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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.

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
Things
Usually
Looking
Sometimes
Much

More quotes by Eric Hoffer

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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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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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Excesses are essentially gestures. It is easy to be extremely cruel, magnanimous, humble or self-sacrificing when we see ourselves as actors in a performance.
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It is apparently vital that we should be in the dark about ourselves not to be clear about our intentions, fears, and hopes. There is a stubborn effort in us to set up a compact screen between consciousness and the self.
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Faith is primarily a process of identification the process by which the individual ceases to be himself and becomes part of something eternal.
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Laughter to begin with was probably glee at the misfortunes of others. The baring of the teeth in laughter hints at its savage ancestry. Animals have no malice, hence also no laughter. They never savor the sudden glory of Schadenfreude. It was its infectious quality that made of laughter a medium of mutuality.
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The most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their way, and must compensate for what they miss by realizing and cultivating their capacities and talents.
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Nationalist pride, like other variants of pride, can be a substitute for self-respect.
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Where unity and self-sacrifice are indispensable for the normal functioning of society, everyday life is likely to be either religiofied (common tasks turned into holy causes) or militarized.
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The ability to get along without an exceptional leader is the mark of social vigor.
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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 future belongs to the learners-not the knowers.
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For men to plunge headlong into an undertaking of vast change, they must be intensely discontented yet not destitute, and they must have the feeling that by the possession of some potent doctrine, infallible leader or some new technique they have access to a source of irresistible power.
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Naivete in grownups is often charming but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity.
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You cannot gauge the intelligence of an American by talking with him you must work with him. The American polishes and refines his way of doing things-even the most commonplace-the way the French of the 17th century polished their maxims.
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The hardest thing to cope with is not selfishness or vanity or deceitfulness, but sheer stupidity.
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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.
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We feel free when we escape - even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire.
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A heresy can spring only from a system that is in full vigor.
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It is the individual only who is timeless. Societies, cultures, and civilizations -- past and present -- are often incomprehensible to outsiders, but the individual's hungers, anxieties, dreams, and preoccupations have remained unchanged through the millenia.
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