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We are more prone to generalize the bad than the good. We assume that the bad is more potent and contagious.
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
Prone
Contagious
Assume
Assuming
Good
Generalize
Generalization
Potent
More quotes by Eric Hoffer
A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority.
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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.
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Where freedom is real, equality is the passion of the masses. Where equality is real, freedom is the passion of a small minority.
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We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about.
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There is always a chance that he who sets himself up as his brother's keeper will end up by being his jail-keeper.
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Though they seem at opposite poles, fanatics of all kinds are actually crowded together at one end. It is the fanatic and the moderate who are poles apart and never meet.
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Spiritual stagnation ensues when man's environment becomes unpredictable or when his inner life is made wholly predictable.
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Nothing comes easily. My work smells of sweat.
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Whenever you trace the origin of a skill or practices which played a crucial role in the ascent of man, we usually reach the realm of play.
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The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its antihumanity.
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Call not that man wretched, who whatever ills he suffers, has a child to love.
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Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.
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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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The chief burden of the frustrated is the consciousness of a blemished, ineffectual self, and their chief desire is to slough off the unwanted self and begin a new life. They try to realize this desire either by finding a new identity or by blurring and camouflaging their individual distinctness and both these ends are reached by imitation.
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The true believer, no matter how rowdy and violent his acts, is basically an obedient and submissive person.
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A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self.
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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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However much we guard against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us.
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Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden.
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For though ours is a godless age, it is the very opposite of irreligious. The true believer is everywhere on the march, and both by converting and antagonizing he is shaping the world in his own image. And whether we are to line up with him or against him, it is well that we should know all we can concerning his nature and potentialities.
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