110+ Eric Hoffer Quotes On Happiness, Intelligence And True Freedom

Eric Hoffer was an American writer and philosopher. He was best known for his 1951 book The True Believer, which explored the psychology of mass movements. He was also known for his aphorisms, which were widely quoted in books and periodicals. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Eric Hoffer on leadership, happiness, intelligence.

Top 10 Eric Hoffer Quotes

1. Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
2. In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
3. People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
4. Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.
5. Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength.
6. The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.
7. I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind.
8. I can never forget that one of the most gifted, best educated nations in the world, of its own free will, surrendered its fate into the hands of a maniac.
9. The suspicious mind believes more than it doubts. It believes in a formidable and ineradicable evil lurking in every person.
10. To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.

Eric Hoffer Image Quotes

People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them. — Eric Hoffer

Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves. — Eric Hoffer

Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength. — Eric Hoffer

I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind. — Eric Hoffer

Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature. — Eric Hoffer

Fair play is primarily not blaming others for anything that is wrong with us. — Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer Short Quotes

• Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.
• Fair play is primarily not blaming others for anything that is wrong with us.
• The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future.
• There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
• The beginning of thought is in disagreement -- not only with others but also with ourselves.
• Retribution often means that we eventually do to ourselves what we have done unto others.
• Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about.
• We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.
• You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
• We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.

Eric Hoffer Quotes About Leadership

A free society is as much a threat to the intellectual's sense of worth as an automated economy is to the workingman's sense of worth. Any social order that can function with a minimum of leadership will be anathema to the intellectual. — Eric Hoffer

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

Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership. — Eric Hoffer

The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world. — Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer Quotes About Happiness

The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness. — Eric Hoffer

You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy. — Eric Hoffer

The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is on the contrary born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else--we are the busiest people in the world. — Eric Hoffer

They who clamor loudest for freedom are often the ones least likely to be happy in a free society. — Eric Hoffer

To believe that if we could have but this or that we would be happy is to suppress the realization that the cause of our unhappiness is in our inadequate and blemished selves. Excessive desire is thus a means of suppressing our sense of worthlessness. — Eric Hoffer

There is a perfect ant, a perfect bee, but man is perpetually unfinished...Moreover, the incurable unfinishedness keeps man perpetually immature, perpetually capable of learning and growing. — Eric Hoffer

No one has a right to happiness. — Eric Hoffer

To believe that if only we had this or that we would be happy, or to pursue any excessive desire, diverts us from seeing that happiness depends on an adequate self. — Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer Quotes About Intelligence

Without a sense of proportion there can be neither good taste nor genuine intelligence, nor perhaps moral integrity. — Eric Hoffer

It needs some intelligence to be truly selfish. The unintelligent can only be self-righteous. — Eric Hoffer

You cannot gauge the intelligence of an American by talking with him; you must work with him. The American polishes and refines his way of doing things-even the most commonplace-the way the French of the 17th century polished their maxims. — Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer Quotes About True Freedom

Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. — Eric Hoffer

Those who see their lives as spoiled and wasted crave equality and fraternity more than they do freedom. If they clamor for freedom, it is but freedom to establish equality and uniformity. — Eric Hoffer

To some, freedom means the opportunity to do what they want to do; to most it means not to do what they do not want to do. It is perhaps true that those who can grow will feel free under any condition. — Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer Quotes About Love

It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor. — Eric Hoffer

In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. — Eric Hoffer

It almost seems that nobody can hate America as much as native Americans. America needs new immigrants to love and cherish it. — Eric Hoffer

We do not usually look for allies when we love. Indeed, we often look on those who love with us as rivals and trespassers. But we always look for allies when we hate. — Eric Hoffer

We probably have a greater love for those we support than for those who support us. Our vanity carries more weight than our self-interest. — Eric Hoffer

Collective unity is not the result of the brotherly love of the faithful for each other. The loyalty of the true believer is to the whole the church, party, nation and not to his fellow true believer. True loyalty between individuals is possible only in a loose and relatively free society . — Eric Hoffer

We find it hard to apply the knowledge of ourselves to our judgment of others. The fact that we are never of one kind, that we never love without reservations and never hate with all our being cannot prevent us from seeing others as wholly black or white. — Eric Hoffer

