Quote

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.

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
People
Best
Deep
Superficiality
Wells
Takes
Spare
Well
Results
Hurry
Many
State
Spares
Things
Free
Perpetual
Time
Next
Mature
Think
States
Fears
Thinking
May
Result

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Perhaps our originality manifests itself most strikingly in what we do with that which we did not originate. To discover something wholly new can be a matter of chance, of idle tinkering, or even of the chronic dissatisfaction of the untalented.
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A man's soul is pierced as it were with holes, and as his longings flow through each they are transmuted into something specific.
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Children, savages and true believers remember far less what they have seen than what they have heard.
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The ability to get along without an exceptional leader is the mark of social vigor.
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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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In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future.
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Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.
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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
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We are more prone to generalize the bad than the good. We assume that the bad is more potent and contagious.
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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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Absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes. The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep. The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its anti-humanity.
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A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self.
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A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed.
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Every extreme attitude is a fight from the self.
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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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Facts are counterrevolutionary.
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There are many who have grave scruples about deceiving but think it as nothing to deceive themselves.
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There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth anew each day we have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak, for life.
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Whenever we proclaim the uniqueness of a religion , a truth , a leader, a nation, a race, a part or a holy cause, we are also proclaiming our own uniqueness.
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