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Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible.

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
Wise
Wisdom
Acquiring
Possible
Customs
Less
Consists
Living
Habits
Good
Tradition
Life
Habit
Perhaps

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The majority prove their worth by keeping busy. A busy life is the nearest thing to a purposeful life.
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The ruthlessness born of self-seeking is ineffectual compared with the ruthlessness sustained by dedication to a holy cause. God wishes, said Calvin, that one should put aside all humanity when it is a question of striving for His glory.
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Those who are in love with the present can be cruel and corrupt but not genuinely vicious. They cannot be methodically and consistently ruthless.
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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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Failure in the management of practical affairs seems to be a qualification for success in the management of public affairs.
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Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.
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Humility is not renunciation of pride but the substitution of one pride for another.
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Absolute power turns its possessors not into a God but an anti-God. For God turned clay into men, while the absolute despot turns men into clay.
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We can remember minutely and precisely only the things which never really happened to us.
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Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul.
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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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It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor.
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You accept certain unlovely things about yourself and manage to live with them. The atonement for such an acceptance is that you make allowances for others - that you cleanse yourself of the sin of self-righteousness.
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Originality is deliberate and forced, and partakes of the nature of a protest.
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Faith in humanity, in posterity, in the destiny of one's religion, nation, race, party or family-what is it but the visualization of that eternal something to which we attach the self that is about to be annihilated?
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We never say so much as when we do not quite know what we want to say. We need few words when we have something to say, but all the words in all the dictionaries will not suffice when we have nothing to say and want desperately to say it.
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The real persuaders are our appetites, our fears and above all our vanity. The skillful propagandist stirs and coaches these internal persuaders.
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It is the acquisition of skills in particular, irrespective of their utility, that is potent in making life meaningful. Since man has no inborn skills, the survival of the species has depended on the ability to acquire and perfect skills. Hence the mastery of skills is a uniquely human activity and yields deep satisfaction.
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Anger is a prelude to courage.
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EVERY intense desire is perhaps basically a desire to be different from what we are.
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