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Often, the thing we pursue most passionately is but a substitute for the one thing we really want and cannot have.

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
Really
Passionately
Substitute
Substitutes
Pursue
Often
Cannot
Thing

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When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and the strong it easily becomes a fashion.
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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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We feel free when we escape - even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire.
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It is always safe to assume that people are more subtle and less sensitive than they seem.
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Though they seem at opposite poles, fanatics of all kinds are actually crowded together at one end. It is the fanatic and the moderate who are poles apart and never meet.
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A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding.
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No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion it is an evil government.
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Add a few drops of venom to a half truth and you have an absolute truth.
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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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What merit there is in my thinking is derived from two peculiarities: (1) My inability to be familiar with anything. I simply can't take things for granted. (2) My endless patience. I assume that the only way to find an answer is to hang on long enough and keep groping.
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It was the craving to be a one and only people which impelled the ancient Hebrews to invent a one and only God whose one and only people they were to be.
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Woe to him inside a non-conformist clique who does not conform to non-conformity.
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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 best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully.
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To some, freedom means the opportunity to do what they want to do to most it means not to do what they do not want to do. It is perhaps true that those who can grow will feel free under any condition.
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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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For though ours is a godless age, it is the very opposite of irreligious. The true believer is everywhere on the march, and both by converting and antagonizing he is shaping the world in his own image. And whether we are to line up with him or against him, it is well that we should know all we can concerning his nature and potentialities.
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Faith is primarily a process of identification the process by which the individual ceases to be himself and becomes part of something eternal.
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Animals can learn, but it is not by learning that they become dogs, cats, or horses. Only man has to learn to become what he is supposed to be.
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