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

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

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

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

Man was nature's mistake she neglected to finish him and she has never ceased paying for her mistake.
Eric Hoffer

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

Nationalist pride, like other variants of pride, can be a substitute for self-respect.
Eric Hoffer

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

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

Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.
Eric Hoffer

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.
Eric Hoffer

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

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

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

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

Social improvement is attained more readily by a concern with the quality of results than with the purity of motives.
Eric Hoffer

Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something.
Eric Hoffer