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Craving, not having, is the mother of a reckless giving of oneself.
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
Motherhood
Oneself
Literature
Mother
Giving
Reckless
Craving
More quotes by Eric Hoffer
To dispose a soul to action we must upset its equilibrium.
Eric Hoffer
Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power.
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Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.
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Often, the thing we pursue most passionately is but a substitute for the one thing we really want and cannot have.
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The conservatism of a religion - it's orthodoxy - is the inert coagulum of a once highly reactive sap.
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What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people's faces as unfinished as their minds.
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People whose lives are barren and insecure seem to show a greater willingness to obey than people who are self-sufficient and self-confident. To the frustrated, freedom from responsibility is more attractive than freedom from restraint.
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What merit there is in my thinking is derived from two peculiarities: (1) My inability to be familiar with anything. I simply can't take things for granted. (2) My endless patience. I assume that the only way to find an answer is to hang on long enough and keep groping.
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The necessary has never been man's top priority. The passionate pursuit of the nonessential and the extravagant is one of the chief traits of human uniqueness. Unlike other forms of life, man's greatest exertions are made in the pursuit not of necessities but of superfluities.
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The compulsion to take ourselves seriously is in inverse proportion to our creative capacity. When the creative flow dries up, all we have left is our importance.
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The world leans on us. When we sag, the whole world seems to droop.
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EVERY intense desire is perhaps basically a desire to be different from what we are.
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Naivete in grownups is often charming but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity.
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I have a premonition that will not leave me: as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the holocaust will be upon us.
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There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
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It is always safe to assume that people are more subtle and less sensitive than they seem.
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The hardest thing to cope with is not selfishness or vanity or deceitfulness, but sheer stupidity.
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There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth anew each day we have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak, for life.
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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.
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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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