Let's put it this way: if you are a novelist, I think you start out with a 20 word idea, and you work at it and you wind up with a 200,000 word novel. We, picture-book people, or at least I, start out with 200,000 words and I reduce it to 20.


Eric Carle

  Email Quote to Friends   Link to Quote   Create Short URL  Publish Text About This Quote   Share on Facebook, Twitter, and more
  See Recommended Quotes For You

Related

I lived a very isolated life. When you start at 20, you have a lot of nonsense to work out of your s...
EDIE SEDGWICK
If you start with a good idea, you can encapsulate it in a phrase and explain it. I like high-concep...
JANE CAMPION
If you start a business with only one or two stores, it's going to be different when you franchise i...
DAVE GAVITT
I think it's great training for any comedian to start on cows. Because with cows, you expect the...
KRISTEN SCHAAL
I didn't start out with a spectacular movie. Many people think you don't have to go from not...
BARRET OLIVER
If you catch yourself wondering why you want more of the world and you're not satisfied with God, it...
CRAIG GROESCHEL
You know, when you're making a record, you come up with 15, 20 songs. Then they start to fall by...
DAVID JOHANSEN
I think at the beginning of a project, you decide if you're in love with the idea and what it...
SPIKE JONZE
If you start out with a little telescope observing the stars and you keep at it over the years, as I...
TIM FERRISS
I think it's a great idea to at least start out with a smaller version locally, using the expertise ...
GREGG DANCHO
By the side of the everlasting Why there is a Yes--a transitory Yes if you like, but a Yes.
E.M. FORSTER
- I tak nieźle sobie pożyłem.
- Co to za życie? – powiedział ojciec.- Nic tylko kłamstw...
CHARLES BUKOWSKI
You can start out hot, you can start out lukewarm or you can start out cold. If you're a good team, ...
GARY SHEFFIELD
Drowning his misery with alcohol and junk food was like sticking plaster on an infected cut. It mask...
JAY NORTHCOTE
I think, in a written novel, the way in which you play with the readers' emotion or the way in w...
SALMAN RUSHDIE
Daring to dream is not difficult, it's making them come true that is hard...
NANETTE L. AVERY
What you need to do is get that tape measure out, and start measuring that gut. Then you start worki...
JACK LALANNE
I usually create sounds and have different generators running over it. You know you can open a word-...
CARSTEN NICOLAI
When you speak directly at things and don't say you're going to try to do something or that ...
J. B. SMOOVE
Every once in a while, you let a word or phrase out and you want to catch it and bring it back. You ...
DAN QUAYLE
I use a lot of different words for God - infinite intelligence, primordial, perfection or universal ...
ALEX GREY
The word 'leukemia' is a very frightening word. In many instances, it's a killer and it&...
KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR
The Tao teaches us to let go of things. Use the 80/20 rule. If you take all your clothes, you'll...
WAYNE DYER
I think stutterers are funny. And I know it's rude and politically incorrect to laugh at stutter...
JAMES EARL JONES
I think there's a time to work, and everyone has to kind of adjust. And then there's a time ...
VANESSA WILLIAMS
Jazz sometimes can be really complicated and inaccessible to people because they don't know what...
CECILE MCLORIN SALVANT
If you don't have a voice that forces you back to basics, you're a dangerous person. Or to p...
STEVE WYNN
People are so afraid to say the word 'comic'. It makes you think of a grown man with pimples...
MARJANE SATRAPI
You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good st...
OCTAVIA BUTLER
I always like when you start to use something with a little less reverence. You start to use it a li...
JONATHAN IVE
I say it with my tongue firmly planted in cheek but there's truth to it - being a comedian is ve...
DANE COOK
I was really disappointed with our first 20 minutes but we competed well after that. You are in for ...
CRAIG BELLAMY
I think it's absolutely possible for any woman to use the moves I do with Lady Gaga. Just put on...
LAURIEANN GIBSON
Nutrition doesn't have to be complicated. It goes back to the lessons you learned as a kid. Star...
SUMMER SANDERS
When you gossip, it's self-hexing. Because when you do it, it comes back to you. Everything star...
IYANLA VANZANT
I love producing! It's so much fun to start with a blank canvas and create the picture you want ...
MARTINA MCBRIDE
When I start a picture, I always have a script, but I change it every day. I put in what occurs to m...
FEDERICO FELLINI
It's like a novelist writing far out things. If it makes a point and makes sense, then people li...
JOHNNY CASH
And if a person is religious, I think it's good, it helps you a bit. But if you're not, at l...
MAYA ANGELOU
In a novel, you have space to develop a character or a scene. You don't have that luxury in a 70...
KIRBY LARSON
YOU are YOU! Know YOU can! YOU must not be afraid because God has a prosperous future plan for YOU! ...
ISRAELMORE AYIVOR
If you think people are against you and that you're a target, things will start appearing that w...
HALIMA ADEN
With anything in life, I think that's when you start stressing yourself out - when you start wor...
SCOTT TOLZIEN
Figure out what you're good at and start helping other people with it; give it away. Pay it forw...
NAVAL RAVIKANT
I firmly believe that every six years, a person goes through a serious change. Think about it: At 6,...
RANDY HOUSER
Long-time viewing of Internet violence tend to change a person's temperament, making the person pron...
YOU QUANXI
If positive and healthy materials are absent, negative materials are sure to be dominant in the cybe...
YOU QUANXI
In a robust global business environment, our business units operated well in the first quarter. More...
