Quotes from Eric Hoffer

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.

Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.

Sensuality reconciles us with the human race. The misanthropy of the old is due in large part to the fading of the magic glow of desire.

The desire to be different from the people we live with is sometimes the result of our rejection- real or imagined- by them.

To believe that if only we had this or that we would be happy, or to pursue any excessive desire, diverts us from seeing that happiness depends on an adequate self.

A mass movement attracts and holds a following not because it can satisfy the desire for self-advancement, but because it can satisfy the passion for self-renunciation.

The less satisfaction we derive from being ourselves, the greater is our desire to be like others.

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

When hopes and dreams are loose in the streets, it is well for the timid to lock doors, shutter windows and lie low until the wrath has passed.

We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the remarkable fact that many inventions had their birth as toys.

The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready is he to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause.

We clamor for equality chiefly in matters in which we ourselves cannot hope to obtain excellence.

The wise learn from the experience of others, and the creative know how to make a crumb of experience go a long way.

Many of the insights of the saint stem from his experience as a sinner.

It is to escape the responsibility for failure that the weak so eagerly throw themselves into grandiose undertakings.

Failure in the management of practical affairs seems to be a qualification for success in the management of public affairs.

The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.

It needs fanatical faith to rationalize our cowardice.

In a modern society people can live without hope only when kept dazed and out of breath by incessant hustling.

Faith is primarily a process of identification the process by which the individual ceases to be himself and becomes part of something eternal.

Fear is uncertainty.

Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain whether of our worth or worthlessness we are almost impervious to fear. Thus a feeling of utter unworthiness can be a source of courage.

The poor on the borderline of starvation live purposeful lives. To be engaged in a desperate struggle for food and shelter is to be wholly free from a sense of futility

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.