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The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.

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
Search
Laughter
Source
Joy
Happiness
Sources
Happy
Unhappiness
Chief
Chiefs

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We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.
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Man's chief goal in life is still to become and stay human, and defend his achievements against the encroachment of nature.
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How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem empty.
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Nothing so offends the doctrinaire intellectual as our ability to achieve the momentous in a matter-of-fact way, unblessed by words.
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The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything.
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Absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes. The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep. The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its anti-humanity.
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Propaganda ... serves more to justify ourselves than to convince others and the more reason we have to feel guilty, the more fervent our propaganda.
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Many of the insights of the saint stem from his experience as a sinner.
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One wonders whether a generation that demands instant satisfaction of all its needs and instant solution of the world's problems will produce anything of lasting value. Such a generation, even when equipped with the most modern technology, will be essentially primitive it will stand in awe of nature, and submit to the tutelage of medicine men.
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The act of self-denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others.
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The intellectuals and the young, booted and spurred, feel themselves born to ride us.
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A heresy can spring only from a system that is in full vigor.
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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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If anybody asks me what I have accomplished, I will say all I have accomplished is that I have written a few good sentences.
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When you automate an industry you modernize it when you automate a life you primitivize it.
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Add a few drops of venom to a half truth and you have an absolute truth.
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The less satisfaction we derive from being ourselves, the greater is our desire to be like others.
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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.
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A man's worth is what he is divided by what he thinks he is.
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You cannot gauge the intelligence of an American by talking with him you must work with him. The American polishes and refines his way of doing things-even the most commonplace-the way the French of the 17th century polished their maxims.
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