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Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.

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
Come
Absolute
Make
Possession
Lies
Lying
Prophesy
True
Prophecies
Also
Prophecy
Power
Deception
Government
Absolutes

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When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.
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They who clamor loudest for freedom are often the ones least likely to be happy in a free society.
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Humility is not renunciation of pride but the substitution of one pride for another.
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A good sentence is a key . It unlocks the mind of the reader.
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The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.
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Sensuality reconciles us with the human race. The misanthropy of the old is due in large part to the fading of the magic glow of desire.
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Only the individual who has come to terms with his self can have a dispassionate attitude toward the world.
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Freedom released the energies of the masses not by exhilarating but by unbalancing, irritating, and goading.
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Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of age when man asked the first question. Social stagnation results not from a lack of answers but from the absence of the impulse to ask questions.
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Lack of sensitivity is perhaps basically an unawareness of ourselves.
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Proselytizing is more a passionate search for something not yet found than a desire to bestow upon the world something we already have. It is a search for a final and irrefutable demonstration that our absolute truth is indeed the one and only truth. The proselytizing fanatic strengthens his own faith by converting others.
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We run fastest and farthest when we run from ourselves.
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In human affairs every solution serves only to sharpen the problem, to show us more clearly what we are up against. There are no final solutions.
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It takes a vice to check a vice, and virtue is the by-product of a stalemate between opposite vices.
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The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone. Those who could not thrive when left to themselves never felt at ease in America.
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Those who feel guilty are afraid and those who are afraid somehow feel guilty. To the onlooker, too, the fearful seem guilty.
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We can never have enough of that which we really do not want.
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No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion it is an evil government.
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We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true they ruin our dreams.
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If the Communists win Europe and a large part of the world, it will not be because they know how to stir up discontent or how to infect people with hatred, but because they know how to preach hope.
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