Freedom means freedom from forces and circumstances which would turn man into a thing, which would impose on man the passivity and predictability of matter. By this test, absolute power is the manifestation most inimical to human uniqueness. Absolute power wants to turn people into malleable clay.
Eric Hoffer
Related Freedom means freedom from forces and circumstances which would turn man into a thing, which would i... ERIC HOFFER Absolute power turns its possessors not into a God but an anti-God. For God turned clay into men, w... ERIC HOFFER Two forces which are the worst enemies of civil freedom are the absolute monarchy and the revolution JOHN EMERICH EDWARD DALBERG ACTON A human would truly show their strength if they have the power to turn their thoughts into realities... NERRYMIAH SCIPIO Slavery, properly so called, is the establishment of a right which gives to one man such a power ove... CHARLES DE SECONDAT Since Castro took power, the Cuban people have been denied basic human freedoms. No freedom of relig... MITT ROMNEY ABSOLUTE, adj. Independent, irresponsible. An absolute monarchy is one in which the sovereign does a... AMBROSE BIERCE Glamour, that trans-human aura or power to attract imitation, is a kind of vessel into which dreams ... ARTHUR MILLER Glamour, that trans-human aura or power to attract imitation, is a kind of vessel into which dreams ... ARTHUR MILLER The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitaria... ERIC HOFFER The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian ... ERIC HOFFER I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES There are similarities between absolute power and absolute faith: a demand for absolute obedience, a... ERIC HOFFER A utopian system, when established by men, is likely to be synonymous with a dystopian depression. T... CRISS JAMI The power technology in lamps and windshield wipers today are really quite sophisticated. It is unde... JACK MORGAN In reality, there is no such thing as absolute freedom. The rules of social interaction determine on... ERALDO BANOVAC Freedom of speech means freedom for those who you despise, and freedom to express the most despicabl... ALAN DERSHOWITZ Man (human life form) is a 'second-hand' quality of the absolute supreme Self (Parmatma, Lord). Man ... DADA BHAGWAN The most important lesson that man can learn from his life is not that there is pain in this world, ... RABINDRANATH TAGORE Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression, because power... MALCOLM X The main peculiarity which distinguishes man from other animals is the means of his support-the powe... THOMAS MALTHUS The tendency to turn human judgments into divine commands makes religion one of the most dangerous f... GEORGIA HARKNESS The people of the Middle East share the desire for freedom. We have an opportunity - and an obligati... CONDOLEEZZA RICE True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has... MILAN KUNDERA Possibility means "freedom". The measure of freedom enters into the concept of man. That the objecti... ANTONIO GRAMSCI The family is the test of freedom; because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for ... G. K. CHESTERTON The family is the test of freedom; because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for ... GILBERT K. CHESTERTON The law of the Creator, which invests every human being with an inalienable title to freedom, cannot... SALMON P. CHASE Well, the first thing is that truth and power for me form an antithesis, an antagonism, which will h... WOLE SOYINKA You release the pain of the past and press on. It's a new day, and God is doing a new thing. He want... CRAIG GROESCHEL There's an unbelievable freedom that comes to an analyst when he's in a two-man booth, ... ... It wo... PHIL SIMMS As a result of the 'hung' election of November 1932. Hitler set in motion the first of the 9 steps h... WILLIAM WALLER If we commit ourselves to one person for life, this is not, as many people think, a rejection of fre... MADELEINE L'ENGLE The secret point of money and power in America is neither the things that money can buy nor power fo... JOAN DIDION Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. JOHN ACTON Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. LORD ACTON Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. LORD ACTON The meaning of economic freedom is this: that the individual is in a position to choose the way in w... LUDWIG VON MISES The uniqueness of the United States in human history is the United States is the first global power ... AHMET DAVUTOGLU It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is... LORD (JOHN EMERICH EDWARD DALBERG) ACTON It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is... LORD ACTON The power of man;Man does not only have the power to accomplish great & unbelievable things in life,... DAVID ATTA (A.K.A DAVIED ATTLARS & MR DAIN) I think there's some connection between absolute discipline and absolute freedom. ALAN RICKMAN The most evident difference springs from the important part which is played in man by a relatively s... ALBERT EINSTEIN In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essen... FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones ... KOFI ANNAN It is true you cannot eat freedom and you cannot power machinery with democracy. But then neither ca... CORAZON AQUINO Unkindness is inspired by hatred, anger fuels it into action in which there is no great joy; it woul... MARCEL PROUST Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat. JOHN LEHMAN Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat. DAVID