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However different the holy causes people die for, they perhaps die basically for the same thing.

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
People
Basically
However
Holy
Perhaps
Causes
Dies
Different
Thing
Holiness

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Both the revolutionary and the creative individual are perpetual juveniles. The revolutionary does not grow up because he cannot grow, while the creative individual cannot grow up because he keeps growing.
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Proselytizing is more a passionate search for something not yet found than a desire to bestow upon the world something we already have. It is a search for a final and irrefutable demonstration that our absolute truth is indeed the one and only truth. The proselytizing fanatic strengthens his own faith by converting others.
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To dispose a soul to action we must upset its equilibrium.
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Self-esteem and self-contempt have specific odors they can be smelled.
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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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The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully.
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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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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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Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.
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The revulsion from an unwanted self, and the impulse to forget it, mask it, slough it off and lose it, produce both a readiness to sacrifice the self and a willingness to dissolve it by losing one's individual distinctness in a compact collective whole.
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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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It is the acquisition of skills in particular, irrespective of their utility, that is potent in making life meaningful. Since man has no inborn skills, the survival of the species has depended on the ability to acquire and perfect skills. Hence the mastery of skills is a uniquely human activity and yields deep satisfaction.
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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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Lack of sensitivity is perhaps basically an unawareness of ourselves.
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A heresy can spring only from a system that is in full vigor.
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Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power.
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