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Quotes of Eric Hoffer (Germany)1871-1962 British Poet
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The world leans on us. When we sag, the whole world seems to droop. (depression)
Death has but one terror, that it has no tomorrow. (death and dying)
The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness. (happiness)
How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem empty. (death and dying)
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There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate wherever they meet. (chastity)
Nonconformists travel as a rule in bunches. You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone. And woe to him inside a nonconformist clique who does not conform with nonconformity. (conformity)
Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless. (compassion)
To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are. (change)
The chemistry of dissatisfaction is as the chemistry of some marvelously potent tar. In it are the building stones of explosives, stimulants, poisons, opiates, perfumes and stenches. (dissatisfaction)
Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy -- the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation. (disappointments)
What greater reassurance can the weak have than that they are like anyone else? (conventionality)
When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and the strong; it easily becomes a fashion. (coward and cowardice)
Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about. And since we know least about ourselves, we are ready to believe all that is said about us. Hence the mysterious power of both flattery and calumny. (credulity)
We have perhaps a natural fear of ends. We would rather be always on the way than arrive. Given the means, we hang on to them and often forget the ends. (ends and means)
It is a sign of a creeping inner death when we no longer can praise the living. (death and dying)
When people are bored it is primarily with themselves. (bores and boredom)
We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true; they ruin our dreams. (dreams)
Friendship Never explain -- your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe it anyway. A real friend never gets in your way, unless you happen to be on the way down. A friend is someone you can do nothing with and enjoy it. However much we guard ourselves against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us. 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. (friends and friendsh)
The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do. (freedom)
Thought is a process of exaggeration. The refusal to exaggerate is not infrequently an alibi for the disinclination to think or praise. (exaggeration)
Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power. (faith)
The pre-human creature from which man evolved was unlike any other living thing in its malicious viciousness toward its own kind. Humanization was not a leap forward but a groping toward survival. (evolution)
Facts are counterrevolutionary. (facts)
Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. (hatred)
However much we guard ourselves against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us. 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. (friends and friendsh)
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Hoffer, Eric | [2] | [3] | [4] | [5]
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