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Freedom released the energies of the masses not by exhilarating but by unbalancing, irritating, and goading.

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
Dissent
Released
Masses
Mass
Freedom
Energy
Irritating
Exhilarating
Energies

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Where everything is possible miracles become commonplaces, but the familiar ceases to be self-evident.
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It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is true of men as of dogs.
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Self-esteem and self-contempt have specific odors they can be smelled.
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Our doubts about ourselves cannot be banished except by working at that which is the one and only thing we know we ought to do. Other people's assertions cannot silence the howling dirge within us. It is our talents rusting unused within us that secrete the poison of self-doubt into our bloodstream.
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Many of the insights of the saint stem from his experience as a sinner.
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An easygoing person is probably more accessible to the realization of eternity--the endless flow of life and death--than one who takes his prospects and duties overseriously. It is the overserious who are truly frivolous.
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The world leans on us. When we sag, the whole world seems to droop.
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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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My writing is done in railroad yards while waiting for a freight, in the fields while waiting for a truck, and at noon after lunch. Towns are too distracting.
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If anybody asks me what I have accomplished, I will say all I have accomplished is that I have written a few good sentences.
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It is not at all simple to understand the simple.
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A man's soul is pierced as it were with holes, and as his longings flow through each they are transmuted into something specific.
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Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent.
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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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Whoever originated the cliche that money is the root of all evil knew hardly anything about the nature of evil and very little about human beings.
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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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It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn.
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The ruthlessness born of self-seeking is ineffectual compared with the ruthlessness sustained by dedication to a holy cause. God wishes, said Calvin, that one should put aside all humanity when it is a question of striving for His glory.
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Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience... The desire to escape or camouflage their unsatisfactory selves develops in the frustrated a facility for pretending -- for making a show -- and also a readiness to identify themselves wholly with an imposing spectacle.
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Ours is a golden age of minorities. At no time in the past have dissident minorities felt so much at home and had so much room to throw their weight around. They speak and act as if they were the people, and what they abominate most is the dissent of the majority.
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