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Action is basically a reaction against loss of balance - a flailing of the arms to to regain one's balance. To dispose a soul to action, we must upset its equilibrium.
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
Action
Equilibrium
Soul
Reaction
Must
Reactions
Upset
Basically
Balance
Flailing
Loss
Dispose
Arms
Regain
More quotes by Eric Hoffer
The chemistry of dissatisfaction is as the chemistry of some marvelously potent tar. In it are the building stones of explosives, stimulants, poisons, opiates, perfumes and stenches.
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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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Facts are counterrevolutionary.
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It needs fanatical faith to rationalize our cowardice.
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Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of age when man asked the first question. Social stagnation results not from a lack of answers but from the absence of the impulse to ask questions.
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People haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both.
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We clamor for equality chiefly in matters in which we ourselves cannot hope to obtain excellence.
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A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed.
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The hatred and cruelty which have their source in selfishness are ineffectual things compared with the venom and ruthlessness born of selflessness.
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A man's worth is what he is divided by what he thinks he is.
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Self-esteem and self-contempt have specific odors they can be smelled.
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Quite often the social doctors become part of the disease.
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The individual's most vital need is to prove his worth, and this usually means an insatiable hunger for action. For it is only the few who can acquire a sense of worth by developing and employing their capacities and talents. The majority prove their worth by keeping busy.
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Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.
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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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Dissipation is a form of self-sacrifice.
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We can never really be prepared for that which is wholly new. We have to adjust ourselves, and every radical adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem: we undergo a test, we have to prove ourselves. It needs subordinate self-confidence to face drastic change without inner trembling.
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Spiritual stagnation ensues when man's environment becomes unpredictable or when his inner life is made wholly predictable.
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A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding.
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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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