Quotes from Eric Hoffer

They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort. They ascribe failure to a lack of inspiration or ability, or to misfortune, rather than to insufficient application. At the core of every true talent there is an awareness of the difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that by persistence and patience something worthwhile will be realized. Thus talent is a species of vigor.

Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience.

Animals often strike us as passionate machines.

Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want to do.

With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.

The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep.

Creativity is discontent translated into arts.

The suspicious mind believes more than it doubts. It believes in a formidable and ineradicable evil lurking in every person.

No matter how noble the objective of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion - it is an evil government.

The misery of a child is interesting to a mother, the misery of a young man is interesting to a young woman, the misery of an old man is interesting to nobody.

A soul that is reluctant to share does not as a rule have much of its own. Miserliness is here a symptom of meagerness.

The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future.

In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned find themselves equipped to live in a world which no longer exists.

Intolerance is the Do Not Touch sign on something that cannot bear touching. We do not mind having our hair ruffled, but we will not tolerate any familiarity with the toupee which covers our baldness.

A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed.

It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.

It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is true of men as of dogs.

Nationalist pride, like other variants of pride, can be a substitute for self-respect.

We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.

A man by himself is in bad company.

Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.

The self-styled intellectual who is impotent with pen and ink hungers to write history with sword and blood.

Retribution often means that we eventually do to ourselves what we have done unto others.

Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. We see our past achievements as the end results of.