Quote

To most of us nothing is so invisible as an unpleasant truth. Though it is held before our eyes, pushed under our noses, rammed down our throats- we know it 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
Nothing
Ignorance
Rammed
Education
Throats
Eyes
Unpleasant
Though
Pushed
Knowledge
Noses
Society
Throat
Eye
Held
Truth
Invisible

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That which corrodes the souls of the persecuted is the monstrous inner agreement with the prevailing prejudice against them.
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We can remember minutely and precisely only the things which never really happened to us.
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Where everything is possible miracles become commonplaces, but the familiar ceases to be self-evident.
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Freedom released the energies of the masses not by exhilarating but by unbalancing, irritating, and goading.
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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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Often, the thing we pursue most passionately is but a substitute for the one thing we really want and cannot have.
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The chief difference between me and others is that I have plenty of time not only because I am without a multitude of responsibilities and without daily tasks, which demand attention: But also because I am basically without ambition. Neither the present nor the future has claims on me.
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When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.
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The desire to be different from the people we live with is sometimes the result of our rejection- real or imagined- by them.
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In a modern society people can live without hope only when kept dazed and out of breath by incessant hustling.
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The proselytizing fanatic strengthens his own faith by converting others. The creed whose legitimacy is most easily challenged is likely to develop the strongest proselytizing impulse.
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People in a hurry cannot think, cannot grow, nor can they decay. They are preserved in a state of perpetual puerility.
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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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We can never really be prepared for that which is wholly new. We have to adjust ourselves, and every radical adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem: we undergo a test, we have to prove ourselves. It needs subordinate self-confidence to face drastic change without inner trembling.
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Man is eminently a storyteller. His search for a purpose, a cause, an ideal, a mission and the like is largely a search for a plot and a pattern in the development of his life story - a story that is basically without meaning or pattern.
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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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