Eric Hoffer

“Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing impulse. We are drawn back to where we came from.”

“Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent.”

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

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

“When people are bored it is primarily with themselves.”

“What greater reassurance can the weak have than that they are like anyone else?”

“Self-esteem and self-contempt have specific odors; they can be smelled.”

“To spell out the obvious is often to call it in question.”

“There is sublime thieving in all giving. Someone gives us all he has and we are his.”

“Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible.”

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

“It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny.”

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

“Sometimes we feel the loss of a prejudice as a loss of vigor.”

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

“The greatest weariness comes from work not done.”

“Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want to do.”