Eric Hoffer: Trending quotes (page 6)

Section 13; often the final portion of this is quoted alone as: "Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power."
Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)
Context: The Savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian despot who wants to turn them into puppets.
There are similarities between absolute power and absolute faith: a demand for absolute obedience; a readiness to attempt the impossible; a bias for simple solutions — to cut the knot rather than unravel it; the viewing of compromise as surrender; the tendency to manipulate people and "experiment with blood."
Both absolute power and absolute faith are instruments of dehumanization. Hence absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

Section 10
The True Believer (1951), Part One: The Appeal of Mass Movements

Section 222
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)

Section 62
The True Believer (1951), Part Three: United Action and Self-Sacrifice

Section 50
Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)

Source: The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

Section 178
Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)

Section 32 <!-- also quoted in On Becoming a Leader (1989) by Warren G. Bennis, p. 189 -->
Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)
Variant: In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
Context: The central task of education is to implant a will and a facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and children are students together.
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.

Variant: You can never get enough of what you don’t really need.

Source: Reflections on the Human Condition (1973), p. 54 of a 1974 edition

Source: The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

Section 75
The True Believer (1951), Part Three: United Action and Self-Sacrifice
Context: Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both.