Quote

A passionate obsession with the outside world or the private lives of others is an attempt to compensate for a lack of meaning in one's own life

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
Others
Obsession
Life
Attempt
World
Passionate
Lack
Private
Meaning
Outside
Lives
Compensate

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America is still the best country for the common man -- white or black ... if he can't make it here he won't make it anywhere else.
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Successful action tends to become an end in itself.
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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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Those who are in love with the present can be cruel and corrupt but not genuinely vicious. They cannot be methodically and consistently ruthless.
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Faith is primarily a process of identification the process by which the individual ceases to be himself and becomes part of something eternal.
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It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression.
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Humility is not renunciation of pride but the substitution of one pride for another.
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Nowhere at present is there such a measureless loathing of their country by educated people as in America.
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The conservatism of a religion - it's orthodoxy - is the inert coagulum of a once highly reactive sap.
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It is the acquisition of skills in particular, irrespective of their utility, that is potent in making life meaningful. Since man has no inborn skills, the survival of the species has depended on the ability to acquire and perfect skills. Hence the mastery of skills is a uniquely human activity and yields deep satisfaction.
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When people are bored it is primarily with themselves.
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A nation without dregs and malcontents is orderly, peaceful and pleasant, but perhaps without the seed of things to come.
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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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