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Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.

Eric Hoffer

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Eric Hoffer
Age: 84 †
Born: 1898
Born: July 25
Died: 1983
Died: May 21
Philosopher
Psychologist
Writer
New York City
New York
Thing
Math
Something
Hardest
Ugly
Built
Pretenses
Trust
Pretension
Greatest
Pretense
Beauty
Emptiness
Evil
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Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden.
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The revulsion from an unwanted self, and the impulse to forget it, mask it, slough it off and lose it, produce both a readiness to sacrifice the self and a willingness to dissolve it by losing one's individual distinctness in a compact collective whole.
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However much we guard against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us.
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It is doubtful whether the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power-power to oppress others.
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Radicalism itself ceases to be radical when absorbed mainly in preserving its control over a society or an economy.
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Every era has a currency that buys souls. In some the currency is pride, in others it is hope, in still others it is a holy cause. There are of course times when hard cash will buy souls, and the remarkable thing is that such times are marked by civility, tolerance, and the smooth working of everyday life.
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Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.
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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.
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