Call not that man wretched, who whatever ills he suffers, has a child to love. — Eric Hoffer

Man is a luxury loving animal. Take away play, fancies, and luxuries, and you will turn man into a dull, sluggish creature, barely energetic enough to obtain a bare subsistence. A society becomes stagnant when its people are too rational or too serious to be tempted by baubles. — Eric Hoffer

Those who are in love with the present can be cruel and corrupt but not genuinely vicious. They cannot be methodically and consistently ruthless. — Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer Quotes About Insightful

Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners. — Eric Hoffer

The original insight is most likely to come when elements stored in different compartments of the mind drift into the open, jostle one another, and now and then form new combinations. — Eric Hoffer

This food-and-shelter theory concerning man's efforts is without insight. The desire for praise is more imperative than the desire for food and shelter — Eric Hoffer

We see through others only when we see through ourselves. — Eric Hoffer

To the creative individual all experience is seminal-all events are equidistant from new ideasand insights. — Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer Quotes About People

People haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both. — Eric Hoffer

No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments. We need people to bear witness against our inner judge, who keeps book on our shortcomings and transgressions. We need people to convince us that we are not as bad as we think we are. — Eric Hoffer

It is thus with most of us; we are what other people say we are. We know ourselves chiefly by hearsay. — Eric Hoffer

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. — Eric Hoffer

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. — Eric Hoffer

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. — Eric Hoffer

What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people's faces as unfinished as their minds. — Eric Hoffer

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. The desire for power is basically an attribute of a "have not" type of self. — Eric Hoffer

It is the around-the-corner brand of hope that prompts people to action, while the distant hope acts as an opiate. — Eric Hoffer

Absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes. The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep. The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its anti-humanity. — Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer Quotes About Life

A passionate obsession with the outside world or the private lives of others is an attempt to compensate for a lack of meaning in one's own life — Eric Hoffer

No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion; it is an evil government. — Eric Hoffer

Should Americans begin to hate foreigners wholeheartedly, it will be an indication that they have lost confidence in their own way of life. — Eric Hoffer

Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. — Eric Hoffer

Man staggers through life yapped at by his reason, pulled and shoved by his appetites, whispered to by fears, beckoned by hopes. Small wonder that what he craves most is self-forgetting. — Eric Hoffer

Unlike the pattern which seems to prevail in the rest of life, in the human species the weak not only survive but often triumph over the strong. The self-hatred inherent in the weak unlocks energies far more formidable then those mobilized by an ordinary struggle for existence. — Eric Hoffer

When you automate an industry you modernize it; when you automate a life you primitivize it. — Eric Hoffer

The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself. — Eric Hoffer

There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless. — Eric Hoffer

The majority prove their worth by keeping busy. A busy life is the nearest thing to a purposeful life. — Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer Quotes About World

Only the individual who has come to terms with his self can have a dispassionate attitude toward the world. — Eric Hoffer

In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. — Eric Hoffer

How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem empty. — Eric Hoffer

It seems that when we are oppressed by the knowledge of our worthlessness we do not see ourselves as lower than some and higher than others, but as lower than the lowest of mankind. We hate then the whole world, and we would pour our wrath upon the whole of creation. — Eric Hoffer

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

The world leans on us. When we sag, the whole world seems to droop. — Eric Hoffer

The craving to change the world is perhaps a reflection of the craving to change ourselves. — Eric Hoffer

It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world. — Eric Hoffer

A plant needs roots in order to grow. With man it is the other way around: only when he grows does he have roots and feels at home in the world. — Eric Hoffer

To grow old is to grow common. Old age equalizes -- we are aware that what is happening to us has happened to untold numbers from the beginning of time. When we are young we act as if we were the first young people in the world. — Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer Quotes About Action

One of the marks of a truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of action - the ability to pass directly from thought to action. — Eric Hoffer

Action is at bottom a swinging and flailing of the arms to regain one's balance and keep afloat. — Eric Hoffer

