Quote

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.

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
Thing
Talent
Unused
People
Silence
Banished
Ought
Howling
Doubt
Assertion
Secrete
Within
Doubts
Rusting
Working
Talents
Dirge
Cannot
Poison
Bloodstream
Self
Except
Assertions

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Love-making is radical, while marriage is conservative.
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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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What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people's faces as unfinished as their minds.
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Anger is a prelude to courage.
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people with a sense of fulfillment think it is a good world and would like to conserve it as it is, while the frustrated favor radical change.
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The act of self-denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others.
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Nature has no compassion. Nature accepts no excuses and the only punishment it knows is death.
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A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed.
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In an adequate social order, the untalented should be able to acquire a sense of usefulness and of growth without interfering with the development of talent around them
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That which is unique and worthwhile in us makes itself felt only in flashes. If we do not know how to catch and savor the flashes we are without growth and exhilaration.
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No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion it is an evil government.
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We find it hard to apply the knowledge of ourselves to our judgment of others. The fact that we are never of one kind, that we never love without reservations and never hate with all our being cannot prevent us from seeing others as wholly black or white.
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Originality is deliberate and forced, and partakes of the nature of a protest.
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Proselytizing is more a passionate search for something not yet found than a desire to bestow upon the world something we already have. It is a search for a final and irrefutable demonstration that our absolute truth is indeed the one and only truth. The proselytizing fanatic strengthens his own faith by converting others.
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Call not that man wretched, who whatever ills he suffers, has a child to love.
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The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything.
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Practically all writers and artists are aware of their destiny and see themselves as actors in a fateful drama. With me, nothing is momentous: obscure youth, glorious old age, fateful coincidences - nothing really matters. I have written a number of good sentences. I have kept free of delusions. I know I am going to die soon.
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Judgment consists not in seeing through deceptions and evil intentions, but in being able to awaken the decency dormant in every person.
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