Eric Hoffer Quotes
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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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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.
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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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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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We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about.
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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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There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his own house.
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Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy - the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.
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An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head.
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It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt.
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Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.
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The weakness of a soul is proportionate to the number of truths that must be kept from it.
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It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativeness, and the playground is the optimal milieu for the unfolding of his capacities and talents.
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It almost seems that nobody can hate America as much as native Americans. America needs new immigrants to love and cherish it.
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Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent.
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The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.
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We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: change prepares the ground for revolution.
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There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmarks of a fugitive.