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It is not at all simple to understand the simple.

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
Society
Simple
Understand

More quotes by Eric Hoffer

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Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.
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Absolute power turns its possessors not into a God but an anti-God. For God turned clay into men, while the absolute despot turns men into clay.
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People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
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What merit there is in my thinking is derived from two peculiarities: (1) My inability to be familiar with anything. I simply can't take things for granted. (2) My endless patience. I assume that the only way to find an answer is to hang on long enough and keep groping.
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Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible.
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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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The superficiality of many is a result of deep fears. It takes spare time to think things out it takes free time to mature. People in a hurry may not think well or mature well. The next best is a state of perpetual puerility.
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Every era has a currency that buys souls. In some the currency is pride, in others it is hope, in still others it is a holy cause. There are of course times when hard cash will buy souls, and the remarkable thing is that such times are marked by civility, tolerance, and the smooth working of everyday life.
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A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority.
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The future belongs to the learners-not the knowers.
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It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.
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A preoccupation with the future not only prevents us from seeing the present as it is but often prompts us to rearrange the past.
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I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind.
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They who clamor loudest for freedom are often the ones least likely to be happy in a free society.
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When people are bored it is primarily with themselves.
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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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Without a sense of proportion there can be neither good taste nor genuine intelligence, nor perhaps moral integrity.
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There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
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There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.
Eric Hoffer
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Lack of sensitivity is perhaps basically an unawareness of ourselves.
Eric Hoffer