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This food-and-shelter theory concerning man's efforts is without insight. The desire for praise is more imperative than the desire for food and shelter

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
Men
Efforts
Insight
Praise
Theory
Food
Imperative
Effort
Imperatives
Desire
Concerning
Without
Shelter

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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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We cannot hate those who we despise.
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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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Freedom released the energies of the masses not by exhilarating but by unbalancing, irritating, and goading.
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A ruling intelligentsia, whether in Europe, Asia or Africa, treats the masses as raw material to be experimented on, processed, and wasted at will.
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Man was nature's mistake she neglected to finish him and she has never ceased paying for her mistake.
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The effectiveness of a doctrine does not come from its meaning but from its certitude. No doctrine however profound and sublime will be effective unless it is presented as the embodiment of the one and only truth
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Fair play is primarily not blaming others for anything that is wrong with us.
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A heresy can spring only from a system that is in full vigor.
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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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Call not that man wretched, who whatever ills he suffers, has a child to love.
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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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When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.
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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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There is a time when the word eventually has the soothing effect of a promise, and a time when the word evokes in us bitterness and scorn.
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The proselytizing fanatic strengthens his own faith by converting others. The creed whose legitimacy is most easily challenged is likely to develop the strongest proselytizing impulse.
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Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience.
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People in a hurry cannot think, cannot grow, nor can they decay. They are preserved in a state of perpetual puerility.
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