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Though they seem at opposite poles, fanatics of all kinds are actually crowded together at one end. It is the fanatic and the moderate who are poles apart and never meet.
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
Actually
Opposite
Ends
Apart
Seems
Opposites
Poles
Together
Kinds
Fanatic
Kind
Meet
Moderate
Never
Seem
Fanatics
Though
Moderates
Society
Crowded
More quotes by Eric Hoffer
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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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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Unlike the pattern which seems to prevail in the rest of life, in the human species the weak not only survive but often triumph over the strong. The self-hatred inherent in the weak unlocks energies far more formidable then those mobilized by an ordinary struggle for existence.
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Nothing so offends the doctrinaire intellectual as our ability to achieve the momentous in a matter-of-fact way, unblessed by words.
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When grubbing for necessities man is still an animal. He becomes uniquely human when he reaches out for the superfluous and extravagant.
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Self-esteem and self-contempt have specific odors they can be smelled.
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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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Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.
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Every extreme attitude is a fight from the self.
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To wrong those we hate is to add fuel to our hatred. Conversely, to treat an enemy with magnanimity is to blunt our hatred for him.
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Those who are in love with the present can be cruel and corrupt but not genuinely vicious. They cannot be methodically and consistently ruthless.
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The ability to get along without an exceptional leader is the mark of social vigor.
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The chief burden of the frustrated is the consciousness of a blemished, ineffectual self, and their chief desire is to slough off the unwanted self and begin a new life. They try to realize this desire either by finding a new identity or by blurring and camouflaging their individual distinctness and both these ends are reached by imitation.
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The true believer, no matter how rowdy and violent his acts, is basically an obedient and submissive person.
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Perhaps our originality manifests itself most strikingly in what we do with that which we did not originate. To discover something wholly new can be a matter of chance, of idle tinkering, or even of the chronic dissatisfaction of the untalented.
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We need not only a purpose in life to give meaning to our existence but also something to give meaning to our suffering. We need as much something to suffer for as something to live for.
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It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.
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When our individual interests and prospects do not seem worth living for, we are in desperate need for something apart from us to live for. All forms of dedication, devotion, loyalty and self-surrender are in essence a desperate clinging to something which might give worth and meaning to our futile, spoiled lives.
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The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle.
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We can remember minutely and precisely only the things which never really happened to us.
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