Quotations from
Eric Hoffer
[1902-83]

American philosopher Eric Hoffer worked on the docks of San Francisco as a longshoreman for 25 years, while writing ten books and many published articles. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Ronald Reagan in 1983.

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connected with the revolutionary "Working Minds Philosophy of Empowerment" created by G.E. Nordell.

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Eric Hoffer entry at Wikipedia

“It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor.”  {Issue #36}
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“It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise.”  {Issue #51}
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“You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy.”  {Issue #61}
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“It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt.”  {Issue #61}
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“The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst
over the heads of the majority in the middle.”   {Issue #61}
•      •
“The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.”  {Issue #61}
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“Excesses are essentially gestures. It is easy to be extremely cruel, magnanimous, humble or self-sacrificing
when we see ourselves as actors in a performance.”  {blog 9/2008}
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“Every extreme attitude is a flight from the self; the passionate state of mind is an expression
of inner dissatisfaction.”  {blog 9/2008}
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“Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.”  {blog 9/2008}
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“When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.”   {blog 11/2010}
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“The frustrated follow a leader less because of their faith that he is leading them to a promised land
than because of their immediate feeling that he is leading them away from their unwanted selves.
Surrender to a leader is not a means to an end but a fulfillment. Whither they are led is of
secondary importance.”   {blog 11/2010}
•      •
“An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing
anything into an empty head.”  {blog 8/2012}
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“A man by himself is in bad company.”  {blog 10/2012}
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“Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.”  {blog 11/2012 & 5/2015}
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“The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim
all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race, or his holy cause.”  {blog 5/2015}
•      •
“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.”
- in "The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature of Mass Movements" [1951]  {blog 1/2023}

Eric Hoffer Quotations Not Yet Used on the Blog
quotes at Positive Atheism
quotes at Briany Quotes

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