218 quotes
The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.
Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)
Both absolute power and absolute faith are instruments of dehumanization. Hence absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)
When hopes and dreams are loose in the street, it is well for the timid to lock doors, shutter windows and lie low until the wrath has passed.
To be aware of how fruitful the playful mood can be is to be immune to the propaganda of the alienated, which extols resentment as a fuel of achievement.
Reflections on the Human Condition (2006)
We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)
A mass movement attracts and holds a following not because it can satisfy the desire for self-advancement, but because it can satisfy the passion for self-renunciation.
One is not quite certain that creativeness in the arts, literature, and science functions best in an environment of absolute freedom. Chances are that a relatively mild tyranny stimulates creativeness.
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)
The significant point is that people unfit for freedom — who cannot do much with it — are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an attribute of a "have" type of self. It says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities.
Working and Thinking on the Waterfront (1969)
Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)
To most of us nothing is so invisible as an unpleasant truth. Though it is held before our eyes, pushed under our noses, rammed down our throats — we know it not.
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)
The compulsion to take ourselves seriously is in inverse proportion to our creative capacity. When the creative flow dries up, all we have left is our importance.
The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an inner uncertainty than of deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more against the doubt within than the assailant without.
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)
There is a startling similarity between Bacon’s prescription for mastering nature—“Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed”—and Loyola’s formula for manipulating men—“Follow the other man’s course to your own goal.”
We are ready to die for an opinion but not for a fact: indeed, it is by our readiness to die that we try to prove the factualness of our opinion.
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)
Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)
Both the revolutionary and the creative individual are perpetual juveniles. The revolutionary does not grow up because he cannot grow, while the creative individual cannot grow up because he keeps growing.
Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)
To overestimate the originality of one's thoughts is perhaps a less serious defect than being unaware of their newness. There is a more pronounced lack of sensitivity in underestimating (ourselves and others) than in overestimating.
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)
The poor on the borderline of starvation live purposeful lives. To be engaged in a desperate struggle for food and shelter is to be wholly free from a sense of futility.
The central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and children are students together.
Reflections on the Human Condition (2006)
The beginning of thought is in disagreement — not only with others but also with ourselves.
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)