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In human affairs, the best stimulus for running ahead is to have something we must run from.

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
Society
Running
Best
Human
Stimulus
Humans
Affairs
Must
Affair
Something
Ahead
Progress

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Where everything is possible miracles become commonplaces, but the familiar ceases to be self-evident.
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Every extreme attitude is a fight from the self.
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When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.
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It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.
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The chief difference between me and others is that I have plenty of time not only because I am without a multitude of responsibilities and without daily tasks, which demand attention: But also because I am basically without ambition. Neither the present nor the future has claims on me.
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We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true they ruin our dreams.
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Quite often the social doctors become part of the disease.
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A free society is as much a threat to the intellectual's sense of worth as an automated economy is to the workingman's sense of worth. Any social order that can function with a minimum of leadership will be anathema to the intellectual.
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Perhaps our originality manifests itself most strikingly in what we do with that which we did not originate. To discover something wholly new can be a matter of chance, of idle tinkering, or even of the chronic dissatisfaction of the untalented.
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It is doubtful if the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power - power to oppress others. The oppressed want above all to imitate their oppressors they want to retaliate.
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Originality is deliberate and forced, and partakes of the nature of a protest.
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The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone. Those who could not thrive when left to themselves never felt at ease in America.
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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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Whenever you trace the origin of a skill or practices which played a crucial role in the ascent of man, we usually reach the realm of play.
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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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Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.
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One of the surprising privileges of intellectuals is that they are free to be scandalously asinine without harming their reputations.
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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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The link between ideas and action is rarely direct. There is almost always an intermediate step in which the idea is overcome.
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In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future.
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