Life doesn't make any sense, and we all pretend it does. Comedy's job is to point out that it doesn'...
ERIC IDLE At least one way of measuring the freedom of any society is the amount of comedy that is permitted, ...
ERIC IDLE To me, the musical is best when it's a musical comedy. So if you have a very, very funny show, a...
ERIC IDLE I listen to the audience and try and bounce with them. All audiences are different. But they are all...
ERIC IDLE I'm more surprised than anyone that 'Spamalot's done so well. You can never predict what...
ERIC IDLE I love being an older comic now. It's like being an old soccer or an old baseball player. You...
ERIC IDLE No day of my life passes without someone saying the words 'Monty Python' to me. It's not...
ERIC IDLE The Minister of Transport issued this appeal to motorists: Can anyone give him a lift to Leicester?
ERIC IDLE Americans like to think 'Python' is how English people really are. There is an element of tr...
ERIC IDLE Talent is always more interesting - ambition is not interesting. If you have talent, you have to fin...
ERIC IDLE You initially become funny as a kid because you're looking for attention and love. Psychologists...
ERIC IDLE People can tell the truth much more freely when they're apparently lying.
ERIC IDLE Life is a comedy when watching and a tragedy when experiencing. I try and share anything I have.
ERIC IDLE The dreadful thing about getting older is you cry at the drop of a hat.
ERIC IDLE John Cleese once told me he'd do anything for money. So I offered him a pound to shut up, and he...
ERIC IDLE You look just like you!
ERIC IDLE Nobody gets irony anymore, as we are now living in the post-ironic age. Once George Bush gets a libr...
ERIC IDLE I like being a foreigner. For me, to live in California is very pleasant - I'm more comfortable ...
ERIC IDLE Life took over 4 billion years to evolve into you, and you've about 70 more years to enjoy it. D...
ERIC IDLE At least in America, you have freedom of speech, which is a good thing. It's just a question of ...
ERIC IDLE I do pool exercises, like weightlifting but underwater. I walk, I swim... I'm pretty fit for an ...
ERIC IDLE I love my family, my wife, my kids, my dogs, my home, my life. I am a very happy and contented man.
ERIC IDLE It's such fun to take a lot of people and create something silly.
ERIC IDLE A website can be very time-intensive, but I'd love to have one where people can contribute to it...
ERIC IDLE My education was paid for by the RAF Benevolent Fund, so a charity school, run like an orphanage, wi...
ERIC IDLE I have been very blessed in my life and rewarded with good friends and good health. I am grateful an...
ERIC IDLE Probably spending 12 years at boarding school - comedy became a survival gene. But I think some peop...
ERIC IDLE At least one way of measuring the freedom of any society is the amount of comedy that is permitted, ...
ERIC IDLE Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will make me go in a corner and cry by myself for ho...
ERIC IDLE There was often antagonism and chair throwing and stamping of feet, which is kind of a healthy thing...
ERIC IDLE Nudge nudge, know what I mean, say no more
ERIC IDLE We're like his test audience. It's a nightmare for Steve, a terrifying experience. The fact that he'...
ERIC IDLE No day of my life passes without someone saying the words 'Monty Python' to me. It's not bad.
ERIC IDLE I like the idea of being out there regularly with an audience and with a funny gang of people. That'...
ERIC IDLE A lot has been said about politicians; some of it complimentary, but most of it accurate
ERIC IDLE It was extraordinary. I mean, for us it was just an amazement that people were watching it in Dallas...
ERIC IDLE But we were wrong and we were amazed.
ERIC IDLE George once said to me "If we'd known we were going to be The Beatles we'd have tried harder."
ERIC IDLE I think the special thing about Python is that it's a writers' commune. The writers are in charge. T...
ERIC IDLE He plays a great banjo, too.
ERIC IDLE Bear in mind the simple rule, X squared to the power of two minus five over the seven point eight th...
ERIC IDLE I think the nice thing for us has been that every 10 years there's been a complete change in technol...
ERIC IDLE I love being an older comic now. It's like being an old soccer or an old baseball player. You're in ...
ERIC IDLE They have to get their own personal best. It's called my personal best. ... There was one or two thi...
ERIC IDLE As long as there are innocent nickels to be made from the gullible, Python-starved public, I shall b...
ERIC IDLE Mere lack of evidence, of course, is no reason to denounce a theory. Look at intelligent design. The...
