Quote

To make of human affairs a coherent, precise, predictable whole one must ignore or suppress man as he really is. It is by eliminating man from their equation that the makers of history can predict the future, and the writers of history can give a pattern to the past.

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
History
Pattern
Coherent
Make
Past
Makers
Suppress
Men
Give
Affairs
Equation
Human
Ignore
Eliminating
Humans
Affair
Predict
Whole
Patterns
Equations
Must
Writers
Predictable
Giving
Future
Precise

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We run fastest and farthest when we run from ourselves.
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The sense of inferiority inherent in the act of imitation breeds resentment. The impulse of the imitators is to overcome the model they imitate.
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Universities are an example of organizations dominated wholly by intellectuals yet, outside pure science, they have not been an optimal milieu for the unfolding of creative talents. In neither art, music, literature, technology and social theory, nor planning have the Universities figured as originators or as seedbeds of new talents and energies.
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...in the shaping of a life, chance and the ability to respond to chance are everything.
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Call not that man wretched, who whatever ills he suffers, has a child to love.
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To be fully alive is to feel that everything is possible.
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There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
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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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The superficiality of many is a result of deep fears. It takes spare time to think things out it takes free time to mature. People in a hurry may not think well or mature well. The next best is a state of perpetual puerility.
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No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments.
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The difficult and risky task of meeting and mastering the new . . . is not undertaken by the vanguard of society but by its rear. It is the misfits, failures, fugitives, outcasts and their like who are among the first to grapple with the new.
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Anger is a prelude to courage.
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The proselytizing fanatic strengthens his own faith by converting others. The creed whose legitimacy is most easily challenged is likely to develop the strongest proselytizing impulse.
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A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed.
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People in a hurry cannot think, cannot grow, nor can they decay. They are preserved in a state of perpetual puerility.
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A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding.
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Only the individual who has come to terms with his self can have a dispassionate attitude toward the world.
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We usually see only the things we are looking for- so much so that we sometimes see them where they are not.
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The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.
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We never say so much as when we do not quite know what we want to say. We need few words when we have something to say, but all the words in all the dictionaries will not suffice when we have nothing to say and want desperately to say it.
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