Inspiring Quotes by Eric Hoffer - Page 2

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"The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully"

"The beginning of thought is in disagreement - not only with others but also with ourselves"

"Take away hatred from some people, and you have men without faith"

"Sometimes we feel the loss of a prejudice as a loss of vigor"

"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"

"One of the marks of a truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of action - the ability to pass directly from thought to action"

"Nationalist pride, like other variants of pride, can be a substitute for self-respect"

"Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners"

"Man was nature's mistake; she neglected to finish him, and she has never ceased paying for her mistake"

"Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible"

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

"There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other"

"A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: What it abominates most is the dissent of the majority"

"Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains"

"Where everything is possible, miracles become commonplaces, but the familiar ceases to be self-evident"

"Whenever you trace the origin of a skill or practices which played a crucial role in the ascent of man, we usually reach the realm of play"

"When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths"

"Action is at bottom a swinging and flailing of the arms to regain one's balance and keep afloat"

"A nation without dregs and malcontents is orderly, peaceful and pleasant, but perhaps without the seed of things to come"

"A man by himself is in bad company"

"A heresy can spring only from a system that is in full vigor"

"Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership"

"Call not that man wretched, who, whatever ills he suffers, has a child to love"

"Animals often strike us as passionate machines"

"Craving, not having, is the mother of a reckless giving of oneself"

"Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion, even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless"

"Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us"

"Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something"

"It is the around-the-corner brand of hope that prompts people to action, while the distant hope acts as an opiate"

"Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem"

"Every intense desire is perhaps a desire to be different from what we are"

"Dissipation is a form of self-sacrifice"

"We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand"

"The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian despot who wants to turn them into puppets"

"It sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents"

"It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny"

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