quotes by Eric Hoffer

"Rudeness is the weak mans imitation of strength."
— 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

"The Jews are a peculiar people: Things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.

Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people, and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it. Poland and Czechoslovakia did it.Turkey threw out a million Greeks and Algeria a million Frenchmen. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese--and no one says a word about refugees.

But in the case of Israel, the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis. Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace.

Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world."
— Eric Hoffer

"Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power."
— 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

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

"We lie the loudest when we lie to ourselves."
— Eric Hoffer

"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings."
— 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

"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

"Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know."
— Eric Hoffer

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

"There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate whenever they meet."
— 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

"Passionate hatreds can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. These 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."
— Eric Hoffer

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

"When people are bored, it is primarily with their own selves that they are bored."
— Eric Hoffer

"...in the shaping of a life, chance and the ability to respond to chance are everything."
— Eric Hoffer

"It is the individual only who is timeless. Societies, cultures, and civilizations -- past and present -- are often incomprehensible to outsiders, but the individual's hungers, anxieties, dreams, and preoccupations have remained unchanged through the millenia."
— Eric Hoffer

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