ERIC IDLE Sind sie vorbestraft? Du lieber Himmel ich wußte gar nicht, dass das immer noch nötig ist." Britis...
ERIC IDLE I thought this director gig was just one of those side roads we take at times on the journey to our ...
GAY IDLE You constantly hear about voter fraud... but you don't see huge amounts of vote fraud out there.
ERIC HOLDER We must never stop fighting for a vision of American democracy in which we strive for and encourage ...
ERIC SCHNEIDERMAN Children are the keys of paradise.
ERIC HOFFER It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor.
ERIC HOFFER Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.
ERIC HOFFER Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy - the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and ...
ERIC HOFFER The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future.
ERIC HOFFER It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to le...
ERIC HOFFER Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us...
ERIC HOFFER Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength.
ERIC HOFFER The beginning of thought is in disagreement - not only with others but also with ourselves.
ERIC HOFFER We feel free when we escape - even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire.
ERIC HOFFER We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about.
ERIC HOFFER One of the things I learned is that you've got to deal with the underlying social problems if yo...
ERIC HOLDER I've been hearing this since I first joined the Reds organization, that I'm going to be the ...
ERIC DAVIS I can understand why a single parent, working two jobs, would find it easier to stop at McDonald'...
ERIC SCHLOSSER Nothing stops the man who desires to achieve. Every obstacle is simply a course to develop his achie...
ERIC BUTTERWORTH Consultant: any ordinary guy more than fifty miles from home.
ERIC SEVAREID If you sequence a cancerous tumor, you should be able to tailor the therapy according to the root ca...
ERIC TOPOL A brain scan may reveal the neural signs of anxiety, but a Kokoschka painting, or a Schiele self-por...
ERIC KANDEL I want to be remembered for my poop jokes. Those are the most important kind.
ERIC ANDRE A loser doesn't know what he'll do if he loses, but talks about what he'll do if he wins...
ERIC BERNE Google was founded to get information to everybody. A by-product of that strategy is that we invente...
ERIC SCHMIDT When someone makes a claim against the state, that person must legally verify that the facts in the ...
ERIC SCHNEIDERMAN Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have ...
ERIC HOLDER Television is a lot of fun. It's faster-paced. The schedule is really desirable, I guess. But as...
ERIC DANE It takes a lot of energy to be negative. You have to work at it. But smiling is painless. I'd ra...
ERIC DAVIS I like Velvet Underground, but I was never really hardcore into them. I like them, and I like Nico, ...
ERIC ANDRE If someone is too perfect they won't look good. Imperfection is important.
ERIC CANTONA I love cheese and biscuits, the stronger the better.
ERIC BRISTOW Why should citizenship be a matter of birth? The premise held by those who want to end birthright ci...
ERIC LIU I am a Buddhist, therefore I should not be collecting anything - however, I have a collection of Bud...
ERIC RIPERT First paying gig, I got 20 bucks. I played at some really weird venue. I don't remember the venu...
ERIC ANDRE Why my interest in writers? Well, I'm one, and many of my friends are writers. I know what it...
ERIC BROWN When Bryan Price taught me how to throw a changeup, he made me see myself. All my life, I've bee...
ERIC LIU I have two bowls of confidence for breakfast each morning.
ERIC BRISTOW If you are going to make a change, make it big and bold. Walk up to the biggest guy on the block, st...
ERIC SHINSEKI With breathtaking rapidity, we are destroying all that was lovely to look at and turning America int...
ERIC SEVAREID You know, you grow up with the image of John Travolta being super cool - 'Saturday Night Fever,&...
ERIC STOLTZ The nature of a society is largely determined by the direction in which talent and ambition flowby t...
ERIC HOFFER The compulsion to take ourselves seriously is in inverse proportion to our creative capacity. When t...
ERIC HOFFER How much easier is self-sacrifice than self-realization!
ERIC HOFFER There is probably an element of malice in the readiness to overestimate people; we are laying up for...
ERIC HOFFER It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is as true of men as of dogs.
ERIC HOFFER I have a Tinder account. Now I've done Bumble, and I've tried this other one, and the way I ...
ERIC STONESTREET At Tenafly High, I was lucky to have some dedicated teachers; I'm especially indebted to my calc...
ERIC MASKIN If your goal is to make money, becoming an entrepreneur is a sucker's bet. Sure, some entreprene...
