There is probably an element of malice in our readiness to overestimate people - we are, as it were, laying up for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting them down to size.
Eric Hoffer
Related There is probably an element of malice in the readiness to overestimate people; we are laying up for... ERIC HOFFER There is probably an element of malice in the readiness to overestimate people: we are laying up for... ERIC HOFFER Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind. -Eric Hoffer. ERIC HOFFER There has been so much underestimating of animal cognition that to perhaps overestimate it, as I pro... FRANS DE WAAL If there were an international butt competition, Eric would win, hands down—or cheeks up. CHARLAINE HARRIS Being proud of who we are as people is more important than cutting into ourselves to create this fal... ISLA FISHER There is probably no pleasure equal to the pleasure of climbing a dangerous Alp; but it is a pleasur... MARK TWAIN Tiger Stadium is another level. Our fans are great. Our fans are very supportive, but down there the... JASON MITCHELL Because we make ourselves deaf to feedback, because we overestimate our abilities, because we become... RYAN HOLIDAY It's not a decision I make. All our guys have to look at as laying it on the line when they get the ... DAVE HOBBS The time down in Florida was more of a training time. This weekend will be an indication of where we... GREG ROY That is not to say that we can relax our readiness to defend ourselves. Our armament must be adequat... CHESTER NIMITZ That is not to say that we can relax our readiness to defend ourselves. Our armament must be adequat... CHESTER W. NIMITZ It is not sheer malice that pricks our ears to evil reports about our fellow men. For there are fre... ERIC HOFFER There is an element of autobiography in all fiction in that pain or distress, or pleasure, is based ... WILLIAM TREVOR I know for a fact we were affected (by the economy) in our season ticket sales, ... When companies a... PAUL ADAMS 35. God is entitled to a portion of our income—not because He needs it but because we need to give... JAMES C. DOBSON As for ourselves, yes, we must be meek, bear injustice, malice, rash judgment. We must turn the othe... DOROTHY DAY Time determines the occurrence of possibilities and impossibilities, but God determines the time for... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH We prepare well for every game, but we keep coming out with slow starts and digging ourselves a hole... KARRON CLARKE It was just laying up there in pieces. We had a skeleton. That's what it really boiled down to. SYLVESTER CHAMBERS If we're not able to control the costs, we're in trouble. We know that entry-level divisions are the... BILL ROTH We are not a very big team, but we are very fast, probably one of the fastest teams around. We have ... TANYA SULLIVAN Pleasure cannot be shared; like Pain, it can only be experienced or inflicted, and when we give plea... ALDOUS HUXLEY Pleasure cannot be shared; like Pain, it can only be experienced or inflicted, and when we give Plea... ALDOUS HUXLEY We were adopted by the people of that area, as well as by the state troopers. We were down there to ... BOB ALEXANDER The most effective way of dealing with arrogant people is to let them keep assuming that we are insi... TOBA BETA Each of us views life through a different lens. What we think is colored by the baggage we carry, an... LAURIE BUCHANAN, PHD We do consider ourselves still married. There is a limbo element to it. AMY ZIMMERMAN There are few things in which we deceive ourselves more than in the esteem we profess to entertain f... WILLIAM HAZLITT There are few things in which we deceive ourselves more than in the esteem we profess to entertain f... WILLIAM HAZLITT Certainly not all of the people who evacuated to Baton Rouge are gang members, ... In fact, there ar... DON KELLY Our problem in the 2015 general election was that for all the good stuff that was in the Labour mani... JEREMY CORBYN Death belongs to life as birth does. The walk is in the raising of the foot as in the laying of it d... RABINDRANATH TAGORE One of the advantages to the new plant was that we've promoted people and moved them down there for ... GARY AMES They are, as it were, train-bearers in the pageant of life, and hold a glass up to humanity, frailer... WILLIAM HAZLITT How should I know?" said Alice, surprised at her own courage. "It's no business of mine." The Q... LEWIS CARROLL As you know, there is unfortunately an element in every crowd that does not exhibit good sportsmansh... SKIP BERTMAN Faith always contains an element of risk, of venture; and we are impelled to make the venture by the... DEAN INGE It's technically demanding to shoot in 3-D. It's an extra element. Also, just the size of th... JOEL KINNAMAN It is very easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements in comparison with what we ow... DIETRICH BONHOEFFER May I never neither turn left nor turn right in my journey of life, but may I go straight to Christ ... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH These are examples of our country's recent past. They are something people want to see an effort to ... BEREKET SELASSIE I'm not an Emontional, but how??? I live with the thought that "Nothing can be returned, it has... DEYTH BANGER As athletes, we are constantly trying to learn more about our bodies, so we can push ourselves to ge... APOLO ANTON OHNO Death belongs to life as birth does The walk is in the raising of the foot as in the layi... RABINDRANATH TAGORE Apparently, the contractors put it up. We were told they wanted to test the flagpole. As soon as we ... DAVE BLANCHETTE Wake every morning with the same feeling. Live up high and fly on top of the ceiling. I just know th... ANA CLAUDIA ANTUNES There have been several factors affecting our performances but we are in an All Ireland semi-final n... MARTIN COYLE What fabrications they are, mothers. Scarecrows, wax