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It is apparently vital that we should be in the dark about ourselves not to be clear about our intentions, fears, and hopes. There is a stubborn effort in us to set up a compact screen between consciousness and the self.
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
Self
Screen
Screens
Fears
Compact
Intention
Intentions
Consciousness
Stubborn
Effort
Apparently
Dark
Vital
Clear
Hopes
More quotes by Eric Hoffer
Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience.
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It takes a vice to check a vice, and virtue is the by-product of a stalemate between opposite vices.
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The majority prove their worth by keeping busy. A busy life is the nearest thing to a purposeful life.
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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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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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They who clamor loudest for freedom are often the ones least likely to be happy in a free society.
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EVERY intense desire is perhaps basically a desire to be different from what we are.
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Without a sense of proportion there can be neither good taste nor genuine intelligence, nor perhaps moral integrity.
Eric Hoffer
We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about.
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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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Capitalism is at its liberating best in a noncapitalist environment. The crypto-businessman is the true revolutionary in a Communist country.
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The superficiality of many is a result of deep fears. It takes spare time to think things out it takes free time to mature. People in a hurry may not think well or mature well. The next best is a state of perpetual puerility.
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Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about. And since we know least about ourselves, we are ready to believe all that is said about us. Hence the mysterious power of both flattery and calumny.
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...the majority of people cannot endure the bareness and futility of their lives unless they have some ardent dedication, or some passionate pursuit in which they can lose themselves.
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It is always safe to assume that people are more subtle and less sensitive than they seem.
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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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It is not at all simple to understand the simple.
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Should Americans begin to hate foreigners wholeheartedly, it will be an indication that they have lost confidence in their own way of life.
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Man is a luxury-loving animal. Take away play, fancies, and luxuries, and you will turn man into a dull, sluggish creature, barely energetic enough to obtain a bare subsistence. A society becomes stagnant when its people are too rational or too serious to be tempted by baubles.
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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.
Eric Hoffer
