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Commitment becomes hysterical when those who have nothing to give advocate generosity, and those who have nothing to give up preach renunciation.

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
Generosity
Commitment
Becomes
Give
Nothing
Hysterical
Giving
Renunciation
Advocate
Preach

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A ruling intelligentsia, whether in Europe, Asia or Africa, treats the masses as raw material to be experimented on, processed, and wasted at will.
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That which corrodes the souls of the persecuted is the monstrous inner agreement with the prevailing prejudice against them.
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Language was invented to ask questions.
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To find the cause of our ills in something outside ourselves, something specific that can be spotted and eliminated, is a diagnosis that cannot fail to appeal. To say that the cause of our troubles is not in us but in the Jews , and pass immediately to the extermination of the Jews, is a prescription likely to find a wide acceptance.
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There is a time when the word eventually has the soothing effect of a promise, and a time when the word evokes in us bitterness and scorn.
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Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.
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When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else - we are the busiest people in the world.
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There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
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The hatred and cruelty which have their source in selfishness are ineffectual things compared with the venom and ruthlessness born of selflessness.
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The ability to get along without an exceptional leader is the mark of social vigor.
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We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: change prepares the ground for revolution.
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The urge to escape our real self is also an urge to escape the rational and the obvious.
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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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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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The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is on the contrary born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else--we are the busiest people in the world.
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Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent.
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There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his own house.
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To a man utterly without a sense of belonging, mere life is all that matters. It is the only reality in an eternity of nothingness, and he clings to it with shameless despair.
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In a modern society people can live without hope only when kept dazed and out of breath by incessant hustling.
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The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.
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