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The urge to escape our real self is also an urge to escape the rational and the obvious.

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
Obvious
Also
Self
Real
Urge
Urges
Escape
Rational

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The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything.
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To make of human affairs a coherent, precise, predictable whole one must ignore or suppress man as he really is. It is by eliminating man from their equation that the makers of history can predict the future, and the writers of history can give a pattern to the past.
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One of the surprising privileges of intellectuals is that they are free to be scandalously asinine without harming their reputations.
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Often, the thing we pursue most passionately is but a substitute for the one thing we really want and cannot have.
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The fanatic is not really a stickler to principle. He embraces a cause not primarily because of its justness or holiness but because of his desperate need for something to hold onto.
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The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle.
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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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The real Antichrist is he who turns the wine of an original idea into the water of mediocrity.
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The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world.
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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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When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and the strong it easily becomes a fashion.
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With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.
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There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
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Unpredictability, too, can become monotonous.
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Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible.
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