If free enterprise becomes a proselytizing holy cause, it will be a sign that its workability and advantages have ceased to be self-evident.

— Eric Hoffer

If the Communists win Europe and a large part of the world, it will not be because they know how to stir up discontent or how to infect people with hatred, but because they know how to preach hope.

— 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

In a world of change, the learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned shall find themselves perfectly suited for a world that no longer exists.

— Eric Hoffer

In the alchemy of man's soul almost all noble attributes--courage, honor, love, hope, faith, duty, loyalty, etc.--can be transmuted into ruthlessness. Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us. Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless. Nature has no compassion. It is, in the words of William Blake, "a creation that groans, living on the death; where fish and bird and beast and tree and metal and stone live by devouring." Nature accepts no excuses and the only punishment it knows is death.

— Eric Hoffer

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

— Eric Hoffer

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

— Eric Hoffer

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

— Eric Hoffer

It is always safe to assume that people are more subtle and less sensitive than they seem.

— Eric Hoffer

It is a perplexing and unpleasant truth that when men already have 'something worth fighting for' they do not feel like fighting.

— Eric Hoffer