ERIC RIES All I ever wanted to do was get a great job on a TV show. When I read 'Modern Family' and st...
ERIC STONESTREET My wife is a real camper; it's a nice way to bond.
ERIC MCCORMACK Great businessmen are creators.
ERIC CANTONA I'll tell you one thing about me: I'm very private. I always have been private. People think...
ERIC DICKERSON Within that dream of working with your partner, you want to be able to separate and have a home life...
ERIC WINTER There is no greater country on Earth for entrepreneurship than America. In every category, from the ...
ERIC RIES If what I've been told is true - and I believe it is, General David Petraeus, a commander with s...
ERIC MASSA There are certain mutations you can find across cancers in different organs.
ERIC TOPOL There are estimates that 2 to 3 percent of cancers in the U.S. each year are engendered by exposure ...
ERIC TOPOL As with almost every significant aspect of the Bush presidency, its handling of 9/11 was a catastrop...
ERIC ALTERMAN I am, and always will be, a blues guitarist.
ERIC CLAPTON With vocal and choral music, first and foremost, it's the text. Not only do I need to serve the ...
ERIC WHITACRE There's a roots nature to Appalachia - the origins of folk and bluegrass. I know guys there who ...
ERIC CHURCH A soul that is reluctant to share does not as a rule have much of its own. Miserliness is here a sym...
ERIC HOFFER There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
ERIC HOFFER Marriage has for women many equivalents of joining a mass movement. It offers them a new purpose in ...
ERIC HOFFER The individual's most vital need is to prove his worth, and this usually means an insatiable hunger ...
ERIC HOFFER Sharks have been swimming the oceans unchallenged for thousands of years; chances are, the species t...
ERIC GELMAN Lightning is the shorthand of a storm, and tells of chaos.
ERIC MACKAY The Boomers will eventually have to accept that it is not possible to stay forever young or to stop ...
ERIC LIU When a bank calls in a loan, it obviously hurts the customer in question. But it also adversely affe...
ERIC MASKIN It is a talent of the weak to persuade themselves that they suffer for something when they suffer f...
ERIC HOFFER Mass is resistance to motion.
ERIC PARSLOW One of the keys to wealth is to understand why & how the distance from 1 to 1 million is greater tha...
ERIC PARSLOW The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.
ERIC HOFFER Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want to...
ERIC HOFFER Whether it is an attempt to bomb the New York City subway system, an attempt to bring down an airpla...
ERIC HOLDER 'The Simpsons' is like Charlie Parker or Marlon Brando or Richard Pryor: Comedy couldn't...
ERIC ANDRE The greatest weariness comes from work not done.

ERIC HOFFER Anything and everything, physical or otherwise, is defined by its absence.
ERIC PARSLOW Life is the dynamic, creative edge of reality.
ERIC PARSLOW Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind. -Eric Hoffer.
ERIC HOFFER The bigger the information media, the less courage and freedom they follow. Bigness means weakness.
ERIC SEVAREID The bigger the information media, the less courage and freedom they allow. Bigness means weakness.
ERIC SEVAREID One of the marks of a truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of...
ERIC HOFFER The link between ideas and action is rarely direct. There is almost always an intermediate step in w...
ERIC HOFFER Remembering​ ​is​ ​something​ ​God​ ​asks​ ​us​ ​to​ ​do​ ​over​ �...
ERIC IRIVUZUMUGABE Death has but one terror, that it has no tomorrow.
ERIC HOFFER The most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their ...
ERIC HOFFER The technique of a mass movement aims to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as ...
ERIC HOFFER Laughter to begin with was probably glee at the misfortunes of others. The baring of the teeth in l...
ERIC HOFFER Crude absurdities, trivial nonsense, and sublime truths are equally potent in readying people for se...
ERIC HOFFER Lack of sensitivity is perhaps basically an unawareness of ourselves.
ERIC HOFFER Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions ...
ERIC HOFFER The fact is that up to now a free society has not been good for the intellectual. It has neither ac...
ERIC HOFFER As I railed on and on, I became increasingly energied and excited by my own misery and misanthropy u...
ERIC WEINER For the skeptic there remains only one consolation: if there should be such a thing as superhuman ...
ERIC AMBLER Geniuses are always marginalized to one degree or another. Someone wholly invested in the status quo...
