69 Eric Hoffer Quotes (On Life, Education, Art)

Top 10 Quotes – Life – Happiness – Education – Creativity – Takeaways – Further Readings

Here are 69 of the best Eric Hoffer quotes.

And you’ll learn a ton:

• How to guard your individuality
• How to find meaning in work and reality
• Why you should value self-awareness
• How to avoid misery

But first, who was Eric Hoffer (1898–1983)?

• A self-educated philosopher and longshoreman
• The author of The True Believer (his most famous work)
• He wrote on society, mass movements, and individual freedom
• He even received presidential recognition in 1983

So please don’t wait, and read these fascinating sayings.

You’ll discover lines that will inspire you to think for yourself and challenge the status quo.

Enjoy!

Top 10 Eric Hoffer Quotes

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

I am more and more convinced that taking life over-seriously is a frivolous thing. Eric Hoffer

A preoccupation with the future not only prevents us from seeing the present as it is but often prompts us to rearrange the past. Eric Hoffer

No one is truly literate who cannot read his own heart. Eric Hoffer

The future belongs to the learners – not the knowers. Eric Hoffer

Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength. Eric Hoffer

It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world. Eric Hoffer

The weakness of a soul is proportionate to the number of truths that must be kept from it. Eric Hoffer

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

Eric Hoffer Quotes About Life

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings. Eric Hoffer

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

It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one’s neighbor. Eric Hoffer

Self-righteousness is a manifestation of self-contempt. Eric Hoffer

Modern man is weighed down more by the burden of responsibility than by the burden of sin. We think him more a savior who shoulders our responsibilities than him who shoulders our sins. If instead of making decisions we have but to obey and do our duty, we feel it as a sort of salvation. Eric Hoffer

Nature has no compassion. Nature accepts no excuses and the only punishment it knows is death. Eric Hoffer

We need not only a purpose in life to give meaning to our existence but also something to give meaning to our suffering. We need as much something to suffer for as something to live for. Eric Hoffer

Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing impulse. We are drawn back to where we came from. Eric Hoffer

Unless a man has talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. Eric Hoffer

Nothing comes easily. My work smells of sweat. Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer Quotes About Happiness, Misery

You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy. Eric Hoffer

Our greatest weariness comes from work not done. Eric Hoffer

Anger is a prelude to courage. Eric Hoffer

Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy – the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation. Eric Hoffer

It is precisely because we can never really know ourselves, but only guess, that we are so vehement about the good and the evil ascribed to us by others. In maintaining ourselves against all comers, we are maintaining something that is unknown, uncertain, and never wholly provable. We need a chorus of consent, and we are engaged in an unceasing proselytizing campaign in our own behalf. Eric Hoffer

Rudeness luxuriates in the absence of self-respect. Eric Hoffer

It is futile to judge a kind deed by its motives. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind. Eric Hoffer

We have to adjust ourselves, and every radical adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem: we undergo a test, we have to prove ourselves. Eric Hoffer

The pleasure we derive from doing favors is partly in the feeling it gives us that we are not altogether worthless. Eric Hoffer

God alone is satisfied with what He is and can proclaim “I am what I am.” Unlike God, man strives with all his might to be what he is not. He incessantly proclaims”I am what I am not. Eric Hoffer

We feel free when we escape – even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire. Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer Quotes About Education, Learning

To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are. Eric Hoffer

There can be no freedom without freedom to fail. Eric Hoffer

Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent. Eric Hoffer

To learn you need a certain degree of confidence, not too much and not too little. If you have too little confidence, you will think you can’t learn. If you have too much, you will think you don’t have to learn. 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 Hoffe

To dispose a soul to action we must upset its equilibrium. Eric Hoffer

The central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and children are students together. Eric Hoffer

Faith, enthusiasm, and passionate intensity in general are substitutes for the self-confidence born of experience and the possession of skill. Where there is the necessary skill to move mountains there is no need for the faith that moves mountains. Eric Hoffer

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

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

Eric Hoffer Quotes About Creativity, Writing, Art

Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature. Eric Hoffer

Creativity is discontent translated into arts. Eric Hoffer

Some people have no original ideas because they do not think well enough of themselves to consider their ideas worth noticing and developing. Eric Hoffer

