Quotes from Eric Hoffer

It is a strange thing that both the injurer and the injured, the sinner and he who is sinned against, should find in the mass movement an escape from a blemished life.

Where unity and self-sacrifice are indispensable for the normal functioning of society, everyday life is likely to be either religiofied (common tasks turned into holy causes) or militarized.

Social improvement is attained more readily by a concern with the quality of results than with the purity of motives.

The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully.

It is not so much the example of others we imitate as the reflection of ourselves in their eyes and the echo of ourselves in their words.

A great man's greatest good luck is to die at the right time.

When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else - we are the busiest people in the world.

Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent.

In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

It is a paradox that in our time of drastic rapid change, when the future is in our midst devouring the present before our eyes, we have never been less certain about what is ahead of us.

For many people, an excuse is better than an achievement because an achievement, no matter how great, leaves you having to prove yourself again in the future but an excuse can last for life."

The capacity for getting along with our neighbor depends to a large extent on the capacity for getting along with ourselves. The self-respecting individual will try to be as tolerant of his neighbor's shortcomings as he is of his own.

Perhaps our originality manifests itself most strikingly in what we do with that which we did not originate. To discover something wholly new can be a matter of chance, of idle tinkering, or even of the chronic dissatisfaction of the untalented.

It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativeness, and the playground is the optimal milieu for the unfolding of his capacities and talents.

Our greatest weariness comes from work not done.

Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.

A preoccupation with the future not only prevents us from seeing the present as it is but often prompts us to rearrange the past.

It is the individual only who is timeless. Societies, cultures, and civilizations --past and present --are often incomprehensible to outsiders, but the individual's hungers, anxieties, dreams, and preoccupations have remained unchanged through the millennia.

Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.

Perhaps a modern society can remain stable only by eliminating adolescence, by giving its young, from the age of ten, the skills,responsibilities, and rewards of grownups, and opportunities for action in all spheres of life. Adolescence should be a time of useful action, while book learning and scholarship should be a preoccupation of adults.

It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny.

We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: change prepares the ground for revolution.

To the frustrated, freedom from responsibility is more attractive than freedom from restraint. They are eager to barter their independence for relief from the burdens of willing, deciding and being responsible for inevitable failure. They willingly abdicate the directing of their lives to those who want to plan, command and shoulder all responsibility

The real "haves" are they who can acquire freedom, self-confidence, and even riches without depriving others of them. They acquire all of these by developing and applying their potentialities. On the other hand, the real "have notch" are they who cannot have aught except by depriving others of it. They can feel free only by diminishing the freedom of others, self-confident by spreading fear and dependence among others, and rich by making others poor