HARRY YOU
The Board of Directors and I are pleased to recognize Peter's outstanding contribution to the succes...
HARRY YOU
We are pleased to close the books on 2004 following the painstaking review of almost five years of f...
HARRY YOU
I generally don't walk out of films. If I start a book, and I don't love it by page 100, I w...
DAVID DOBKIN
When you get something like MTV, it's like regular television. You get it, and at first it's...
DAVID LEE ROTH
There's nothing nicer than getting a round of applause for turning up for work. It's amazing...
JAMES CORDEN
I always thought if I could just put something in words perfectly enough, people would get the idea,...
NEIL PEART
It was just something - I didn't agree with what the flag was representing at this time, and you...
COLIN KAEPERNICK
It's usually so fraught when you're taking a picture. I work with an 8-by-10 view camera and...
SALLY MANN
Start with short stories. After all, if you were taking up rock climbing, you wouldn't start wit...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN
I think 80 percent of the population are really great, caring people who will help you and tell you ...
TOM HANKS
The only thing I can think of is that if you start with something, it progresses to something else. ...
CARROLL PADGETT
With kiting, you have to land a trick, and in that instant you know whether you won or lost - I knew...
MAIKA MONROE
It's the journey of self, I guess. You start with this kind of loner, outside guy, which a lot o...
KEANU REEVES
It was three long trips, and we came out of it with 20 goals for and three against. You can't argue ...
DAVID COPE
The way that I look at it is that, when we film for eight months straight for a new 'Jackass'...
BAM MARGERA
Actions and words Part 1: Does actions really speak louder then words? Lot of people believe it true...
J C A ROWE
When I think about the books I've written, it probably takes 150,000-200,000 words to get a 50,0...
BRAD FELD
I think these are the best games to start out with. It's better to start with a challenge, so you ca...
LAUREN ROBIDEAU
If your appraisal comes back too low - you don't have at least 10% equity for a conforming loan ...
JEAN CHATZKY
If you start a conversation with the assumption that you are right or that you must win, obviously i...
WENDELL BERRY
I animated 20 years at Terry Toons. It's important to know that animators like pizza and a raise...
RALPH BAKSHI
You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you're not ...
STEVE JOBS
You know, there's an economy in lyric-writing that doesn't afford you, or at least me - I us...
J. TILLMAN
If you want to be an actor, you should just get out there and do it. I don't go for the approach...
BILL NUNN
If you want one thing too much it’s likely to be a disappointment. The healthy way is to learn to ...
LARRY MCMURTRY
Better to feel nothing, to be numb, than to lose control. It's the only way I know to deal with it.
JULIE KAGAWA
Getting on with her life is important. But right now it may be more important to put the feelings ou...
JENNIFER BROWN
At any age, we struggle with intimacy. When you're a kid, you think, 'I won't have that ...
DAVID FRANKEL
I've met actors where you think, if only you could just clean up your act and get it together, p...
PATRICK STEWART
I've had writing sessions with people, but I've never had one where you're just there, a...
CAMILA CABELLO
Sometimes you watch one of your favorite shows from 20 years ago and you think, 'I'm loving ...
JULIAN FELLOWES
Where you are with what you have, what you can do.
DHARM BABU
People ask me over and over how is it that I work with stars. How do you work with Barbra Streisand,...
SYDNEY POLLACK
I mean, there's a sense wherein you skip a part of childhood, too, when you start working at tha...
BEN MENDELSOHN
I talk to younger actor types, and they bring up that word, 'brand,' and it's like, '...
ZACH GALIFIANAKIS
If you do this, you're going to have some heartaches from it. You're going to have people ye...
FRANK PERDUE
If you create something, whether it's a painting or a company, I think if you care about it, you...
DANIEL H. PINK
As an actor you want people to know you and there are times you want your pictures taken, but it'...
ASHLEY GREENE
I think it's important for an actor to see the work they've done because every time you revi...
ABHISHEK BACHCHAN
The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. When I'm inspired, I get...
DOLLY PARTON
Whenever a woman tries to put you out of temper, turn the tables, and put HER out of temper instead....
WILKIE COLLINS
I was a wallflower when I was younger, and at a young age, I was too embarrassed. So I didn't st...
DREW LACHEY
If a script comes together, and you end up liking the people who are part of it, that's when you...
ALEXA VEGA
I came to California and got signed at a young age. And it's not like you see in the movies, whe...
BRUNO MARS
I'm sure you're aware, with the time it takes to put these books together, everything can su...
GARTH ENNIS
If it turns out to be a hit, well, good luck dealing with fame. And if it's not a hit and you ca...
EDIE BRICKELL
You have to have a sense of humor. Countering a novel and a movie is a little bit like fighting agai...
BRIAN FINNERTY
We came out and pounded it right at them. We wanted to get off to a good start and we came out with ...
CASSIE SCHROCK
How do you create chemistry? If only I knew that! Some people say it's a natural thing that you ...
KAREN GILLAN
When you live with a 20/20 mindset your path is straight, vision is clear, and decisions are precise...
FARSHAD ASL
I always start my breakfast out with oatmeal, because it's full of vitamin D, it's a great c...
GRACIE GOLD
You need to start, you need to be consistent with it, and you need to let the compound interest work...
LARRY THURMOND