Originality is not something continuous but something intermittent — a flash of the briefest duration. One must have the time and be watchful (be attuned) to catch the flash and fix it. One must know how to catch and preserve these scant flakes of gold sluiced out of the sand and rocks of everyday life. Originality does not come nugget-size. Eric Hoffer

A good sentence is a key. It unlocks the mind of the reader. Eric Hoffer

How rare it is to come across a piece of writing that is unambiguous, unqualified, and also unblurred by understatements or subtleties, and yet at the same time urbane and tolerant. It is a vice of the scientific method when applied to human affairs that it fosters hemming and hawing and a scrupulousness that easily degenerates into obscurity and meaninglessness. Eric Hoffer

Nothing so bolsters our self-confidence and reconciles us with ourselves as the continuous ability to create; to see things grow and develop under our hand, day in, day out. Eric Hoffer

Wordiness is a sickness of American writing. Too many words dilute and blur ideas. Eric Hoffer

Good writing, like gold, combines lustrous lucidity with high density. What this means is good writing is packed with hints. Eric Hoffer

All great art is revolutionary because it touches upon the reality of man and questions the reality of the various transitory forms of human society. Eric Hoffer

If anybody asks me what I have accomplished, I will say all I have accomplished is that I have written a few good sentences. Eric Hoffer

The creative mind is the playful mind. Philosophy is the play and dance of ideas. Eric Hoffer

More Eric Hoffer Quotes

A plant needs roots in order to grow. With man it is the other way around: only when he grows does he have roots and feels at home in the world. Eric Hoffer

What counts most is holding on. The growth of a train of thought is not a direct forward flow. There is a succession of spurts separated by intervals of stagnation, frustration, and discouragement. If you hold on, there is bound to come a certain clarification. The unessential components drop off and a coherent, lucid whole begins to take shape. Eric Hoffer

To the intellectual the struggle for freedom is more vital than the actuality of a free society. Eric Hoffer

It has often been said that power corrupts. But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion are the faults of weakness. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from the sense of inadequacy and impotence. They hate not wickedness but weakness. When it is their power to do so, the weak destroy weakness wherever they see it. Eric Hoffer

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

It is doubtful if the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power — power to oppress others. The oppressed want above all to imitate their oppressors; they want to retaliate. Eric Hoffer

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

It is our talents rusting unused within us that secrete the poison of self-doubt into our bloodstream. Eric Hoffer

Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless. Eric Hoffer

Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves. Eric Hoffer

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you. Eric Hoffer

A war is not won if the defeated enemy has not been turned into a friend. Eric Hoffer

Fair play is primarily not blaming others for anything that is wrong with us. Eric Hoffer

For many people, an excuse is better than an achievement because an achievement, no matter how great, leaves you having to prove yourself again in the future; but an excuse can last for life. Eric Hoffer

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

The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselveswe do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves. Eric Hoffer

Conclusion

The most important point is — and remains — not to take oneself seriously. There is no past, and, certainly, no future. There are but a few years — ten at the most. You pass your days as best you can, doing as little harm as possible. Let the desires be few and treat expectations as weeds. You read, scribble as the spirit moves you, hear some new music, see every week the few people you are attached to. Again: guard yourself, above all, against self-dramatization, a feeling of importance, and the sprouting of expectations. Eric Hoffer

Key Takeaways From The Writing Of Eric Hoffer

Here are 5 simple things you can learn from Eric Hoffer:

• Anchor yourself in daily work. Indeed, Hoffer believed honest labor brought dignity, meaning, and clarity.
• Resist the pull of mass movements. Like Hoffer, don’t lose yourself in ideologies. Beware of following trends and groups.
• Question “experts” and think for yourself. Life Hoffer, make sure you don’t trust influencers, academics, and media blindly. Develop your own views and reflect daily.
• Watch for resentment in yourself. If you notice feelings of envy or comparison, pause, journal, walk, or meditate. Ask yourself what you want to build in your life.
• Embrace being a lifelong learner, no matter your status. Like Hoffer, read daily, reflect deeply, and engage in conversations that will stretch you. Like Hoffer, you can be self-taught and independent.

Further Readings

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