Eric Hoffer Quotes

• An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head.

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Rubbish, Difficulty, Forcing

• It would be difficult to exaggerate the degree to which we are influenced by those we influence.

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Influence

  Tags in Difficult, Exaggerate

• 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.

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Example, Reflection, Ourselves

• It is futile to judge a kind deed by its motives. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Kindness

  Tags in Judge

• It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression.

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Failure

  Tags in Pioneer, Expression

• Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Crucial

• Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy – the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Soul

  Tags in Disappointment, Bankruptcy

• Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Soul

  Tags in Compassion

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

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Power

  Tags in Promise, Sense, Evil

• A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority.

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Minority, Feels, Majority

• A nation without dregs and malcontents is orderly, peaceful and pleasant, but perhaps without the seed of things to come.

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Nation, Peaceful

• It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt.

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Suffering

  Tags in Taste, People

• It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one’s neighbor.

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Humanity

  Tags in Neighbour

• It is a sign of creeping inner death when we can no longer praise the living.

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Death

  Tags in Praise

• Action is at bottom a swinging and flailing of the arms to regain one’s balance and keep afloat.

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Action, Swinging, Balance

• It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in True, Human, Opportunities

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

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Future

  Tags in Change

• Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Holy, Faith

• I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind.

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Prejudices, Mind

• Man was nature’s mistake she neglected to finish him and she has never ceased paying for her mistake.

  Eric Hoffer

  Topics in Mistake, Nature

  Tags in Man

Eric Hoffer (125)

Birth:	25th July, 1902
Death:	21st May, 1983
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Author, Philosopher

About

Eric Hoffer was born in The Bronx, New York city, New York, USA. He was an American moral and social philosopher. He was the author of ten books. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983. He wrote several books include: The True Believer, The Ordeal of Change, The Temper of Our Time, Nature and The City, and Between the Devil and the Dragon.

Related Authors

• Paul Morand
• Gwen Ifill
• Michael Davis
• Yitzchak Coopersmith
• Jane Jacobs
• Sebastian Junger
• Richard Matheson
• Annie Dillard
• Yitzhak Navon
• Joe Conason

Advertisement

Today's Anniversary - 29th December

Births

• 1871 - Meyer London
• 1938 - Jonathan Vincent Voight
• 1922 - William Gaddis
• 1937 - Barbara Steele
• 1942 - Rick Danko

Deaths

• 1850 - William Hamilton Maxwell
• 1998 - Austin Farrer
• 1689 - Thomas Sydenham
• 1970 - Thomas Becket
• 1919 - William Osler