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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Laughter to begin with was probably glee at the misfortunes of others. The baring of the teeth in laughter hints at its savage ancestry. Animals have no malice, hence also no laughter. They never savor the sudden glory of Schadenfreude. It was its infectious quality that made of laughter a medium of mutuality.
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Every era has a currency that buys souls. In some the currency is pride, in others it is hope, in still others it is a holy cause. There are of course times when hard cash will buy souls, and the remarkable thing is that such times are marked by civility, tolerance, and the smooth working of everyday life.
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Language was invented to ask questions.
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With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.
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The real Antichrist is he who turns the wine of an original idea into the water of mediocrity.
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For men to plunge headlong into an undertaking of vast change, they must be intensely discontented yet not destitute, and they must have the feeling that by the possession of some potent doctrine, infallible leader or some new technique they have access to a source of irresistible power.
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The short-lived self, teetering on the edge of extinction, is the only thing that can ever really matter.
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It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny.
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Radicalism itself ceases to be radical when absorbed mainly in preserving its control over a society or an economy.
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In a trader-dominated society, the scribe is usually kept out of the management of affairs, but it given a more or less free hand in the cultural field. By frustrating the scribe's craving for commanding action, the trader draws upon himself the scribe's wrath and scorn.
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We cannot hate those who we despise.
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The urge to escape our real self is also an urge to escape the rational and the obvious.
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We feel free when we escape - even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire.
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The hardest thing to cope with is not selfishness or vanity or deceitfulness, but sheer stupidity.
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The desire to belong is partly a desire to lose oneself.
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The technique of a mass movement aims to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as a cure.
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It is doubtful whether the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power-power to oppress others.
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An empty head is not really empty it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head.
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We can never have enough of that which we really do not want.
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