Inspirational Quotations by 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.
    From Issue 151
  • It is the pull of opposite poles that stretches souls.
    And only stretched souls make music.
    From Issue 255
  • The most gifted members of the human species are
    at their creative best when they cannot have their way,
    and most compensate for what they miss by
    realizing and cultivating their capabilities and talents.
    From Issue 301
  • The wise learn from the experience of others,
    and the creative know how to make a crumb of experience go a long way.
    From Issue 306
  • If a society is to preserve stability and a degree of continuity, it must know how to keep its adolescents from imposing their tastes, attitudes, values and fantasies on everyday life.
    From Issue 347
  • The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.
    From Issue 358
  • There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail.
    From Issue 380
  • With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.
    From Issue 382
  • People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
    From Issue 384
  • It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression.
    From Issue 386
  • A preoccupation with the future not only prevents us from seeing the present as it is, but often prompts us to rearrange the past.
    From Issue 390
  • Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.
    From Issue 394
  • You can never get enough of what you don't really need.
    From Issue 399

A design by Nagesh Belludi • 10-Oct-2011 • Protected under a Creative Commons License