LETTERMAN Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat. JOHN F. LEHMAN, JR. The ultimate goal of life is to understand the world by understanding yourself and understanding you... AARON SANTOS Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. UNKNOWN Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. LORD (JOHN EMERICH EDWARD DALBERG) ACTON Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. JOHN EMERICH EDWARD DALBERG ACTON Whether a man is burdened by power or enjoys power; whether he is trapped by responsibility or made ... THEODORE WHITE Whether a man is burdened by power or enjoys power; whether he is trapped by responsibility or mad... THEODORE H WHITE Whether a man is burdened by power or enjoys power; whether he is trapped by responsibility or made ... THEODORE H. WHITE I would not, under any circumstances, try to impose my personal faith and belief on the rest of the ... SAM BROWNBACK Poverty can turn a person into a flaming torch for change and revolution, without which mankind woul... JEAN SASSON I think there was an absolute, deep gap between consensual relations between adults, which people ma... BARNEY FRANK (He) mourned mankind, and the blindness of men, who thought that the Kosmos had rules and limits tha... BRUCE STERLING The value of a man is in his intrinsic qualities: in that of which power cannot strip him and which ... WILLIAM GODWIN Most optimistic people didn't live in happy circumstances; but by choosing to stay positive, they to... ASSYA MOUSSAID If you took the most ardent revolutionary, vested him in absolute power, within a year he would be w... MIKHAIL BAKUNIN Work, which makes a man free, and thought, which makes him worthy of freedom. VICTOR HUGO The most dramatic realization was that in surrender I would find more freedom and power than I'd eve... BRETT BUTLER I will not agree that the health of Israel's prime minister would turn into a political issue. This ... AMIR PERETZ The brotherhood of man is evoked by particular men according to their circumstances. But it seldom e... R. D. LAING Freedom is an absolute state, there is no such thing as being half-free. DANIEL DELGADO F The power to make tomorrow flourish is by having absolute belief in today. DAVID ATTA (A.K.A DAVIED ATTLARS & MR DAIN) We'd pull into small towns, and thousands of people would come to be rescued by this man, DAVE GROHL All of us, from time to time, need a plunge into freedom and novelty, after which routine and discip... ANDRE MAUROIS What we're trying to do is to aggregate the buying power of our clients and turn that into extra val... RANDAL LANGDON Numerous politicians have seized absolute power and muzzled the
press. Never in history has the pr... KARL OTTO VON SCHONHAUSEN BISMARCK Numerous politicians have seized absolute power and muzzled the press. Never in history has the pres... DAVID BRINKLEY The power in which we must have faith if we would be well, is the creative and curative power which ... JOHN KELLOGG Back when people couldn't read, other people would take newspapers and turn them into theater so... AJA NAOMI KING In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essen... FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. JOHN EMERICH EDWARD DALBERG ACTON It is said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That is false, tragically... JACOB BRONOWSKI And no practical definition of freedom would be complete without the freedom to take the consequence... TERRY PRATCHETT I don't think that there is absolute freedom of the press. We operate under laws - against libel... BILL KELLER We clamor for equality chiefly in matters in which we ourselves cannot hope to attain excellence. T... ERIC HOFFER Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom... PAULO FREIRE The aim of all struggles for liberty is to keep in bounds the armed defenders of peace, the governor... LUDWIG VON MISES Spirit borrows from matter the perceptions on which it feeds and restores them to matter in the form... HENRI BERGSON I do believe in the power of freedom. The power of freedom is the mightiest force of history. Once t... TSAKHIAGIIN ELBEGDORJ We want our children to become who they are--- and a developed person is, above all, free. But freed... GREGORY J. MILLMAN We have seen a central government promote the power of labor-union bosses, and in turn be supported ... ROBERT W. WELCH, JR. Thought takes man out of servitude, into freedom. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW No matter what God's power may be, the first aspect of God is never that of the absolute Master, the... JACQUES ELLUL Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power. ERIC HOFFER Among the many fox magics her sobo had delighted in describing, the one that had most capture... ALI SHAW An individual should not have too much freedom. A nation should absolute freedom. SUN YAT-SEN The wise man bridges the gap by laying out the path by means of which he can get from where he is to... JOHN PIERPONT MORGAN Power kills, absolute power kills absolutely. RUDOLPH RUMMEL The sword is the axis of the world and its power is absolute. CHARLES DE GAULLE He leaned into Le Voir’s face with the calliper and breathed on him, holding forth on this new sci... CLAIRE ROBERTSON The great universal literature has always had a tragic relation with freedom. The Greeks renounced a... ISMAIL KADARE
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 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 We feel free when we escape -- even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire. ERIC HOFFER