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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.
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
Men
Despotism
Clay
Anti
Absolutes
Absolute
Turned
Possessors
Turns
Despot
Power
Despots
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The less satisfaction we derive from being ourselves, the greater is our desire to be like others.
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First something is a great idea, then it becomes a cause, then it becomes a business and finally it becomes a racket.
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It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men.
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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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Those who feel guilty are afraid and those who are afraid somehow feel guilty. To the onlooker, too, the fearful seem guilty.
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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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Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden.
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We can never have enough of that which we really do not want.
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The compulsion to take ourselves seriously is in inverse proportion to our creative capacity. When the creative flow dries up, all we have left is our importance.
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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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People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
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Every extreme attitude is a fight from the self.
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Originality is deliberate and forced, and partakes of the nature of a protest.
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There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
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Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.
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People unfit for freedom - who cannot do much with it - are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an attribute of a have type of self. It says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities. The desire for power is basically an attribute of a have not type of self.
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When you automate an industry you modernize it when you automate a life you primitivize it.
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It needs fanatical faith to rationalize our cowardice.
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Man was nature's mistake she neglected to finish him and she has never ceased paying for her mistake.
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One of the chief differences between an adult and a juvenile is that the adult knows when he is an ass while the juvenile never does.
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