When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.
ERIC HOFFERThe opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.
More Eric Hoffer Quotes
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Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of age when man asked the first question.
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We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.
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Children are the keys of paradise.
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Where freedom is real, equality is the passion of the masses. Where equality is real, freedom is the passion of a small minority.
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We see through others only when we see through ourselves.
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The trouble is not chiefly that our universities are unfit for students but that many present-day students are unfit for universities.
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The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.
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The future belongs to the learners-not the knowers.
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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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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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Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.
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Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength.
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Take away hatred from some people, and you have men without faith.
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Those who would sacrifice a generation to realize an ideal are the enemies of mankind.
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Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us.
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The misery of a child is interesting to a mother, the misery of a young man is interesting to a young woman, the misery of an old man is interesting to nobody.
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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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Fair play is primarily not blaming others for anything that is wrong with us.
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It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one’s neighbor.
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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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You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.
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I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind.
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The capacity for getting along with our neighbor depends to a large extent on the capacity for getting along with ourselves. The self-respecting individual will try to be as tolerant of his neighbor’s shortcomings as he is of his own.
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The ratio between supervisory and producing personnel is always highest where the intellectuals are in power. In a Communist country it takes half the population to supervise the other half.
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The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.
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The beginning of thought is in disagreement – not only with others but also with ourselves.
ERIC HOFFER