Eric Hoffer, (1902-1983) American author, philosopher, awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [1-30] of 39 Eric Hoffer quotesEric Hoffer QuotesEric Hoffer Next 30 quotes Freedom means freedom from forces and circumstances which would turn man into a thing, which would impose on man the passivity and predictability of matter. By this test, absolute power is the manifestation most inimical to human uniqueness. Absolute power wants to turn people into malleable clay.~ Eric Hoffer 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.~ Eric Hoffer Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both.~ Eric Hoffer The central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and children are students together.~ Eric Hoffer 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.~ Eric Hoffer Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power.~ Eric Hoffer Those who see their lives as spoiled and wasted crave equality and fraternity more than they do freedom. If they clamor for freedom, it is but freedom to establish equality and uniformity.~ Eric Hoffer 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 To the frustrated, freedom from responsibility is more attractive than freedom from restraint. They are eager to barter their independence for relief from the burdens of willing, deciding and being responsible for inevitable failure. They willingly abdicate the directing of their lives to those who want to plan, command and shoulder all responsibility.~ Eric Hoffer It is when power is wedded to chronic fear that it becomes formidable.~ Eric Hoffer Unless a man has talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. Of what avail is freedom to choose if the self be ineffectual? We join a mass movement to escape individual responsibility, or, in the words of the ardent young Nazi, "to be free from freedom.~ Eric Hoffer 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 When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.~ Eric Hoffer The intellectuals and the young, booted and spurred, feel themselves born to ride us.~ Eric Hoffer The real "haves" are they who can acquire freedom, self-confidence, and even riches without depriving others of them. They acquire all of these by developing and applying their potentialities. On the other hand, the real "have nots" are they who cannot have aught except by depriving others of it. They can feel free only by diminishing the freedom of others, self-confident by spreading fear and dependence among others, and rich by making others poor.~ Eric Hoffer The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.~ Eric Hoffer Those who see their lives as spoiled and wasted crave equality and fraternity more than they do freedom. If they clamor for freedom, it is but freedom to establish equality and uniformity. The passion for equality is partly a passion for anonymity: to be one thread of the many which make up a tunic; one thread not distinguishable from the others. No one can then point us out, measure us against others and expose our inferiority.~ Eric Hoffer You can never get enough of what you don't really need.~ Eric Hoffer 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 A ruling intelligentsia, whether in Europe, Asia or Africa, treats the masses as raw material to be experimented on, processed, and wasted at will.~ Eric Hoffer Every device employed to bolster individual freedom must have as its chief purpose the impairment of the absoluteness of power. The indications are that such an impairment is brought about not by strengthening the individual and pitting him against the possessors of power, but by distributing and diversifying power and pitting one category or unit of power against the other. Where power is one, the defeated individual, however strong and resourceful, can have no refuge and no recourse.~ Eric Hoffer Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.~ Eric Hoffer The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.~ Eric Hoffer Totalitarianism spells simplification: an enormous reduction in the variety of aims, motives, interests, human types, and, above all, in the categories and units of power.~ Eric Hoffer Absolute power turns its possessors not into a God but an anti-God. For God turned clay into men, while the absolute despot turns men into clay.~ Eric Hoffer Freedom released the energies of the masses not by exhilarating but by unbalancing, irritating, and goading.~ Eric Hoffer There can be no freedom without freedom to fail.~ Eric Hoffer 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 It has often been said that power corrupts. But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion are the faults of weakness. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from their sense of inadequacy and impotence. We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression.~ Eric Hoffer To some, freedom means the opportunity to do what they want to do; to most it means not to do what they do not want to do. It is perhaps true that those who can grow will feel free under any condition.~ Eric Hoffer Next 30 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print