Quote

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.

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
Give
Seem
Loyalty
Live
Interest
Surrender
Futile
Might
Society
Apart
Prospects
Self
Lives
Interests
Clinging
Need
Individual
Forms
Spoiled
Giving
Living
Essence
Dedication
Needs
Form
Meaning
Devotion
Something
Seems
Worth
Desperate

More quotes by Eric Hoffer

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You accept certain unlovely things about yourself and manage to live with them. The atonement for such an acceptance is that you make allowances for others - that you cleanse yourself of the sin of self-righteousness.
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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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It is thus with most of us we are what other people say we are. We know ourselves chiefly by hearsay.
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The sense of inferiority inherent in the act of imitation breeds resentment. The impulse of the imitators is to overcome the model they imitate.
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A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self.
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We are more prone to generalize the bad than the good. We assume that the bad is more potent and contagious.
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The rule seems to be that those who find no difficulty in deceiving themselves are easily deceived by others. They are easily persuaded and led.
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It is our talents rusting unused within us that secrete the poison of self-doubt into our bloodstream.
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Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.
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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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There is no reason why the profoundest thoughts should not make easy and exciting reading. A profound thought is an exciting thing as exciting as a detective's deductions or hunches. The simpler the words in which a thought is expressed the more stimulating its effect.
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Craving, not having, is the mother of a reckless giving of oneself.
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However much we guard against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us.
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One of the surprising privileges of intellectuals is that they are free to be scandalously asinine without harming their reputations.
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Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.
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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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The necessary has never been man's top priority. The passionate pursuit of the nonessential and the extravagant is one of the chief traits of human uniqueness. Unlike other forms of life, man's greatest exertions are made in the pursuit not of necessities but of superfluities.
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When the weak want to give an impression of strength they hint menacingly at their capacity for evil. It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.
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In human affairs every solution serves only to sharpen the problem, to show us more clearly what we are up against. There are no final solutions.
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Where freedom is real, equality is the passion of the masses. Where equality is real, freedom is the passion of a small minority.
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