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Where freedom is real, equality is the passion of the masses. Where equality is real, freedom is the passion of a small minority.

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
Small
Passion
Freedom
Minority
Real
Masses
Minorities
Equality
Mass
Liberty

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If the Communists win Europe and a large part of the world, it will not be because they know how to stir up discontent or how to infect people with hatred, but because they know how to preach hope.
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We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: change prepares the ground for revolution.
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Though dissenters seem to question everything in sight, they are actually bundles of dusty answers and never conceived a new question. What offends us most in the literature of dissent is the lack of hesitation and wonder.
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It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny.
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Fair play is primarily not blaming others for anything that is wrong with us.
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You cannot gauge the intelligence of an American by talking with him you must work with him. The American polishes and refines his way of doing things-even the most commonplace-the way the French of the 17th century polished their maxims.
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The proselytizing fanatic strengthens his own faith by converting others. The creed whose legitimacy is most easily challenged is likely to develop the strongest proselytizing impulse.
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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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The technique of a mass movement aims to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as a cure.
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There is always a chance that he who sets himself up as his brother's keeper will end up by being his jail-keeper.
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Spiritual stagnation ensues when man's environment becomes unpredictable or when his inner life is made wholly predictable.
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To change everything, simply change your attitude.
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The passion for equality is partly a passion for anonymity: to be one thread of the many which make up a tunic one thread not distinguishable from the others. No one can then point us out, measure us against others and expose our inferiority.
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Commitment becomes hysterical when those who have nothing to give advocate generosity, and those who have nothing to give up preach renunciation.
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The true believer, no matter how rowdy and violent his acts, is basically an obedient and submissive person.
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Even in slight things the experience of the new is rarely without some stirring of foreboding.
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The capacity for getting along with our neighbor depends to a large extent on the capacity for getting along with ourselves. The self-respecting individual will try to be as tolerant of his neighbor's shortcomings as he is of his own.
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Communists are frustrated capitalists.
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Creativity is discontent translated into arts.
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