Quotes from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all the unifying agents. Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a god, but never without a belief in a devil.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“people with a sense of fulfillment think it is a good world and would like to conserve it as it is, while the frustrated favor radical change.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“A movement is pioneered by men of words, materialized by fanatics and consolidated by men of action.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“The permanent misfits can find salvation only in a complete separation from the self; and they usually find it by losing themselves in the compact collectivity of a mass movement.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“خلافنا مع العالم صدى للخلاف المستمر بداخلنا.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“Propaganda ... serves more to justify ourselves than to convince others; and the more reason we have to feel guilty, the more fervent our propaganda.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“Scratch an intellectual, and you find a would-be aristocrat who loathes the sight, the sound and the smell of common folk.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“The enemy—the indispensible devil of every mass movement—is omnipresent. He plots both outside and inside the ranks of the faithful. It is his voice that speaks through the mouth of the dissenter, and the deviationists are his stooges. If anything goes wrong within the movement, it is his doing. It is the sacred duty of the true believer to be suspicious. He must be constantly on the lookout for saboteurs, spies and traitors.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a God or not. The atheist is a religious person. He believes in atheism as though it were a new religion.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“Things which are not" are indeed mightier than "things that are". In all ages men have fought most desperately for beautiful cities yet to be built and gardens yet to be planted.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“يعاني أتباع الأديان السامية شعورا بالذنب عندما تتسع الهوة بين تعاليم دينهم وواقعهم المليء بالمعاصي، وعندما يدخل التطرف الصورة فإن الشعور بالذنب يتحول إلى كراهية سافرة، وهكذا نجد كل ما ازداد التطرف عند أتباع مذهب ما - مهما كان هذا المذهب ساميا - كلما نما لديهم شعورا بالكراهية”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“There is perhaps no surer way of infecting ourselves with virulent hatred toward a person than by doing him a grave injustice.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“To wrong those we hate is to add fuel to our hatred. Conversely, to treat an enemy with magnanimity is to blunt our hatred for him”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“عندما يثور الناس في مجتمع ديكتاتوري، فإنهم لا يثورون على ظلم النظام، بل على ضعفه”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“لا شيء يعزّز ثقتنا بالنفس ويساعدنا على العيش معها كالقدرة المستمرة على الإبداع: أن نرى الأشياء تنمو وتكبر بين أيدينا يوماً بعد يوم.
وليس من المستبعد أن يكون اختفاء الحرف اليدوية في الأوقات المعاصرة سبباً في تزايد الإحباط وفي انجذاب الفرد إلى الحركات الجماهيرية.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience... The desire to escape or camouflage their unsatisfactory selves develops in the frustrated a facility for pretending -- for making a show -- and also a readiness to identify themselves wholly with an imposing spectacle.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“إن الذين لا يجدون صعوبة فى خداع انفسهم لا يجدون صعوبة فى خداع الاخرين لهم، ومن ثم فمن السهل اقناعهم وقيادتهم”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“If a doctrine is not unintelligible, it has to be vague; and if neither unintelligible nor vague, it has to be unverifiable.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“كلما استحال على الإنسان أن يدعي التفوق لنفسه، كلما سهل عليه يدّعي التفوق لأمته، أو لدينه أو لعرقه، أو لقضيته المقدسة.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“The act of self-denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“ والملل هو الذي فسر لنا ظواهر أخرى:
كثرة العوانس والسيدات اللواتي تجاوزن منتصف العمر في بدايات الحركات الجماهيرية. حتى عندما نكون بصدد حركة لا ترحب بعمل المرأة خارج المنزل ، كانازية مثلا ، نجد نساء يؤدين دورا كبيرا في نشأة الحركة. هناك شبه من نوع ما ،
بين إنضمام المرأة إلى زوج وإنضمامها إلى حركة جماهيرية ففي كلتا الحالتين هنالك هدف جديد وهوية جديدة -اسم جديد-.
إن الملل الذي تشعر به العوانس والنساء اللواتي لم يعد بوسعهن العثور على السعادة والرضا في زواج ناتج أساسا عن ضيقهن بحياة عقيمة فاشلة.
وعندما يعتنق هؤلاء النسوة قضية مقدسة يسخرنلها وجودهن كله وطاقتهم كلها ، فإنهن يجدن حياة جديدة مليئة بالمعنى والهدف!!! ص100”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“There is a tendency to judge a race, a nation or any distinct group by its least worthy members. Though manifestly unfair, this tendency has some justification. For the character and destiny of a group are often determined by its inferior elements.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“Every extreme attitude is a flight from the self.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“إن المساواة بلا حرية تخلق نظامًا إجتماعيًا أكثر إستقرارًا من الحرية بلا مساواة”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

About the author

Popular quotes

“There are . . . times when one must accept the aid of darkness in order to contain a greater darkness.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from The Emperor's Soul

“Finally." The cat sniffed and gave me a look of triumph. "I never thought I would see the day when a human said something sensible.”
― Julie Kagawa, quote from The Iron Traitor

“people were like icebergs--most of what really went on, especially the ugliness, was submerged”
― Douglas Preston, quote from The Wheel of Darkness

“It's not the bad memories that tear a person apart. It's the good ones.”
― Jennifer Lynn Barnes, quote from Killer Instinct

“You got dealt some crappy cards. But you're the one who has to decide how to play them.”
― Diane Chamberlain, quote from The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.