Eric Hoffer

• "It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn.“
• "Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.“
• "The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully.“
• "The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle.“
• "The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully.“
• "In times of change learners inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.“
• "We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: change prepares the ground for revolution.“
• "It is a sign of creeping inner death when we can no longer praise the living.“
• "We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true they ruin our dreams.“
• "Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners.“
• "There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his own house.“
• "It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression.“
• "Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.“
• "To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.“
• "Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains.“
• "Take away hatred from some people, and you have men without faith.“
• "We have perhaps a natural fear of ends. We would rather be always on the way than arrive. Given the means, we hang on to them and often forget the ends.“
• "The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything.“
• "The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future.“
• "The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.“
• "The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle.“
• "Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy - the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.“
• "It is the around-the-corner brand of hope that prompts people to action, while the distant hope acts as an opiate.“
• "We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about.“
• "Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.“
• "In times of change learners inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.“
• "It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor.“
• "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.“
• "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.“
• "Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.“
• "Man was nature's mistake she neglected to finish him and she has never ceased paying for her mistake.“
• "Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart.“
• "The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future.“
• "Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.“
• "It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.“
• "It is remarkable by how much a pinch of malice enhances the penetrating power of an idea or an opinion. Our ears, it seems, are wonderfully attuned to sneers and evil reports about our fellow men.“
• "To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.“
• "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.“
• "There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.“
• "Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength.“
• "It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn.“
• "Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something.“
• "When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.“
• "The greatest weariness comes from work not done.“

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