218 quotes
Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing impulse. We are drawn back to where we came from.
That which is unique and worthwhile in us makes itself felt only in flashes. If we do not know how to catch and savor the flashes we are without growth and exhilaration.
Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)
The sick in soul insist that it is humanity that is sick, and they are the surgeons to operate on it. They want to turn the world into a sickroom. And once they get humanity strapped to the operating table, they operate on it with an ax.
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)
Modern man is weighed down more by the burden of responsibility than by the burden of sin.
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)
Our doubts about ourselves cannot be banished except by working at that which is the one and only thing we know we ought to do.
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)
A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.
The True Believer (1951)
One wonders whether a generation that demands instant satisfaction of all its needs and instant solution of the world's problems will produce anything of lasting value.
Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)
In all my life I never competed for fortune, for a woman, or for fame. I learned to write in total isolation.
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)
Social improvement is attained more readily by a concern with the quality of results than with the purity of motives.
It is cheering to see that the rats are still around—the ship is not sinking.
The fear of becoming a "has been" keeps some people from becoming anything.
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)
We have to adjust ourselves, and every radical adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem: we undergo a test, we have to prove ourselves.
The Ordeal of Change (1963)
Take away hatred from some people, and you have men without faith.
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)
Given the means, we hang on to them and often forget the ends.
Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)
I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind.
Before the Sabbath (1979)
Since man has to finish and “make” himself, there are unavoidably greater differences between individual men than between individual animals.
Reflections on the Human Condition (2006)
How much easier is self-sacrifice than self-realization!
A ruling intelligentsia, whether in Europe, Asia or Africa, treats the masses as raw material to be experimented on, processed, and wasted at will.
The Temper of Our Time (1967)
The fanatic is perpetually incomplete and insecure.
The True Believer (1951)
The indulgence of self-forgiving is far less vicious than the blindness of self-righteousness which is not aware of aught in the self that needs forgiving.