The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause... A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding; when it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.
Eric Hoffer
Related The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim a... ERIC HOFFER A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his min... ERIC HOFFER Jesse didn't suggest it. He was minding his own business. BARBARA LEPENDORF Why does a virtuous man take delight in the landscapes? Because the din of the dusty world and the l... KUO HIS Why does a virtuous man take delight in the landscapes? Because the din of the dusty world and the l... KUO HIS Charlie was on his way to the grocery store, sitting at a red light, minding his own business. ANITA ERHARDT Every man is his own ancestor, and every man is his own heir. He devises his own future, and he inhe... FREDERICK HENRY HEDGE Every man is his own ancestor, and every man his own heir. He devises his own fortune, and he inheri... FRANCIS HERBERT HEDGE Treat the other man's faith gently; it is all he has to believe with. His mind was created for his ... HENRY S HASKINS Treat the other man's faith gently; it is all he has to believe with. His mind was created for his o... HENRY S. HASKINS Thanks, for a country where nobody is allowed to mind his own business. Thanks, for a nation of fink... WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS It is a tragedy for this neighborhood that is so quiet and it, you wouldn't it's the last thing you ... GERALD HARRIS When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less. C.S. LEWIS No man is ever whipped until he quits in his own mind. NAPOLEON HILL Love is the magician that pulls man out of his own hat. BEN HECHT Fear even when morbid is not cowardice. That is the label we reserve for something that a man does... LORD MORAN Only person who can mind his own business is a person who has reached a state beyond his mind. DR HITESH C SHETH A man is not a man until he leaves his home or has a house of his own. VIKRANT PARSAI True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fo... AKHENATON AKHENATON True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fo... AKHENATON If a man consults whether he is to fight, when he has the power in his own hands, it is certain that... HORATIO NELSON Man is hypocrite! He says that he loves flowers but he kills them for his own simple interests and f... MEHMET MURAT ILDAN Man's mind is like a store of idolatry and superstition; so much so that if a man believes his o... JOHN CALVIN When man turns tyrant it is his own freedom he destroys. GEORGE ORWELL (1903 - 1950) If a man can't manage his own life, he can't manage a business. S. TRUETT CATHY The man of character is the persistent man, the man who is faithful to his own word, his own convict... MARIA MONTESSORI Man,His world & His dreams;When a man is placed aright in his world,he is most likely going to dream... DAVID ATTA (A.K.A DAVIED ATTLARS & MR DAIN) Poor is the man who does not know his own intrinsic worth and tends to measure everything by relativ... SIDNEY MADWED Poor is the man who does not know his own intrinsic worth and tends to measure everything by relativ... SYDNEY MADWED No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his well-being, to risk his body, to ... THEODORE ROOSEVELT No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his body - to risk his well-being - t... THEODORE ROOSEVELT Man's mind is like a store of idolatry and superstition; so much so that if a man believes his own m... JOHN CALVIN The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor an... JAMES A. MICHENER The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his
work and his play, his labor an... ZEN BUDDHIST The time for a person to instantly interact with his own soul, inspect his own mind and introspect w... ANUJ SOMANY The wise man does not lay up his own treasures. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his... LAO TZU As every man is hunted by his own daemon, vexed by his own disease, this checks all his activity. RALPH WALDO EMERSON He is his own best friend, and takes delight in privacy whereas the man of no virtue or ability is h... ARISTOTLE The more a man takes the needs of others on his own heart, the more he must take his own heart to Go... SOURCE UNKNOWN The reason man does not experience his true cultural self is that until he experiences another self ... EDWARD T. HALL No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judg... JAMES MADISON The right of nature... is the liberty each man hath to use his own power, as he will himself, for th... THOMAS HOBBES The wise man questions the wisdom of others because he questions his own, the foolish man, because i... LEO STEIN The wise man questions the wisdom of others because he questions his own, the foolish man, because ... LEO STEIN Greatness lies, not in being strong, but in the right using of strength; and strength is not used ri... HENRY WARD BEECHER An Individualist is a man who lives for his own sake and by his own mind; he neither sacrifices hims... AYN RAND When the white man turns tyrant, it is his own freedom that he destroys. GEORGE ORWELL When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him... C.S. LEWIS When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him... C.S. LEWIS At birth man is offered only one choice --the choice of his death. But if this choice is governed by... JEAN-PIERRE