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It is thus with most of us we are what other people say we are. We know ourselves chiefly by hearsay.

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
Gossip
Thus
Personality
Character
People
Hearsay
Certitude
Chiefly

More quotes by Eric Hoffer

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We are more prone to generalize the bad than the good. We assume that the bad is more potent and contagious.
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When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.
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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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Children are the keys of paradise.
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That which is unique and worthwhile in us makes itself felt only in flashes. If we do not know how to catch and savor the flashes we are without growth and exhilaration.
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The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world.
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There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.
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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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For men to plunge headlong into an undertaking of vast change, they must be intensely discontented yet not destitute, and they must have the feeling that by the possession of some potent doctrine, infallible leader or some new technique they have access to a source of irresistible power.
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The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.
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To be fully alive is to feel that everything is possible.
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Craving, not having, is the mother of a reckless giving of oneself.
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It is easier to hate an enemy with much good in him than one who is all bad. We cannot hate those we despise.
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Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of age when man asked the first question. Social stagnation results not from a lack of answers but from the absence of the impulse to ask questions.
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An empty head is not really empty it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head.
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To be aware how fruitful the playful mood can be is to be immune to the propaganda of the alienated, which extols resentment as a fuel of achievement.
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When our individual interests and prospects do not seem worth living for, we are in desperate need for something apart from us to live for. All forms of dedication, devotion, loyalty and self-surrender are in essence a desperate clinging to something which might give worth and meaning to our futile, spoiled lives.
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Though they seem at opposite poles, fanatics of all kinds are actually crowded together at one end. It is the fanatic and the moderate who are poles apart and never meet.
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When the weak want to give an impression of strength they hint menacingly at their capacity for evil. It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.
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There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his own house.
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