Quotes by Eric Hoffer

"How much easier is self-sacrifice than self-realization!"

"Even in slight things the experience of the new is rarely without some stirring of foreboding."

"When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other."

"Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience."

"To have a grievance is to have a purpose in life."

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

"A low capacity for getting along with those near us often goes hand in hand with a high receptivity to the idea of the brotherhood of men."

"The greatest weariness comes from work not done."

"When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths."

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

"Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength."

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

"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."

"It is remarkable by how much a pinch of malice enhances the penetrating power of an idea or an opinion. Our ears, it seems, are wonderfully attuned to sneers and evil reports about our fellow men."

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

"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."

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

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

"Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature."

"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."