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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.

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
Convince
Guilty
Others
Reason
Feel
Fervent
Feels
Serves
Propaganda
Justify

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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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However much we guard against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us.
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We are ready to die for an opinion but not for a fact: indeed, it is by our readiness to die that we try to prove the factualness of our opinion.
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Facts are counterrevolutionary.
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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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The real persuaders are our appetites, our fears and above all our vanity. The skillful propagandist stirs and coaches these internal persuaders.
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When the Greeks said, Whom the gods love die young, they probably meant, as Lord Sankey suggested, that those favored by the gods stay young till the day they die young and playful.
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A society that refuses to strive for superfluities is likely to end up lacking in necessities.
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There are many who have grave scruples about deceiving but think it as nothing to deceive themselves.
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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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Naivete in grownups is often charming but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity.
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To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.
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Good and evil grow up together and are bound in an equilibrium that cannot be sundered. The most we can do is try to tilt the equilibrium toward the good.
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It is to escape the responsibility for failure that the weak so eagerly throw themselves into grandiose undertakings.
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Thought is a process of exaggeration. The refusal to exaggerate is not infrequently an alibi for the disinclination to think or praise.
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There is a totalitarian regime inside every one of us. We are ruled by a ruthless politburo which sets our norms and drives us from one five-year plan to another. The autonomous individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.
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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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It is also plausible that those movements with the greatest inner contradiction and between profession and practice - that is to say with a strong feeling of guilt - are likely to be the most fervent in imposing their faith on others.
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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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Man's chief goal in life is still to become and stay human, and defend his achievements against the encroachment of nature.
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