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Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent.

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
Perishable
Youth
Talent
Time

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We are ready to die for an opinion but not for a fact
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The misery of a child is interesting to a mother, the misery of a young man is interesting to a young woman, the misery of an old man is interesting to nobody.
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There is a time when the word eventually has the soothing effect of a promise, and a time when the word evokes in us bitterness and scorn.
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Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden.
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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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A preoccupation with the future not only prevents us from seeing the present as it is but often prompts us to rearrange the past.
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The sense of inferiority inherent in the act of imitation breeds resentment. The impulse of the imitators is to overcome the model they imitate.
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The intellectuals and the young, booted and spurred, feel themselves born to ride us.
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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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Man is eminently a storyteller. His search for a purpose, a cause, an ideal, a mission and the like is largely a search for a plot and a pattern in the development of his life story - a story that is basically without meaning or pattern.
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People haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both.
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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 be fully alive is to feel that everything is possible.
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Lack of sensitivity is perhaps basically an unawareness of ourselves.
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It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.
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All great art is revolutionary because it touches upon the reality of man and questions the reality of the various transitory forms of human society.
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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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Quite often the social doctors become part of the disease.
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A free society is as much a threat to the intellectual's sense of worth as an automated economy is to the workingman's sense of worth. Any social order that can function with a minimum of leadership will be anathema to the intellectual.
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Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience.
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