Eric Hoffer

“A great man's greatest good luck is to die at the right time.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.”

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

“Children are the keys of paradise.”

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

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

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