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The devil personifies not the nature that is around us but the nature that is within us- the infinitely ferocious and cunning prehuman creature that is still within us, sealed in the subconscious cellars of the psyche.
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
Stills
Infinitely
Still
Subconscious
Creature
Personifies
Devil
Ferocious
Creatures
Cellars
Within
Sealed
Nature
Psyche
Around
Cunning
More quotes by Eric Hoffer
In a modern society people can live without hope only when kept dazed and out of breath by incessant hustling.
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A man's soul is pierced as it were with holes, and as his longings flow through each they are transmuted into something specific.
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The chemistry of dissatisfaction is as the chemistry of some marvelously potent tar. In it are the building stones of explosives, stimulants, poisons, opiates, perfumes and stenches.
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Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of age when man asked the first question. Social stagnation results not from a lack of answers but from the absence of the impulse to ask questions.
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Sensuality reconciles us with the human race. The misanthropy of the old is due in large part to the fading of the magic glow of desire.
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God alone is satisfied with what He is and can proclaim: I am what I am. Unlike God, man strives with all his might to be what he is not. He incessantly proclaims: I am what I am not.
Eric Hoffer
Nature has no compassion. Nature accepts no excuses and the only punishment it knows is death.
Eric Hoffer
Ideas have significance for him only as a prelude to action.
Eric Hoffer
The act of self-denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others.
Eric Hoffer
However much we guard against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us.
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Unlimited opportunities can be as potent a cause of frustration as a paucity or lack of opportunities.
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My writing is done in railroad yards while waiting for a freight, in the fields while waiting for a truck, and at noon after lunch. Towns are too distracting.
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Help your sister's boat across the water, and yours too will reach the other side. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.
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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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The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future.
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The urge to escape our real self is also an urge to escape the rational and the obvious.
Eric Hoffer
The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone. Those who could not thrive when left to themselves never felt at ease in America.
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A society that refuses to strive for superfluities is likely to end up lacking in necessities.
Eric Hoffer
It is doubtful whether the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power-power to oppress others.
Eric Hoffer
It takes a vice to check a vice, and virtue is the by-product of a stalemate between opposite vices.
Eric Hoffer