More Eric Carle

The hardest part is developing the idea, and that can take years.
ERIC CARLE
We have eyes, and we're looking at stuff all the time, all day long. And I just think that whate...
ERIC CARLE
That's something I learned in art school. I studied graphic design in Germany, and my professor ...
ERIC CARLE
We have eyes, and we're looking at stuff all the time, all day long. And I just think that whatever ...
ERIC CARLE
They are deceptively simple. I admit that. But for me, all my life I try to simplify things. As a ch...
ERIC CARLE
You know, now it's sinking in. It's taken me a long time to realize - and it is sinking in -...
ERIC CARLE
One day I think it's the greatest idea ever that I'm working on. The next day I think it'...
ERIC CARLE
These were not accidents, these were not pranks.
CHANDRA CARLE
They are very powerful, very unpredictable and very volatile.
CHANDRA CARLE
The number of Atlantic salmon returning to U.S. rivers last year was one of the lowest ever recorded...
DAVID CARLE
This was a targeted attack on the faculty at Scripps Ranch High School.
CHANDRA CARLE
Jewelry wears thin. Flowers die. But cards get kept and gestures remembered. Ultimately, what is imp...
GILDA CARLE
Parents often feel overwhelmed in navigating their relationships and making their mark on the world....
GILDA CARLE
I'm sure Frances Bean will be on the couch for many years to come.
GILDA CARLE
When you go for a change of life -- as in a marriage -- there are going to be some jitters. What you...
GILDA CARLE
I'm sure I'll get some grief from it, that's to be expected. I guess I'd rather be taking the grief ...
MATT CARLE
To me, this is more about representing the University of Denver. So much has happened the last coupl...
MATT CARLE
I was just throwing it on net. I don't really now how it went in, so I've got to watch it on video b...
MATT CARLE
I can't thank enough what the league and the University of Denver has given me.
MATT CARLE
We've got to get better defensively. We need to come out (tonight) and get two points.
MATT CARLE
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
Life doesn't make any sense, and we all pretend it does. Comedy's job is to point out that it doesn'...
ERIC IDLE
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
The suspicious mind believes more than it doubts. It believes in a formidable and ineradicable evil ...
ERIC HOFFER
Dissipation is a form of self-sacrifice.
ERIC HOFFER
Nothing stops the man who desires to achieve. Every obstacle is simply a course to develop his achie...
ERIC BUTTERWORTH
A decision without the pressure of consequence is hardly a decision at all.
ERIC LANGMUIR.
When being dishonest, people can still tell the truth. Be mindful of the treacherous that do not lie...
ERIC PARSLOW
Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but...
ERIC HOFFER
We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.
ERIC HOFFER
Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
ERIC HOFFER
There is no such thing as a lack of faith. We all have plenty of faith, it's just that we have faith...
ERIC BUTTERWORTH
They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort. They ascribe failure to a lack of inspi...
ERIC HOFFER
There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his ow...
ERIC HOFFER
Facts are counterrevolutionary.
ERIC HOFFER
Where you are in consciousness has everything to do with what you see in experience.
ERIC BUTTERWORTH
Substantive abandonment of convention is evidence of mastery.
ERIC PARSLOW
It is remarkable by how much a pinch of malice enhances the penetrating power of an idea or an opini...
ERIC HOFFER
A great man's greatest good luck is to die at the right time.
ERIC HOFFER
Man was nature's mistake --she neglected to finish him -- and she has never ceased paying for her mi...
ERIC HOFFER
Truth and honesty are quite different. What a person believes to be true always follows when honesty...
ERIC PARSLOW
The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in th...
ERIC HOFFER
It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.
ERIC HOFFER
Evil, and evil spirits, devils and devil possession, are the outgrowth of man's inadequate conscious...
ERIC BUTTERWORTH
The one thing that a fish can never find is water; and the one thing that man can never find is God.
ERIC BUTTERWORTH
God can only do for you what He can do through you.
ERIC BUTTERWORTH
Fundamentalists believe Jesus was God becoming man. I believe that Jesus was man becoming God.
ERIC BUTTERWORTH
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
ERIC HOFFER
Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, ...
ERIC HOFFER
The birth of the new constitutes a crisis, and its mastery calls for a crude and simple cast of mind...
ERIC HOFFER