The beginning of thought is in disagreement – not only with others but also with ourselves.
ERIC HOFFERThe beginning of thought is in disagreement – not only with others but also with ourselves.
ERIC HOFFERTo change everything, simply change your attitude.
ERIC HOFFERThose who would sacrifice a generation to realize an ideal are the enemies of mankind.
ERIC HOFFERNo matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion; it is an evil government.
ERIC HOFFERIt is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men.
ERIC HOFFERIt is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.
ERIC HOFFERFaith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.
ERIC HOFFEREvery successful person has had failures but repeated failure is no guarantee of eventual success.
ERIC HOFFERA passionate obsession with the outside world or the private lives of others is an attempt to compensate for a lack of meaning in one’s own life.
ERIC HOFFERUp to now, America has not been a good milieu for the rise of a mass movement. What starts out here as a mass movement ends up as a racket, a cult, or a corporation.
ERIC HOFFERThere is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.
ERIC HOFFERDeath has but one terror, that it has no tomorrow.
ERIC HOFFERWe all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.
ERIC HOFFERThe education explosion is producing a vast number of people who want to live significant, important lives but lack the ability to satisfy this craving for importance by individual achievement. The country is being swamped with nobodies who want to be somebodies.
ERIC HOFFERThe 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.
ERIC HOFFERThe ratio between supervisory and producing personnel is always highest where the intellectuals are in power. In a Communist country it takes half the population to supervise the other half.
ERIC HOFFER