‘The only way to predict the future is to shape the future’ – quoted by Eric Hoffer says much about the attitude one must have in life. We all get intrigued by the fact that what our future holds for us. In doing so, many of us fail to realize the importance of the present. Hoffer beautifully describes that a perfect future is only the result of a hardworking present life. Toiling today would assist you in reaping benefits tomorrow. A moral and social philosopher, Eric Hoffer was a sheer genius who is today regarded as one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century. Author of ten books, his big break came in when he penned ‘The True Believer’ which amassed recognition and acknowledgement from the critics and audience alike. Interestingly Hoffer had no schooling and was practically blind until 15. As soon as he gained his eyesight, he read voraciously, taking up every book that he could lay his hands on. Hoffer’s moral and social philosophy throws a light on various aspects of life such as happiness, expectation, hope, joy, kindness, compassion, self-esteem, strength and so on. Find out some of the best known quotes by 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
When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.
Eric Hoffer
When people are bored, it is primarily with their own selves that they are bored.
Eric Hoffer
Anger is the prelude to courage.
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
Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.
Eric Hoffer
Nonconformists travel as a rule in bunches. You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone. And woe to him inside a nonconformist clique who does not conform with nonconformity.
Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.
Eric Hoffer
A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.
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
In a world of change, the learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned shall find themselves perfectly suited for a world that no longer exists.
To a man utterly without a sense of belonging, mere life is all that matters. It is the only reality in an eternity of nothingness, and he clings to it with shameless despair.
To be fully alive is to feel that everything is possible.
Eric Hoffer
Man staggers through life yapped at by his reason, pulled and shoved by his appetites, whispered to by fears, beckoned by hopes. Small wonder that what he craves most is self-forgetting.
Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all the unifying agents. Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a god, but never without a belief in a devil.
The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world.
Eric Hoffer
There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.
Eric Hoffer
It is thus with most of us; we are what other people say we are. We know ourselves chiefly by hearsay.
Eric Hoffer
The beginning of thought is in disagreement - not only with others but also with ourselves.
Eric Hoffer
We feel free when we escape, even if it be from the frying pan into the fire.
Eric Hoffer
In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.
Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.
Eric Hoffer
There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.
If the Communists win Europe and a large part of the world, it will not be because they know how to stir up discontent or how to infect people with hatred, but because they know how to preach hope.
The permanent misfits can find salvation only in a complete separation from the self; and they usually find it by losing themselves in the compact collectivity of a mass movement.
Eric Hoffer
How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem empty.
The act of self-denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others.
Eric Hoffer
To wrong those we hate is to add fuel to our hatred. Conversely, to treat an enemy with magnanimity is to blunt our hatred for him
Eric Hoffer
Things which are not" are indeed mightier than "things that are". In all ages men have fought most desperately for beautiful cities yet to be built and gardens yet to be planted.
Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves.
Eric Hoffer
Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.
Eric Hoffer
If a society is to preserve stability and a degree of continuity, it must learn how to keep its adolescents from imposing their tastes, values, and fantasies on everyday life.
In times of change the learners will inherit the earth, while the knowers will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready is he to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause.
Eric Hoffer
To lose one's life is but to lose the present; and, clearly, to lose a defiled, worthless present is not to lose much.
The loyalty of the true believer is to the whole -- the church, party, nation -- and not to his fellow true believer.
Eric Hoffer
Action is a unifier.
Eric Hoffer
If a doctrine is not unintelligible, it has to be vague; and if neither unintelligible nor vague, it has to be unverifiable.
Eric Hoffer
Ideas have significance for him only as a prelude to action.
Eric Hoffer
It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is true of men as of dogs." -
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
The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race, or his own holy cause.
Eric Hoffer
Success and failure are unavoidably related in our minds with the state of things around us
Eric Hoffer
The leader has to be practical and a realist yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist.
Eric Hoffer
You can't do it right too often:author bob wyrick.
A fanatic is a person who redoubles his effort after he's lost sight of his aim.
In the countryside where the communal pattern was least disturbed, the new religion found the ground less favorable. The villagers (pagani) and the heath-dwellers (heathen) clung longest to the ancient cults.
Eric Hoffer
The decline of handicrafts in modern times is perhaps one of the causes for the rise of frustration
 and the heath-dwellers (heathen) clung longest to the ancient cults. )
