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Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous Eric Hoffer Quotes

“In man's life, the absence of an essential component usually leads to the adoption of a substitute. The substitute is usually embraced with vehemence and extremism, for we have to convince ourselves that what we took as second choice is the best there ever was. Thus blind faith is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves; insatiable desire a substitute for hope; accumulation a substitute for growth; fervent hustling a substitute for purposeful action; and pride a substitute for an unattainable self-respect.”

MenSelfActionDesireChoicesLostGrowthPrideEssentialsBlindAbsenceSelf RespectConvinceSubstitutesAdoptionComponentsAccumulationExtremismHustleInsatiableBlind FaithUnattainableFerventLost FaithVehemenceSecond Choice
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
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“The monstrous evils of the twentieth century have shown us that the greediest money grubbers are gentle doves compared with money-hating wolves like Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler, who in less than three decades killed or maimed nearly a hundred million men, women, and children and brought untold suffering to a large portion of mankind.”

MenChildrenSufferingHateThreeEvilMillionsMankindCenturyHundredDecadesGentlePortionsTwentieth CenturyMen WomenMonstrousDoveStalin And Hitler
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
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“When watching men of power in action it must be always kept in mind that, whether they know it or not, their main purpose is the elimination or neutralization of the independent individual- the independent voter, consumer, worker, owner, thinker- and that every device they employ aims at turning men into a manipulable animated instrument which is Aristotle's definition of a slave.”

KnowsMenMindActionPurposeIndividualAimIndependentInstrumentsSlaveWorkersDefinitionsConsumersOwnersDevicesVotersThinkerAnimatedEliminationIndependent Voters
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
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“Nature attains perfection, but man never does. There is a perfect ant, a perfect bee, but man is perpetually unfinished. He is both an unfinished animal and an unfinished man. It is this incurable unfinishedness which sets man apart from other living things. For, in the attempt to finish himself, man becomes a creator. Moreover, the incurable unfinishedness keeps man perpetually immature, perpetually capable of learning and growing.”

MenDoePerfectAnimalGrowingCapablePerfectionCreatorBeesLiving ThingsAntsImmatureUnfinishedLearning And Growing
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
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“It is the acquisition of skills in particular, irrespective of their utility, that is potent in making life meaningful. Since man has no inborn skills, the survival of the species has depended on the ability to acquire and perfect skills. Hence the mastery of skills is a uniquely human activity and yields deep satisfaction.”

MenHumansAbilityPerfectParticularActivitySkillsSurvivalSpeciesSatisfactionMeaningfulMeaning Of LifeAcquireYieldMasteryUtilityMeaningful LifeAcquisitionHuman ActivityLife Means
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
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“We know that words cannot move mountains, but they can move the multitude; and men are more ready to fight and die for a word than for anything else. Words shape thought, stir feeling, and beget action; they kill and revive, corrupt and cure. The "men-of-words"- priests, prophets, intellectuals- have played a more decisive role in history than military leaders, statesmen, and businessmen.”

KnowsMenFeelingsActionMovingDiesFightingLeaderRolesSocietyMilitaryHe ManReadyShapesMountainCuresProphetPriestsMultitudesBusinessmanStatesmenBegetsReviveMove MountainsMilitary Leader
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
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“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.This minding of other people's business expresses itself in gossip, snooping and meddling, and also in feverish interest in communal, national and racial affairs. In running away from ourselves we either fall on our neighbor's shoulder or fly at his throat.”

PeopleMenMindRunningFallInterestSocietyAffairNeighborShouldersGossipThroatMeaninglessRunning AwayOwn BusinessMeddlingSnooping
Book:The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
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“This food-and-shelter theory concerning man's efforts is without insight. Our most persistent and spectacular efforts are concerned not with the preservation of what we are but with the building up of an imaginary conception of ourselves in the opinion of others. The desire for praise is more imperative than the desire for food and shelter.”

MenDesireEffortOpinionBuildingTheoryConcernedPraiseInsightConceptionImaginaryShelterPreservationPersistentImperativesSpectacularBuilding Up
Author:Eric Hoffer
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“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. Such a generation, even when equipped with the most modern technology, will be essentially primitive it will stand in awe of nature, and submit to the tutelage of medicine men.”

MenWorldNeedsProblemValuesWonderTechnologyGenerationsModernProduceDemandSolutionsMedicineSatisfactionInstantAweLastingSubmitPrimitiveModern TechnologyTutelage
Author:Eric Hoffer
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“Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect. They know that basic human problems can have no final solutions, that our freedom, justice, equality, etc. are far from absolute, and that the good life is compounded of half measures, compromises, lesser evils, and gropings toward the perfect. The rejection of approximations and the insistence on absolutes are the manifestation of a nihilism that loathes freedom, tolerance, and equity.”

KnowsMenHumansProblemLife IsDiesFightingEvilJusticePerfectHalfWillingSolutionsAbsolutesFinalsAffairToleranceCompromiseManifestationRejectionEtcGood LifeImperfectionInherentEquityNihilismNot PerfectFree ManLoatheInsistenceApproximationHuman ProblemsLesser EvilJustice EqualityHalf Measures
Author:Eric Hoffer
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“Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. We join a mass movement to escape from individual responsibility, or, in the words of an ardent young Nazi, to be free from freedom. It was not sheer hypocrisy when the rank-and-file Nazis declared themselves not guilty of all the enormities they had committed. They considered themselves cheated and maligned when made to shoulder responsibility for obeying orders. Had they not joined the Nazi movement in order to be free from responsibility?”

MenMadeYoungOrderIndividualResponsibilityAtheismTalentMovementMassCommittedBurdenPositive AtheismShouldersGuiltyHypocrisySheerNaziFilesCheatedArdentObeyingNot GuiltyIndividual Responsibility
Author:Eric Hoffer
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“By all odds, earliest man, so naked to the elements and to deadly enemies, should have existed in a state of constant shock. We find him instead the only lighthearted being in a deadly serious universe.... He alone, with childish carelessness, tinkered and played, and exerted himself more in the pursuit of superfluities than of necessities. Yet the tinkering and playing, and the fascination with the nonessential, were a chief source of the inventiveness which enabled man to prevail over better-equipped and more-purposeful animals.”

MenShouldStatesUniverseAnimalEnemySeriousSourceElementsShould HaveConstantPursuitNakedChiefsShockOddsFascinationCarelessnessInventivenessTinkering
Author:Eric Hoffer
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“The atheist is a religious person. He believes in atheism as though it were a new religion. According to Renan, "The day after that on which the world should no longer believe in God, atheists would be the wretchedest of all men."”

MenWorldShouldBelievePersonsWould BeReligiousAtheismAtheistBelieve In GodReligious Person
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
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“Even the sober desire for progress is sustained by faith—faith in the intrinsic goodness of human nature and in the omnipotence of science. It is a defiant and blasphemous faith, not unlike that held by the men who set out to build a "city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven" and who believed that "nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.”

MenHumansMayDesireHeavenCitiesProgressHuman NatureGoodnessTowersSoberOmnipotenceProgressivism
Book:The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
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