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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.

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
Stories
Basically
Largely
Without
Ideals
Pattern
Men
Meaning
Mission
Life
Development
Plot
Like
Cause
Missions
Causes
Ideal
Story
Search
Eminently
Purpose
Patterns
Storyteller

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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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The necessary has never been man's top priority. The passionate pursuit of the nonessential and the extravagant is one of the chief traits of human uniqueness. Unlike other forms of life, man's greatest exertions are made in the pursuit not of necessities but of superfluities.
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The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully.
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Propaganda ... serves more to justify ourselves than to convince others and the more reason we have to feel guilty, the more fervent our propaganda.
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In human affairs every solution serves only to sharpen the problem, to show us more clearly what we are up against. There are no final solutions.
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EVERY intense desire is perhaps basically a desire to be different from what we are.
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We clamor for equality chiefly in matters in which we ourselves cannot hope to obtain excellence.
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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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When cowardice becomes a fashion its adherents are without number, and it masquerades as forbearance, reasonableness and whatnot.
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Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible.
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To dispose a soul to action we must upset its equilibrium.
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To be fully alive is to feel that everything is possible.
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We need not only a purpose in life to give meaning to our existence but also something to give meaning to our suffering. We need as much something to suffer for as something to live for.
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The hatred and cruelty which have their source in selfishness are ineffectual things compared with the venom and ruthlessness born of selflessness.
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The devil personifies not the nature that is around us but the nature that is within us- the infinitely ferocious and cunning prehuman creature that is still within us, sealed in the subconscious cellars of the psyche.
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The fanatic is not really a stickler to principle. He embraces a cause not primarily because of its justness or holiness but because of his desperate need for something to hold onto.
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Actual creativeness is a matter of moments. One has to piece together the minute grains to make a lump. And it is so easy to miss the momentary flashes, it is like sluicing in placer mining. He who lets the flakes float by has nothing to show for his trouble.
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That which corrodes the souls of the persecuted is the monstrous inner agreement with the prevailing prejudice against them.
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