Eric Hoffer Quotes About Society

Quotes about: Society

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

  Eric Hoffer

  Clever, Fear, Halloween

  Eric Hoffer (1955). “The passionate state of mind, and other aphorisms”

• A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.This minding of other people's business expresses itself in gossip, snooping and meddling, and also in feverish interest in communal, national and racial affairs. In running away from ourselves we either fall on our neighbor's shoulder or fly at his throat.

  Eric Hoffer

  Running, Fall, Men

  Eric Hoffer (2011). “The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements”, p.14, Harper Collins

• Social improvement is attained more readily by a concern with the quality of results than with the purity of motives.

  Eric Hoffer

  Society, Quality, Improvement

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

• To most of us nothing is so invisible as an unpleasant truth. Though it is held before our eyes, pushed under our noses, rammed down our throats- we know it not.

  Eric Hoffer

  Education, Truth, Ignorance

  Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

• What the intellectual craves above all else is to be taken seriously, to be treated as a decisive force in shaping history. He is far more at home in a society that weighs his every word and keeps close watch on his attitudes then in a society that cares not what he says or does. He would rather be persecuted than ignored.

  Eric Hoffer

  Attitude, Taken, Home

• There is apparently no surer way of turning a thing into its opposite than by exaggerating it

  Eric Hoffer

  Opposites, Society, Way

  Eric Hoffer (1963). “The Ordeal of Change”

• The revulsion from an unwanted self, and the impulse to forget it, mask it, slough it off and lose it, produce both a readiness to sacrifice the self and a willingness to dissolve it by losing one's individual distinctness in a compact collective whole.

  Eric Hoffer

  Sacrifice, Self, Society

  Eric Hoffer (1980). “The True Believer”

• The rule seems to be that those who find no difficulty in deceiving themselves are easily deceived by others. They are easily persuaded and led.

  Eric Hoffer

  Society, Deceiving, Deceived

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

• The truth seems to be that propaganda on its own cannot force its way into unwilling minds; neither can it inculcate something wholly new; nor can it keep people persuaded once they have ceased to believe. It penetrates into minds already open, and rather than instill opinion it articulates and justifies opinions already present in the minds of its recipients.

  Eric Hoffer

  Believe, People, Mind

  "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements". Book by Eric Hoffer, 1951.

• We know that words cannot move mountains, but they can move the multitude; and men are more ready to fight and die for a word than for anything else. Words shape thought, stir feeling, and beget action; they kill and revive, corrupt and cure. The "men-of-words"- priests, prophets, intellectuals- have played a more decisive role in history than military leaders, statesmen, and businessmen.

  Eric Hoffer

  Military, Moving, Fighting

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

• It is a perplexing and unpleasant truth that when men already have "something worth fighting for,they do not feel like fighting.

  Eric Hoffer

  Fighting, Men, Society

  ERIC HOFFER (1963). “THE TRUE BELIEVER”

• We run fastest and farthest when we run from ourselves.

  Eric Hoffer

  Running, Society

  Eric Hoffer (1980). “The True Believer”

• Spiritual stagnation ensues when man's environment becomes unpredictable or when his inner life is made wholly predictable.

  Eric Hoffer

  Spiritual, Men, Society

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

• One of the surprising privileges of intellectuals is that they are free to be scandalously asinine without harming their reputations.

  Eric Hoffer

  Society, Privilege, Reputation

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

• The ideal of self-advancement which the civilizing west offers to backward populations brings with it the plague of individual frustration. All the advantages brought by the West are ineffectual substitutes for the sheltering and soothing anonymity of communal existence.

  Eric Hoffer

  Frustration, Self, Society

  Eric Hoffer (1980). “The True Believer”

• When our individual interests and prospects do not seem worth living for, we are in desperate need for something apart from us to live for. All forms of dedication, devotion, loyalty and self-surrender are in essence a desperate clinging to something which might give worth and meaning to our futile, spoiled lives.

  Eric Hoffer

  Loyalty, Dedication, Self

  Eric Hoffer (1951). “The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements”, New York : Harper

• A society that refuses to strive for superfluities is likely to end up lacking in necessities.

  Eric Hoffer

  Society, Strive, Ends

  Eric Hoffer (1969). “Working and Thinking on the Waterfront: A Journal, June 1958-May 1959”

• The vigor of a mass movement stems from the propensity of its followers for united action and self-sacrifice. When we ascribe the success of a movement to its faith, doctrine, propaganda, leadership, ruthlessness and so on, we are but referring to instruments of unification and to means used to inculcate a readiness for self-sacrifice. It is perhaps impossible to understand the nature of a mass movement unless it is recognized that their chief preoccupation is to foster, perfect and perpetuate a facility for united action and self-sacrifice.

  Eric Hoffer

  Mean, Sacrifice, Self

  Eric Hoffer (1980). “The True Believer”

• The fanatic is not really a stickler to principle. He embraces a cause not primarily because of its justness or holiness but because of his desperate need for something to hold onto.

  Eric Hoffer

  Society, Holiness, Causes

  Eric Hoffer (1980). “The True Believer”

• In human affairs, the best stimulus for running ahead is to have something we must run from.

  Eric Hoffer

  Running, Progress, Society

  Eric Hoffer (1963). “The Ordeal of Change”

• When grubbing for necessities man is still an animal. He becomes uniquely human when he reaches out for the superfluous and extravagant.

  Eric Hoffer

  Animal, Men, Society

  Eric Hoffer (1969). “Working and Thinking on the Waterfront: A Journal, June 1958-May 1959”

• Quite often the social doctors become part of the disease.

  Eric Hoffer

  Doctors, Society, Disease

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

• Words have ruined more souls than any devil's agency.

  Eric Hoffer

  Agency, Soul, Devil

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

• All mass movements generate in their adherents a readiness to die and a proclivity for united action; all of them, irrespective of the doctrine they preach and the program they project, breed fanaticism, enthusiasm, fervent hope, hatred and intolerance; all of them are capable of releasing a powerful flow of activity in certain departments of life; all of them demand blind faith and singlehearted allegiance.

  Eric Hoffer

  Powerful, Hatred, Society

  Eric Hoffer (1980). “The True Believer”

• Conservatism is sometimes a symptom of sterility. Those who have nothing in them that can grow and develop must cling to what they have in beliefs, ideas and possessions. The sterile radical, too, is basically conservative. He is afraid to let go of the ideas and beliefs he picked up in his youth lest his life be seen as empty and wasted.

  Eric Hoffer

  Letting Go, Ideas, Society

  Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

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