dolls for us to stick pins into, crude diagrams... MARGARET ATWOOD The fear of God is the only cure for the fear of people. CRAIG GROESCHEL Perhaps all the questions we ask of love, to measure, test, probe, and save it, have the additional ... MILAN KUNDERA One of the effects of original sin is an instinctive prejudice in favour of our own selfish desires.... THOMAS MERTON It is so important for us as empaths to maintain a sense of connectedness with life. When we put up ... ALETHEIA LUNA we people at the bottom feel everything; but it is hard for us to speak out our hearts. our thoughts... MAXIM GORKY We are aware that fleet readiness is the Navy's highest priority and we are supporting them accordin... BUD GREBEY They were very laudatory on our proposal. As a matter of fact, they thought our design and concept w... GEORGE MIRABAL You must step forward, Arutha. You will never be the man for whom you were named, and you will never... RAYMOND E. FEIST It is not because other people are dead that our affection for them grows faint, it is because we ou... MARCEL PROUST It is not because other people are dead that our affection for them grows faint, it is because we ou... MARCEL PROUST Each time, we ask, "Who am I?", we answer the question differently. Our identity evolves, as it is t... ANITA B. SULSER It was there, in particular, that I confirmed the truth that love, which we cry up as the source of ... PIERRE CHODERLOS DE LACLOS There would be no need for love if perfection were possible. Love arises from our imperfection, from... EUGENE KENNEDY If we look carefully within ourselves, we shall find that there are certain limits beyond which we r... FRANÇOIS FÉNELON We have to address the growth. Equally as important is college readiness for our average student pop... EVERETT MITCHELL Eric understands that the world is rarely the way it is supposed to be. And he knows that, given the... JODI PICOULT For who brooded over the meaninglessness of life anymore? Teenagers. They were the only ones who wer... KARL OVE KNAUSGåRD The Lord has made all things for Himself (Prov.xvi.4): apart from Himself there existed nothing to m... FRANK SHEED I think probably we were guilty of trying to go forward too quick sometimes instead of settling it d... BRIAN MCBRIDE Americans like to think 'Python' is how English people really are. There is an element of tr... ERIC IDLE And we figured if we were willing to drive 45 minutes for the service, there were probably a lot of ... LORI ZIMMERMAN I wouldn't want to reach that situation, but if it's forced upon us we have a plan to occupy the str... GEN. YOAV GALANT We feel fortunate we've put ourselves in there, but the toughest stretch of the season is coming up ... HOYT WOODLE There are books on our shelves we haven't read and doubtless never will, that each of us has pro... UMBERTO ECO What was very alarming to us is when we get our end-of-the-year statistics in. Although we are down ... PETE SMITH Our souls yearn for connection with all souls. There are people we think we prefer and others we don... ALEXANDRA KATEHAKIS People always ask me, who is going to replace Eric. There is no one guy who can replace him. He will... JUSTIN SHERWOOD If our hours were all serene, we might probably take almost as little note of them, as the dial does... WILLIAM HAZLITT A lot of people have simply given up on their ideas, laying it down in the grave of their minds
Ther... SUNDAY ADELAJA The true way to render ourselves happy is to love our work and find in it our pleasure FRANCOISE DE MOTTEVILLE Our key to greatness lies not in our ability to project ourselves to others as if we are putting our... C. JOYBELL C. I think all our characters are an amalgam of people we know in our world and ourselves. ZOE LISTER-JONES It's a lie to think that you are not good enough. It's a lie to think that you are not beautiful. It... DISON ARNIBAL Several centuries ago the greatest writer in history described the two most menacing clouds that han... FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT It is only in a store of this size that we can offer what we want to offer and to differentiate ours... IAN DUFFY Crucially, I'd like to thank Labour party members up and down the country for sticking with us. ... DAVID BLUNKETT This market was behaving as if it were an oligarchy. Now our prices are going up and down. That was ... FRANK YOUNG There is clearly room for improvement. There are probably no one-size-fits-all solutions which are g... DAVID J. DAUSEY This was the first day of our beginning to take up plants: we had much pleasure in collecting them f... WILLIAM BLIGH It really is something ... that men disapprove even of our doing things that are patently good. Woul... MODERATA FONTE We are responsible for ourselves and each other. RODEL NATIVIDAD CASIO We are incredibly heedless in the formation of our beliefs, but find ourselves filled with an illici... JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON There is obviously an element of poker game in pre-renewal pronouncements. You never tell clients yo... BOB YATES Many of us fight for and boast our freedom of what is ultimately the ability to prove ourselves to o... CRISS JAMI People look at our size and our talent and expect our young guys to play like seniors. They are stil... DAVE JAMISON Now even the American command is under siege. We are hitting it from the north, east, south and west... MOHAMMED SAEED AL-SAHAF Nothing is ever as good or as bad as it appears to be. JEFFREY FRY If we can't hold ourselves up as an example of how to treat people with dignity and respect, we can'... MARK KIMMITT (The Badgers) were throwing up a lot of contested shots, and we were getting rebounds and pushing it... HASSAN ADAMS These cowboys are trying to ride for at least eight seconds on bulls that weigh over a ton. The elem... KEVIN ELLIS
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 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