747 Quotes by Eric Hoffer

The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist.

The purpose of philosophers is to show people what is right under their noses.

Both Faith and Terror are instruments for the elimination of individual self-respect. Terror crushes the autonomy of self-respect, where Faith obtains its more or less voluntary surrender. In both cases, the result of the elimination of individual autonomy is - automatism. Both Faith and Terror reduce the human entity to a formula that can be manipulated at will.

All leaders strive to turn their followers into children.

Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem.

people with a sense of fulfillment think it is a good world and would like to conserve it as it is, while the frustrated favor radical change.

It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn.

The difficult and risky task of meeting and mastering the new . . . is not undertaken by the vanguard of society but by its rear. It is the misfits, failures, fugitives, outcasts and their like who are among the first to grapple with the new.

The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness. The remarkable thing is that the cessation of the inner dialogue marks also the end of our concern with the world around us. It is as if we noted the world and think about it only when we have to report it to ourselves.