Quotes by Eric Hoffer

"It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor."

"Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership."

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

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

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

"The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness."

"The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future."

"The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything."

"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."

"Take away hatred from some people, and you have men without faith."

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

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

"Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves."

"It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression."

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

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

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

"It is a sign of creeping inner death when we can no longer praise the living."

"We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: change prepares the ground for revolution."

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