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No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments.

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
Achievement
Moments
Wells
Might
Well
Matter
Shortcomings
Think
Achievements
Thinking
Rare

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Freedom released the energies of the masses not by exhilarating but by unbalancing, irritating, and goading.
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A successful social technique consists perhaps in finding unobjectionable means for individual self-assertion.
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The chief burden of the frustrated is the consciousness of a blemished, ineffectual self, and their chief desire is to slough off the unwanted self and begin a new life. They try to realize this desire either by finding a new identity or by blurring and camouflaging their individual distinctness and both these ends are reached by imitation.
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There can be no mass movement without some deliberate misrepresentation of facts.
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To be aware how fruitful the playful mood can be is to be immune to the propaganda of the alienated, which extols resentment as a fuel of achievement.
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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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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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You accept certain unlovely things about yourself and manage to live with them. The atonement for such an acceptance is that you make allowances for others - that you cleanse yourself of the sin of self-righteousness.
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Lack of sensitivity is perhaps basically an unawareness of ourselves.
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Call not that man wretched, who whatever ills he suffers, has a child to love.
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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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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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If a society is to preserve stability and a degree of continuity, it must learn how to keep its adolescents from imposing their tastes, values, and fantasies on everyday life.
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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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The fanatic is not really a stickler to principle. He embraces a cause not primarily because of its justness or holiness but because of his desperate need for something to hold onto.
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Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible.
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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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If anybody asks me what I have accomplished, I will say all I have accomplished is that I have written a few good sentences.
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We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about.
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