Eric Hoffer Quotes

Deficiencies in individuals, as in States, have their value and import. Indeed, that sublime impulse of perfectibility, always vivacious, always working under various forms and with one underlying purpose, would be futile without them, and fatuous.

Man is not a being who stands still, he is a being in the process of becoming. The more he enables himself to become, the more he fulfills his true mission.

This leaf here took forever to become that perfect leaf. We're that. We're work in progress. That's actually being alive.

It is with men as with other things. The mullein needs only a year, but the oak a century, and the greatest men are those who have continued to grow as long as they have lived.

Some men are more perfect than others.

There is one further distinguishing characteristic of man which is very specific indeed and about which there can be no dispute, and that is the faculty of self-improvement - a faculty which, with the help of circumstance, progressively develops all our other faculties.

I don't want to just revolve. I want to evolve. As a man, as a human, as a father, as a lover.

Contemporary thinkers would say that man is continuously transcending himself.

My daughter's 19. I'm not asking her to develop as an artist. I'm just asking her to develop as a full person, human being.

On a scale of one to 10, I feel I'm at a nine because there's definitely room for improvement. I know I could go further.

To become what we are capable of becoming is the only end in life.

But you know you haven't done it all because you know everything keeps evolving and changing; and you know you can evolve with it if you grow and develop as a human being.

You learn if you mind stay open. And once you can't learn no more, your mind must be closed. Life goes on and you keep growing, you know?

The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be.

Science, which has transformed the material world, gives man the power of transforming himself.

I want it to be the greatest thing I ever do: make good humans.

Luke Cage isn't going to throw a pity party for himself. He literally says to himself, 'This is the world I'm in. These are the circumstances I have.' He's a self-made man. He's trying to continuously build, and that's what's interesting about him. He's a work in progress.

No matter how successful you become... there's always that sense that you could be better.

Everything I get praised for, I can still work on and get better.

Strive for excellence, not perfection, because we don't live in a perfect world.

Arise, transcend Thyself, Thou art man and the whole nature of man Is to become more than himself.

Each of us has a huge capacity to learn and to achieve. Being ever alert makes the task of becoming all we are capable of becoming so much easier.

I think Ive done the best I could have done. But I keep wanting to play better, go further. There are so many sounds I still want to make, so many things I havent yet done. When I was younger I thought maybe Id reached that peak. But Im 86 now, and if I make it through to next month, Ill be 87. And now I know it can never be perfect, it can never be exactly what it should be, so you got to keep going further, getting better.

the idea of a finished human product not only appears presumptuous but even, in my opinion, lacks any strong appeal. Life is struggle and striving, development and growth - and analysis is one of the means that can help in this process. Certainly its positive accomplishments are important, but also the striving itself is of intrinsic value.

Man always is perfect, or he never could become so; but he had to realise it.