Eric Hoffer

“The beginning of thought is in disagreement - not only with others but also with ourselves.”

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

“Nationalist pride, like other variants of pride, can be a substitute for self-respect.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem.”

“Ideas have significance for him only as a prelude to action.”

“A man by himself is in bad company.”

“When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and the strong; it easily becomes a fashion.”

“Even the sober desire for progress is sustained by faith—faith in the intrinsic goodness of human nature and in the omnipotence of science. It is a defiant and blasphemous faith, not unlike that held by the men who set out to build a "city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven" and who believed that "nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.”

“It sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.”

“Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible.”

“It would be difficult to exaggerate the degree to which we are influenced by those we influence.”

“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.”

“A heresy can spring only from a system that is in full vigor.”

“The greatest weariness comes from work not done.”

“It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.”

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

“The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future.”

“Children are the keys of paradise.”