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The act of self-denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others.

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
Harsh
Denial
Toward
Others
Seems
Self
Right
Confer
Merciless

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...the majority of people cannot endure the bareness and futility of their lives unless they have some ardent dedication, or some passionate pursuit in which they can lose themselves.
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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.
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To find the cause of our ills in something outside ourselves, something specific that can be spotted and eliminated, is a diagnosis that cannot fail to appeal. To say that the cause of our troubles is not in us but in the Jews , and pass immediately to the extermination of the Jews, is a prescription likely to find a wide acceptance.
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Unlike the pattern which seems to prevail in the rest of life, in the human species the weak not only survive but often triumph over the strong. The self-hatred inherent in the weak unlocks energies far more formidable then those mobilized by an ordinary struggle for existence.
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It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.
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Even in slight things the experience of the new is rarely without some stirring of foreboding.
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Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.
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Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden.
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It is apparently vital that we should be in the dark about ourselves not to be clear about our intentions, fears, and hopes. There is a stubborn effort in us to set up a compact screen between consciousness and the self.
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A society that refuses to strive for superfluities is likely to end up lacking in necessities.
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We can never have enough of that which we really do not want.
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To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.
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The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is on the contrary born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else--we are the busiest people in the world.
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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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Faith in humanity, in posterity, in the destiny of one's religion, nation, race, party or family-what is it but the visualization of that eternal something to which we attach the self that is about to be annihilated?
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Many of the insights of the saint stem from his experience as a sinner.
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The link between ideas and action is rarely direct. There is almost always an intermediate step in which the idea is overcome.
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Resistance, whether to one's appetites or to the ways of the world, is a chief factor in the shaping of character.
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Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.
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