MELVILLE It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to... MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways. BUDDHA Guys like Josh Gordon need to stay in his sport and mind his own business. KYRIE IRVING Man is not suffering by external forces as much as his own dysfunctional mind and self inflicted neg... ADITYA AJMERA A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor an... LAWRENCE PEARSALL JACKS A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor an... FRANçOIS-RENé DE CHATEAUBRIAND The wise man does not permit himself to set up even in his own mind any comparisons of his friends. ... CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER A man who is advised and he takes it, is still a man who acts from his own free will. ESAN MAGAZINE A man is called selfish, not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor's RICHARD WHATELY When a man takes an oath...,he's holding his ownself in his own hands. Like water. And if he opens h... ROBERT BOLT When a citizen gives his suffrage to a man of known immorality he abuses his trust; he sacrifices no... NOAH WEBSTER How should a man be capable of grooming his own horse, or of furbishing his own spear and helmet, if... ALEXANDER THE GREAT Mind your business" had been the motto of her childhood. But now that seemed like a failing in a fri... ANITA DIAMANT For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and
lose his own soul? or what shall... BIBLE Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, t... CHARLES DE GAULLE Every man is his own greatest enemy, and as it were his own
executioner. SIR THOMAS BROWNE When a man is known to have no settled convictions of his own he can't convict other people MARK TWAIN In the United States, man does not feel that he has been torn from the center of creation and suspen... OCTAVIO PAZ The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow-creatures as meaningless is not merely unfor... ALBERT EINSTEIN The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfor... ALBERT EINSTEIN A man's own self is his friend. A man's own self is his foe. BHAGAVAD GITA By his father he is English, by his mother he is American - to my mind the blend which makes the per... MARK TWAIN What is freedom to that young man, who sits there, with his arms folded over his broad chest, the ti... HARRIET ELIZABETH BEECHER STOWE A man must first care for his own household before he can be of use to the state. But no matter how ... THEODORE ROOSEVELT The mind becomes much more beautiful, when man could see his own weaknesses. TOBA BETA When a man thinks he is reading the character of another, he is often unconsciously betraying his ow... JOSEPH FARRELL For it pleased God, after he had made all things by the word of his power, to create man after his o... GEORGE WHITEFIELD He was a great person to have on staff. He made a real contribution, not only by his own writing, bu... GORDON DAVIDSON The man who masters his thoughts, masters himself; and it is only on that journey that his potential... RDAMBITION By his father he is English, by his mother he is Americanto my mind the blend which makes the perfec... MARK TWAIN It is the '94 race which in many ways allowed Ted Kennedy to become his own man rather than the ... CHUCK TODD When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully. SAMUEL JOHNSON Each man lives in his own universe and when he dies the world is over BANGAMBIKI HABYARIMANA Man is whoever he thinks he is, within his own boundaries. DUDLEY DAVIDSON-JARRETT A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor's. RICHARD WHATELY That young man will either be killed by you or he will spend the rest of his life in prison in a cou... DAVID BAUGH Man is a gregarious animal, and much more so in his mind than in his body. He may like to go alone f... GEORGE SANTAYANA A man is at his youngest when he thinks he is a man, not yet realizing that his actions must show it... MARY RENAULT A true leader is unselfish ,for he strives for the good of his people & not his own. DAVID ATTA (A.K.A DAVIED ATTLARS & MR DAIN) The key to every man is his thought. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which command... RALPH WALDO EMERSON The key to every man is his thought.... He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which comm... RALPH WALDO EMERSON A genius is the man in whom you are least likely to find the power of attending to anything insipid ... WILLIAM JAMES Civil liberty is the status of the man who is guaranteed by law and civil institutions the exclusive... WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER Religion is doing; a man does not merely think his religion or feel it, he lives his religion as muc... GEORGE GURDJIEFF Religion is doing; a man does not merely think his religion or feel it, he ''lives'' his religion as... GURDJIEFF When man lives under government, he is fallen, his worth is gone, and his nature tarnished. ADAM WEISHAUPT Man is most happy, when his own actions are arguments and examples of his virtue. JOHN WEBSTER A man is at his best when he is simply not like the rest in all his life's test ANUJ SOMANY Each man has his own vocation; his talent is his call. There is one direction in which all space is ... RALPH WALDO EMERSON A Man in Business must put up many Affronts, if he loves his own Quiet. WILLIAM PENN
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 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