Eric Hoffer Quotes About Liberty

Quotes about: Liberty

• When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.

  Eric Hoffer

  Sarcastic, Freedom, Sarcasm

  Passionate State of Mind (1955) p. 21

• Absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes. The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep. The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its anti-humanity.

  Eric Hoffer

  Sheep, People, Humanity

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

• People unfit for freedom - who cannot do much with it - are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an attribute of a "have" type of self. It says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities. The desire for power is basically an attribute of a "have not" type of self.

  Eric Hoffer

  Equality, Self, People

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

• 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.

  Eric Hoffer

  Liberty, Majority, Minorities

  "Reflections on the Human Condition". Book by Eric Hoffer, 1973.

• Where freedom is real, equality is the passion of the masses. Where equality is real, freedom is the passion of a small minority.

  Eric Hoffer

  Real, Passion, Equality

  Eric Hoffer (1980). “The True Believer”

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

  Eric Hoffer

  Freedom, Men, Liberty

  Eric Hoffer (1980). “The True Believer”

• Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power.

  Eric Hoffer

  Equality, Atmosphere, Liberty

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

• The aspiration toward freedom is the most essentially human of all human manifestations.

  Eric Hoffer

  Liberty, Aspiration, Manifestation

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

• There can be no freedom without freedom to fail.

  Eric Hoffer

  Liberty, Libertarian, Failing

  "The Ordeal of Change". Book by Eric Hoffer, 1963.

• Give people pride and they'll live on bread and water, bless their exploiters, and even die for them. Self-surrender is a transaction of barter: we surrender our sense of human dignity, our judgement, or moral and aesthetic sense for pride. If there is pride in being free, we are ready to die for liberty. If there is pride to be derived from an identification with a leader, we grovel in the dust before a Napoléon, Hitler or Stalin and are ready to die for him. If there is a distinction in suffering we search for martyrdom as for hidden treasure.

  Eric Hoffer

  Pride, Self, Dust

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin