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Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

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
Faith
Inspirational
Dehumanization
Power
Corrupts
Atheist
Absolutes
Absolute
Atheism
Absolutely

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There is need for some kind of make-believe in order to face death unflinchingly. To our real, naked selves there is not a thing on earth or in heaven worth dying for.
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The main effect of a real revolution is perhaps that it sweeps away those who do not know how to wish, and brings to the front men with insatiable appetites for action, power and all that the world has to offer.
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God alone is satisfied with what He is and can proclaim: I am what I am. Unlike God, man strives with all his might to be what he is not. He incessantly proclaims: I am what I am not.
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Mass movements do not usually rise until the prevailing order has been discredited.
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It is doubtful whether the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power-power to oppress others.
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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 link between ideas and action is rarely direct. There is almost always an intermediate step in which the idea is overcome.
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There is no reason why the profoundest thoughts should not make easy and exciting reading. A profound thought is an exciting thing as exciting as a detective's deductions or hunches. The simpler the words in which a thought is expressed the more stimulating its effect.
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To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.
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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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There are many who have grave scruples about deceiving but think it as nothing to deceive themselves.
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America is still the best country for the common man -- white or black ... if he can't make it here he won't make it anywhere else.
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Freedom released the energies of the masses not by exhilarating but by unbalancing, irritating, and goading.
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Our doubts about ourselves cannot be banished except by working at that which is the one and only thing we know we ought to do. Other people's assertions cannot silence the howling dirge within us. It is our talents rusting unused within us that secrete the poison of self-doubt into our bloodstream.
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It needs fanatical faith to rationalize our cowardice.
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Add a few drops of venom to a half truth and you have an absolute truth.
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They who clamor loudest for freedom are often the ones least likely to be happy in a free society.
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Unlimited opportunities can be as potent a cause of frustration as a paucity or lack of opportunities.
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What the intellectual craves above all else is to be taken seriously, to be treated as a decisive force in shaping history. He is far more at home in a society that weighs his every word and keeps close watch on his attitudes then in a society that cares not what he says or does. He would rather be persecuted than ignored.
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The most troublesome problem which confronts social engineering is how to provide for the untalented and, what is equally important, how to provide against them.
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