In a trader-dominated society, the scribe is usually kept out of the management of affairs, but it given a more or less free hand in the cultural field. By frustrating the scribe's craving for commanding action, the trader draws upon himself the scribe's wrath and scorn. — Eric Hoffer

The link between ideas and action is rarely direct. There is almost always an intermediate step in which the idea is overcome. — Eric Hoffer

To dispose a soul to action we must upset its equilibrium. — Eric Hoffer

There is nothing more explosive than a skilled population condemned to inaction. Such a population is likely to become a hotbed of extremism and intolerance, and be receptive to any proselytizing ideology, however absurd and vicious, which promises vast action. — Eric Hoffer

The individual's most vital need is to prove his worth, and this usually means an insatiable hunger for action. For it is only the few who can acquire a sense of worth by developing and employing their capacities and talents. The majority prove their worth by keeping busy. — Eric Hoffer

The main effect of a real revolution is perhaps that it sweeps away those who do not know how to wish, and brings to the front men with insatiable appetites for action, power and all that the world has to offer. — Eric Hoffer

Men of thought seldom work well together, whereas between men of action there is usually an easy camaraderie. — Eric Hoffer

Ideas have significance for him only as a prelude to action. — Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer Quotes About Weak

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

Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. — Eric Hoffer

What greater reassurance can the weak have than that they are like anyone else? — Eric Hoffer

It is a talent of the weak to persuade themselves that they suffer for something when they suffer from something; that they are showing the way when they are running away; that they see the light when they feel the heat; that they are chosen when they are shunned. — Eric Hoffer

When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and the strong; it easily becomes a fashion. — Eric Hoffer

We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression. — Eric Hoffer

Rudeness is the weak person's imitation of strength. — Eric Hoffer

A just society must strive with all its might to right wrongs even if righting wrongs is a highly perilous undertaking. But if it is to survive, a just society must be strong and resolute enough to deal swiftly and relentlessly with those who would mistake its good will for weakness. — Eric Hoffer

When the weak want to give an impression of strength they hint menacingly at their capacity for evil. It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak. — Eric Hoffer

It is to escape the responsibility for failure that the weak so eagerly throw themselves into grandiose undertakings. — Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer Famous Quotes And Sayings

People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them. — Eric Hoffer

Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves. — Eric Hoffer

Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength. — Eric Hoffer

I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind. — Eric Hoffer

We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the remarkable fact that many inventions had their birth as toys. — Eric Hoffer

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. — Eric Hoffer

When hopes and dreams are loose in the streets, it is well for the timid to lock doors, shutter windows and lie low until the wrath has passed. — Eric Hoffer

We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents. — Eric Hoffer

The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do. — Eric Hoffer

Fair play is primarily not blaming others for anything that is wrong with us. — Eric Hoffer

It takes a vice to check a vice, and virtue is the by-product of a stalemate between opposite vices. — Eric Hoffer

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. — Eric Hoffer

There is in even the most selfish passion a large element of self-abnegation. It is startling to realize that what we call extreme self-seeking is actually self-renunciation. The miser, health addict, glory chaser and their like are not far behind the selfless in the exercise of self-sacrifice. — Eric Hoffer

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. — Eric Hoffer

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

One of the chief differences between an adult and a juvenile is that the adult knows when he is an ass while the juvenile never does. — Eric Hoffer

The frustrated follow a leader less because of their faith that he is leading them to a promised land than because of their immediate feeling that he is leading them away from their unwanted selves. Surrender to a leader is not a means to an end but a fulfillment. Whither they are led is of secondary importance. — Eric Hoffer

The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist. — Eric Hoffer

There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmarks of a fugitive. — Eric Hoffer

It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativeness, and the playground is the optimal milieu for the unfolding of his capacities and talents. — Eric Hoffer

The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves. — Eric Hoffer

The true believer, no matter how rowdy and violent his acts, is basically an obedient and submissive person. — Eric Hoffer

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

The capacity for getting along with our neighbor depends to a large extent on the capacity for getting along with ourselves. The self-respecting individual will try to be as tolerant of his neighbor's shortcomings as he is of his own. — Eric Hoffer

