Eric Hoffer Quotes
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Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners.
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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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A man by himself is in bad company.
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I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind.
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Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.
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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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The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.
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We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.
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We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.
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Action is at bottom a swinging and flailing of the arms to regain one's balance and keep afloat.
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It is remarkable by how much a pinch of malice enhances the penetrating power of an idea or an opinion. Our ears, it seems, are wonderfully attuned to sneers and evil reports about our fellow men.
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Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.
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The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything.
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To spell out the obvious is often to call it in question.
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Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.
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There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
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The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist.
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To the old, the new is usually bad news.
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It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression.
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Social improvement is attained more readily by a concern with the quality of results than with the purity of motives.
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What greater reassurance can the weak have than that they are like anyone else?
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The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.
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Dissipation is a form of self-sacrifice.
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It is futile to judge a kind deed by its motives. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.