Quotes by Eric Hoffer

“Successful action tends to become an end in itself”

“Action will remove the doubt that theory cannot solve”

“The opposite of creativity is cynicism”

“Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity.”

“Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.”

“Nonconformists travel as a rule in bunches. You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone. And woe to him inside a nonconformist clique who does not conform with nonconformity.”

“In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”

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

“Rudeness is the weak mans imitation of strength”

“The capacity for getting along with our neighbor depends to a large extent on the capacity for getting along with ourselves. The self-respecting individual will try to be as tolerant of his neighbors shortcomings as he is of his own.”

“They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort. They ascribe failure to a lack of inspiration or ability, or to misfortune, rather than to insufficient application. At the core of every true talent there is an awareness of the difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that by persistence and patience something worthwhile will be realized. Thus talent is a species of vigor.”

“Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.”

“Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy -- the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.”

“Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a mans spirit than when we win his heart.”

Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.

There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.

The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.

The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.

We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities but its own talents.

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