC HOFFER There is sublime thieving in all giving. Someone gives us all he has and we are his. ERIC HOFFER Our present addiction to pollsters and forecasters is a symptom of our chronic uncertainty about the... ERIC HOFFER To make of human affairs a coherent, precise, predictable whole one must ignore or suppress man as h... ERIC HOFFER The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to ... ERIC HOFFER There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail. ERIC HOFFER The pleasure we derive from doing favors is partly in the feeling it gives us that we are not altoge... ERIC HOFFER Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind. ERIC HOFFER Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses ... ERIC HOFFER We find it hard to apply the knowledge of ourselves to our judgment of others. The fact that we are ... ERIC HOFFER Where everything is possible miracles become commonplaces, but the familiar ceases to be self-eviden... ERIC HOFFER The chemistry of dissatisfaction is as the chemistry of some marvelously potent tar. In it are the b... ERIC HOFFER The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do un... ERIC HOFFER Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. ERIC HOFFER Man is eminently a storyteller. His search for a purpose, a cause, an ideal, a mission and the like ... ERIC HOFFER Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing... ERIC HOFFER Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves. ERIC HOFFER What greater reassurance can the weak have than that they are like anyone else? ERIC HOFFER Intolerance is the Do Not Touch sign on something that cannot bear touching. We do not mind having o... ERIC HOFFER It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativeness, and the playground is ... ERIC HOFFER It is a talent of the weak to persuade themselves that they suffer for something when they suffer fr... ERIC HOFFER A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominate... ERIC HOFFER There is a grandeur in the uniformity of the mass. When a fashion, a dance, a song, a slogan or a jo... ERIC HOFFER It is not so much the example of others we imitate as the reflection of ourselves in their eyes and ... ERIC HOFFER Thought is a process of exaggeration. The refusal to exaggerate is not infrequently an alibi for the... ERIC HOFFER The pre-human creature from which man evolved was unlike any other living thing in its malicious vic... ERIC HOFFER Perhaps our originality manifests itself most strikingly in what we do with that which we did not or... ERIC HOFFER It almost seems that nobody can hate America as much as native Americans. America needs new immigran... ERIC HOFFER When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. ERIC HOFFER More significant than the fact that poets write abstrusely, painters paint abstractly, and composers... ERIC HOFFER The necessary has never been man's top priority. The passionate pursuit of the nonessential and the ... ERIC HOFFER When you automate an industry you modernize it; when you automate a life you primitivize it. ERIC HOFFER The beginning of thought is in disagreement -- not only with others but also with ourselves. ERIC HOFFER The greatest weariness comes from work not done. ERIC HOFFER It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission an... ERIC HOFFER The world leans on us. When we sag, the whole world seems to droop. ERIC HOFFER Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of a... ERIC HOFFER We are more prone to generalize the bad than the good. We assume that the bad is more potent and con... ERIC HOFFER A heresy can spring only from a system that is in full vigor. ERIC HOFFER There is always a chance that he who sets himself up as his brother's keeper will end up by being hi... ERIC HOFFER All mass movements generate in their adherents a readiness to die and a proclivity for united action... ERIC HOFFER We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails. ERIC HOFFER Though dissenters seem to question everything in sight, they are actually bundles of dusty answers a... ERIC HOFFER There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate wherever they meet. ERIC HOFFER Capitalism is at its liberating best in a noncapitalist environment. The crypto-businessman is the t... ERIC HOFFER Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The ... ERIC HOFFER Thus we find that people who fail in everyday affairs show a tendency to reach out for the impossibl... ERIC HOFFER The main effect of a real revolution is perhaps that it sweeps away those who do not know how to wis... ERIC HOFFER We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: chan... ERIC HOFFER When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and th... ERIC HOFFER We have perhaps a natural fear of ends. We would rather be always on the way than arrive. Given the ... ERIC HOFFER Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions m... ERIC HOFFER We need not only a purpose in life to give meaning to our existence but also something to give meani... ERIC HOFFER The unpredictability inherent in human affairs is due largely to the fact that the by-products of a ... ERIC HOFFER Nonconformists travel as a rule in bunches. You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone. And w... ERIC HOFFER To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of... ERIC HOFFER Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners. ERIC HOFFER The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings. ERIC HOFFER It is easier to love humanity than to love one's neighbor. ERIC HOFFER How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem e... ERIC HOFFER Retribution often means that we eventually do to ourselves what we have done unto others. ERIC HOFFER Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that ... ERIC HOFFER We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire cr... ERIC HOFFER Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want ... ERIC HOFFER Man staggers through life yapped at by his reason, pulled and shoved by his appetites, whispered to ... ERIC HOFFER With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the ... ERIC HOFFER A man by himself is in bad company. ERIC HOFFER Social improvement is attained more readily by a concern with the quality of results than with the p... ERIC HOFFER Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. ERIC HOFFER It is when power is wedded to chronic fear that it becomes formidable. ERIC HOFFER We can remember minutely and precisely only the things which never really happened to us. ERIC HOFFER We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the fact that many i... ERIC HOFFER A preoccupation with the future not only prevents us from seeing the present as it is but often prom... ERIC HOFFER The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares no... ERIC HOFFER The nature of society is largely determined by the direction in which talent and ambition flow-by th... ERIC HOFFER It is a sign of a creeping inner death when we no longer can praise the living. ERIC HOFFER There are similarities between absolute power and absolute faith: a demand for absolute obedience, a... ERIC HOFFER Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem. ERIC HOFFER Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possib... ERIC HOFFER Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling o... ERIC HOFFER Action is at bottom a swinging and flailing of the arms to regain one's balance and keep afloat. ERIC HOFFER People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them. ERIC HOFFER Whenever you trace the origin of a skill or practices which played a crucial role in the ascent of m... ERIC HOFFER It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt. ERIC HOFFER In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equippe... ERIC HOFFER The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitaria... ERIC HOFFER Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength ERIC HOFFER The great crimes of the twentieth century were committed not by money-grubbing capitalists but by d... ERIC HOFFER The real Antichrist is he who turns the wine of an original idea into the water of mediocrity. ERIC HOFFER It is a sign of creeping inner death when we can no longer praise the living. ERIC HOFFER One of the marks of a truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of... ERIC HOFFER There is probably an element of malice in our readiness to overestimate people - we are, as it were,... ERIC HOFFER Our great weariness comes from work not done. ERIC HOFFER It is remarkable by how much a pinch of malice enhances the penetrating power of an idea or an opi... ERIC HOFFER There is apparently no surer way of turning a thing into its opposite than by exaggerating it ERIC HOFFER It is the pull of opposite poles that stretches souls. And only stretched souls make music. ERIC HOFFER To spell out the obvious is often to call it in question. ERIC HOFFER The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the ... ERIC HOFFER The game of History is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of thr majority in th... ERIC HOFFER Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that ... ERIC HOFFER You dehumanize a man as much by returning him to nature - by making him one with rocks, vegetation, ... ERIC HOFFER Nonconformists travel as a rule in bunches. You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone. And w... ERIC HOFFER Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragemen... ERIC HOFFER The link between ideas and action is rarely direct. There is almost always an intermediate step in w... ERIC HOFFER To grow old is to grow common. Old age equalizes - we are aware that what is happening to us has hap... ERIC HOFFER It is easier to love humanity as a whole that to love one's neighbor. ERIC HOFFER However much we talk of the inexorable laws governing the life of individuals and of societies, we r... ERIC HOFFER One might equate growing up with a mistrust of words. A mature person trusts his eyes more than his ... ERIC HOFFER Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. ERIC HOFFER