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EVERY intense desire is perhaps basically a desire to be different from what we are.

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
Every
Intense
Basically
Perhaps
Desire
Different

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It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible.
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The world leans on us. When we sag, the whole world seems to droop.
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Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.
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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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Whoever originated the cliche that money is the root of all evil knew hardly anything about the nature of evil and very little about human beings.
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The individual's most vital need is to prove his worth, and this usually means an insatiable hunger for action. For it is only the few who can acquire a sense of worth by developing and employing their capacities and talents. The majority prove their worth by keeping busy.
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Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power.
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There is a time when the word eventually has the soothing effect of a promise, and a time when the word evokes in us bitterness and scorn.
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Nowhere at present is there such a measureless loathing of their country by educated people as in America.
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The urge to escape our real self is also an urge to escape the rational and the obvious.
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The hardest thing to cope with is not selfishness or vanity or deceitfulness, but sheer stupidity.
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