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The short-lived self, teetering on the edge of extinction, is the only thing that can ever really matter.

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
Lived
Short
Ever
Matter
Self
Teetering
Thing
Extinction
Really
Edge
Edges

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Man is a luxury-loving animal. Take away play, fancies, and luxuries, and you will turn man into a dull, sluggish creature, barely energetic enough to obtain a bare subsistence. A society becomes stagnant when its people are too rational or too serious to be tempted by baubles.
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The true believer, no matter how rowdy and violent his acts, is basically an obedient and submissive person.
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A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed.
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In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future.
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The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves.
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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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Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.
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The rule seems to be that those who find no difficulty in deceiving themselves are easily deceived by others. They are easily persuaded and led.
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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 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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Children, savages and true believers remember far less what they have seen than what they have heard.
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What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people's faces as unfinished as their minds.
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The ability to get along without an exceptional leader is the mark of social vigor.
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The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.
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The conservatism of a religion - it's orthodoxy - is the inert coagulum of a once highly reactive sap.
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It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible.
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Perhaps a modern society can remain stable only by eliminating adolescence, by giving its young, from the age of ten, the skills, responsibilities, and rewards of grownups, and opportunities for action in all spheres of life. Adolescence should be a time of useful action, while book learning and scholarship should be a preoccupation of adults.
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In human affairs, the best stimulus for running ahead is to have something we must run from.
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