ERIC WEINER It's my duty as a human being to be pissed off
ERIC BOGOSIAN I know what I want to hear. I want to hear the "Believe it or Not" song. I want to play that shit lo...
ERIC SPITZNAGEL The chief cause of problems is solutions.
ERIC SEVAREID When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common...
ERIC HOFFER Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. The resentment of the weak does not spring...
ERIC HOFFER Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart. For we can...
ERIC HOFFER Freedom means freedom from forces and circumstances which would turn man into a thing, which would i...
ERIC HOFFER To the excessively fearful the chief characteristic of power is its arbitrariness. Man had to gain e...
ERIC HOFFER For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be....
ERIC ROTH The moment a little boy is concerned with which is a jay and which is a sparrow, he can no longer se...
ERIC BERNE It is a well known fact that Abraham Lincoln spent much of his spare time visiting wounded soldiers ...
ERIC FONER Nationalist pride, like other variants of pride, can be a substitute for self-respect.
ERIC HOFFER It is the stretched soul that makes music, and souls are stretched by the pull of opposites --opposi...
ERIC HOFFER There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmar...
ERIC HOFFER The passion to get ahead is sometimes born of the fear lest we be left behind.
ERIC HOFFER It sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.
ERIC HOFFER It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.
ERIC HOFFER It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor.
ERIC HOFFER Nature is a self-made machine, more perfectly automated than any automated machine. To create someth...
ERIC HOFFER Lightning is the shorthand of a storm, and tells of chaos.
ERIC MACKAY The real persuaders are our appetites, our fears and above all our vanity. The skillful propagandist...
ERIC HOFFER It is the individual only who is timeless. Societies, cultures, and civilizations -- past and presen...
ERIC HOFFER Naivete in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stu...
ERIC HOFFER An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anyth...
ERIC HOFFER Self-esteem and self-contempt have specific odors; they can be smelled.
ERIC HOFFER No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments. We need p...
ERIC HOFFER One of the best things to do sometimes is simply to be.
ERIC BUTTERWORTH The remarkable thing is that it is the crowded life that is most easily remembered. A life full of t...
ERIC HOFFER In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find them...
ERIC HOFFER I loved learning, it was school I hated. I used to cut school to go learn something.
ERIC JENSEN It would be difficult to exaggerate the degree to which we are influenced by those we influence.
ERIC HOFFER Animals often strike us as passionate machines.
ERIC HOFFER The superficiality of the American is the result of his hustling. It needs leisure to think things o...
ERIC HOFFER The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim a...
ERIC HOFFER We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true; they ruin our dreams.
ERIC HOFFER You've got to create a dream. You've got to uphold the dream. If you can't, go back to the factory o...
ERIC BURDON If you think you can do it, you can.
ERIC LINDROS Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy -- the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and...
ERIC HOFFER Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about. And since we know least about o...
ERIC HOFFER The effectiveness of a doctrine does not come from its meaning but from its certitude. No doctrine h...
ERIC HOFFER Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change.
GOLNIK ERIC We don't change what we are, we change what we think what we are.
ERIC BUTTERWORTH A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed.
ERIC HOFFER There is perhaps no more reliable indicator of a society's ripeness for a mass movement than the pre...
ERIC HOFFER The self-styled intellectual who is impotent with pen and ink hungers to write history with sword an...
ERIC HOFFER We can never really be prepared for that which is wholly new. We have to adjust ourselves, and every...
ERIC HOFFER Competing with an other is exhilarating, challenging, and healthy. That is what Games are for. When...
ERIC PARSLOW A successful social technique consists perhaps in finding unobjectionable means for individual self-...
ERIC HOFFER Absence of communication between necessarily linked parties ensures eventual conflict.
ERIC PARSLOW The notion of implied meaning is the root of misunderstanding.
ERIC PARSLOW To spell out the obvious is often to call it in question.
ERIC HOFFER We never say so much as when we do not quite know what we want to say. We need few words when we hav...
ERIC HOFFER To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.
ERIC HOFFER The well adjusted make poor prophets. A pleasant existence blinds us to the possibilities of drastic...
ERIC HOFFER Art is skill, that is the first meaning of the word.
ERIC GILL Prosperity is not just having things. It is the consciousness that attracts the things. Prosperity i...
ERIC BUTTERWORTH Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible.
ERIC HOFFER