Eric Hoffer Quotes

It is doubtful if the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power — power to oppress others. The oppressed want above all to imitate their oppressors; they want to retaliate.

Power is not something that can be assumed or discarded at will like underwear.

My instincts are always against people who want to fasten some sort of hegemony onto things.

Look at the forces against me. They don't want me out. They're afraid I'll cause trouble if I get out.

I think there is an instinct out there to rid us of our masters.

Sometimes I think the world is divided into those who have a comfortable relationship with power and those who have a naturally adversarial relationship with power.

Raise your eyes and count the small gang of your oppressors who are only strong through the blood they suck from you and through your arms which you lend them unwillingly.

Law is merely the expression of the will of the strongest for the time being.

Power abdicates only under stress of counter-power.

Throughout the history of mankind there have been murderers and tyrants; and while it may seem momentarily that they have the upper hand, they have always fallen. Always.

The oppressed have no alternative—for they have no power—but to fight.

The oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors…. The oppressed find in the oppressors their model of 'manhood/

It was imperative to make common cause with the oppressed in order to secure a new system opposed to the ambitions and governing habits of the oppressors.

I don't think anyone likes to be pushed around.

The establishment, whatever rewards it gives us, will also, if necessary to maintain it's control, kill us

The oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors.

A freedom fighter learns the hard way that it is the oppressor who defines the nature of the struggle,and the oppressed is often left no recourse but to use methods that mirror those of the oppressor.At a point, one can only fight fire with fire

Odd how often blood is shed to obtain freedom from those in power. Oppressors must be the most insecure people in the world.

There are a few men whom slavery holds fast, but there are many more who hold fast to slavery.

Power, however it has evolved, whatever its origins, will not be given up without a struggle.

Perhaps the greatest consolation of the oppressed is to consider themselves superior to their tyrants.

The danger of oppression is not just being oppressed, it's becoming an oppressor.

Tremble, all ye oppressors of the world!

The strong man wants to be allowed to DO; the little man wants to stop him.

If you want a definition of what a coward is, it’s needing to push a whole class of people down so that you can walk on top of them.