Eric Hoffer Quotes
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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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In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
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Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.
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It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor.
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It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny.
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You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
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Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart.
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There is sublime thieving in all giving. Someone gives us all he has and we are his.
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Whenever you trace the origin of a skill or practices which played a crucial role in the ascent of man, we usually reach the realm of play.
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To the old, the new is usually bad news.
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Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something.
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The suspicious mind believes more than it doubts. It believes in a formidable and ineradicable evil lurking in every person.
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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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Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.
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We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.
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Take away hatred from some people, and you have men without faith.
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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.
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There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his own house.
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It sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.
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You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy.
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It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn.
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To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.
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Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible.
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The pleasure we derive from doing favors is partly in the feeling it gives us that we are not altogether worthless. It is a pleasant surprise to ourselves.