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We are unified both by hating in common and by being hated in common.

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
Hate
Unified
Hating
Hated
Common

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Self-esteem and self-contempt have specific odors they can be smelled.
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We can remember minutely and precisely only the things which never really happened to us.
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What the intellectual craves above all else is to be taken seriously, to be treated as a decisive force in shaping history. He is far more at home in a society that weighs his every word and keeps close watch on his attitudes then in a society that cares not what he says or does. He would rather be persecuted than ignored.
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When cowardice becomes a fashion its adherents are without number, and it masquerades as forbearance, reasonableness and whatnot.
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Unpredictability, too, can become monotonous.
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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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Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent.
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There is a totalitarian regime inside every one of us. We are ruled by a ruthless politburo which sets our norms and drives us from one five-year plan to another. The autonomous individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.
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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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Nothing so bolsters our self-confidence and reconciles us with ourselves as the continuous ability to create to see things grow and develop under our hand, day in, day out.
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Where everything is possible miracles become commonplaces, but the familiar ceases to be self-evident.
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Absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes. The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep. The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its anti-humanity.
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Proselytizing is more a passionate search for something not yet found than a desire to bestow upon the world something we already have. It is a search for a final and irrefutable demonstration that our absolute truth is indeed the one and only truth. The proselytizing fanatic strengthens his own faith by converting others.
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Facts are counterrevolutionary.
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Naivete in grownups is often charming but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity.
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Though dissenters seem to question everything in sight, they are actually bundles of dusty answers and never conceived a new question. What offends us most in the literature of dissent is the lack of hesitation and wonder.
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A society that refuses to strive for superfluities is likely to end up lacking in necessities.
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It is also plausible that those movements with the greatest inner contradiction and between profession and practice - that is to say with a strong feeling of guilt - are likely to be the most fervent in imposing their faith on others.
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Woe to him inside a non-conformist clique who does not conform to non-conformity.
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Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power.
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