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

There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his own house.
Eric Hoffer

There is probably an element of malice in our readiness to overestimate people - we are, as it were, laying up for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting them down to size.
Eric Hoffer

There is sublime thieving in all giving. Someone gives us all he has and we are his.
Eric Hoffer

There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
Eric Hoffer

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.
Eric Hoffer

To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.
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

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

To the old, the new is usually bad news.
Eric Hoffer

Unpredictability, too, can become monotonous.
Eric Hoffer

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

We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about.
Eric Hoffer

We are more prone to generalize the bad than the good. We assume that the bad is more potent and contagious.
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

We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.
Eric Hoffer

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

We feel free when we escape - even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire.
Eric Hoffer

We have perhaps a natural fear of ends. We would rather be always on the way than arrive. Given the means, we hang on to them and often forget the ends.
Eric Hoffer

We have rudiments of reverence for the human body, but we consider as nothing the rape of the human mind.
Eric Hoffer