Eric Hoffer

“It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn.”

“The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully.”

“The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle.”

“In times of change learners inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”

“We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: change prepares the ground for revolution.”

“It is a sign of creeping inner death when we can no longer praise the living.”

“We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true they ruin our dreams.”

“Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners.”

“There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his own house.”

“It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression.”

“Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.”

“To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.”

“Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains.”

“Take away hatred from some people, and you have men without faith.”

“We have perhaps a natural fear of ends. We would rather be always on the way than arrive. Given the means, we hang on to them and often forget the ends.”

“The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything.”

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

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

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

“It is the around-the-corner brand of hope that prompts people to action, while the distant hope acts as an opiate.”

“We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about.”

“Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.”

“It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor.”

“The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian despot who wants to turn them into puppets.”