Quotes About Eric Hoffer

Spiritual stagnation ensues when man's environment becomes unpredictable or when his inner life is made wholly predictable.

It is the around-the-corner brand of hope that prompts people to action while the distant hope acts as an opiate.

I can do no better than quote Montaigne: "All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.

in modern times nationalism is the most copious and durable source of mass enthusiasm

An American's hatred for a fellow American (for Hoover or Roosevelt) is far more virulent than any antipathy he can work up against foreigners.

The fantasy world of Movement Conservatives is no longer fringe talk. The leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination embrace it. They are playing to a chorus of true believers, and they are preaching what that choir wants to hear. They are following the same pattern Eric Hoffer identified as the path to authoritarianism.

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

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

The words of the social critic Eric Hoffer were ringing true: "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and turns into a racket.

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