747 Quotes by Eric Hoffer

We run fastest and farthest when we run from ourselves.

When we are in competition with ourselves, and match our todays against our yesterdays, we derive encouragement from past misfortunes and blemishes. Moreover, the competition with ourselves leaves unimpaired our benevolence toward our fellow men.

They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort. They ascribe failure to a lack of inspiration or ability, or to misfortune, rather than to insufficient application. At the core of every true talent there is an awareness of the difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that by persistence and patience something worthwhile will be realized. Thus talent is a species of vigor.

It is a juvenile notion that a society needs a lofty purpose and a shining vision to achieve much. Both in the market place and on the battlefield men who set their hearts on toys have often displayed unequal initiative and drive. And one must be ignorant of the creative process to look for a close correspondence between motive and achievement in the world of thought and imagination.

The real "haves" are they who can acquire freedom, self-confidence, and even riches without depriving others of them. They acquire all of these by developing and applying their potentialities. On the other hand, the real "have nots" are they who cannot have aught except by depriving others of it. They can feel free only by diminishing the freedom of others, self-confident by spreading fear and dependence among others, and rich by making others poor.

One of the chief differences between an adult and a juvenile is that the adult knows when he is an ass while the juvenile never does.

The burning conviction that we have a holy duty toward others is often a way of attaching our drowning selves to a passing raft.

That which corrodes the souls of the persecuted is the monstrous inner agreement with the prevailing prejudice against them.

A soul that is reluctant to share does not as a rule have much of its own. Miserliness is here a symptom of meagerness.