The greatest weariness comes from work not done. — Eric Hoffer

The beginning of thought is in disagreement - not only with others but also with ourselves. — Eric Hoffer

A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed. — Eric Hoffer

Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy -- the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation. — Eric Hoffer

Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind. — Eric Hoffer

No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments. — Eric Hoffer

Even in slight things the experience of the new is rarely without some stirring of foreboding. — Eric Hoffer

The birth of the new constitutes a crisis, and its mastery calls for a crude and simple cast of mind -- the mind of a fighter -- in which the virtues of tribal cohesion and fierceness and infantile credulity and malleability are paramount. Thus every new beginning recapitulates in some degree man's first beginning. — Eric Hoffer

There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail. — Eric Hoffer

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

Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains. — Eric Hoffer

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

Perhaps our originality manifests itself most strikingly in what we do with that which we did not originate. To discover something wholly new can be a matter of chance, of idle tinkering, or even of the chronic dissatisfaction of the untalented. — Eric Hoffer

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

We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails. — Eric Hoffer

Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear. Thus a feeling of utter unworthiness can be a source of courage. — Eric Hoffer

Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing. — Eric Hoffer

The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not. — Eric Hoffer

We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true; they ruin our dreams. — Eric Hoffer

It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny. — Eric Hoffer

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

The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an inner uncertainty than a deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more against the doubt within than the assailant without. — Eric Hoffer

Our greatest weariness comes from work not done. — Eric Hoffer

Add a few drops of venom to a half truth and you have an absolute truth. — Eric Hoffer

Naivete in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity. — Eric Hoffer

What merit there is in my thinking is derived from two peculiarities: (1) My inability to be familiar with anything. I simply can't take things for granted. (2) My endless patience. I assume that the only way to find an answer is to hang on long enough and keep groping. — Eric Hoffer

The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian despot who wants to turn them into puppets. — Eric Hoffer

Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power. — Eric Hoffer

The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness. — Eric Hoffer

Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart. — Eric Hoffer

There is apparently no surer way of turning a thing into its opposite than by exaggerating it — Eric Hoffer

It is part of the formidableness of a genuine mass movement that the self-sacrifice it promotes includes also a sacrifice of some of the moral sense, which cramps and restrains our nature. — Eric Hoffer

[The designated or chosen leader tries to] articulate and justify the resentment dammed up in the souls of the frustrated. He kindles the vision of a breathtaking future so as to justify the sacrifice of a transitory present. He stages the world of make-believe so indispensable for the realization of self-sacrifice and united action. — Eric Hoffer

Laughter to begin with was probably glee at the misfortunes of others. The baring of the teeth in laughter hints at its savage ancestry. Animals have no malice, hence also no laughter. They never savor the sudden glory of Schadenfreude. It was its infectious quality that made of laughter a medium of mutuality. — Eric Hoffer

To spell out the obvious is often to call it in question. — Eric Hoffer

Self-esteem and self-contempt have specific odors; they can be smelled. — Eric Hoffer

It sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents. — Eric Hoffer

To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance. — Eric Hoffer

We are made kind by being kind. — Eric Hoffer

Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible. — Eric Hoffer

Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want to do. — Eric Hoffer

The real antichrist is he who turns the wine of an original idea into the water of mediocrity. — Eric Hoffer

Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible. — Eric Hoffer

Rudeness luxuriates in the absence of self-respect. — Eric Hoffer

The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle. — Eric Hoffer

Our present addiction to pollsters and forecasters is a symptom of our chronic uncertainty about the future... We watch our experts read the entrails of statistical tables and graphs the way the ancients watched their soothsayers read the entrails of a chicken. — Eric Hoffer

Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves. — Eric Hoffer

Life Lessons by Eric Hoffer

1. Eric Hoffer's writing emphasizes the importance of hard work, dedication, and perseverance in order to achieve success. He also encourages people to think independently and to not be afraid to challenge accepted norms and ideas.
2. Hoffer also stresses the importance of self-reflection and self-awareness, as well as the need to maintain a healthy balance between work and leisure.
3. Finally, Hoffer's writing emphasizes the need to remain humble and to recognize the interconnectedness of all people, regardless of their differences.