The sick in soul insist that it is humanity that is sick, and they are the surgeons to operate on it. They want to turn the world into a sickroom. And once they get humanity strapped to the operating table, they operate on it with an ax.
ERIC HOFFERThe passion for equality is partly a passion for anonymity: to be one thread of the many which make up a tunic; one thread not distinguishable from the others. No one can then point us out, measure us against others and expose our inferiority.
More Eric Hoffer Quotes
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It is doubtful whether the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power-power to oppress others.
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Anger is a prelude to courage.
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Take away hatred from some people, and you have men without faith.
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The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.
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Those who would sacrifice a generation to realize an ideal are the enemies of mankind.
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Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.
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We see through others only when we see through ourselves.
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We run fastest and farthest when we run from ourselves.
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I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind.
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Up to now, America has not been a good milieu for the rise of a mass movement. What starts out here as a mass movement ends up as a racket, a cult, or a corporation.
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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 can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.
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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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Children are the keys of paradise.
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The beginning of thought is in disagreement – not only with others but also with ourselves.
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To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.
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There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.
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A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority.
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To learn you need a certain degree of confidence, not too much and not too little. If you have too little confidence, you will think you can’t learn. If you have too much, you will think you don’t have to learn.
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Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil.
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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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Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.
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All leaders strive to turn their followers into children.
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Naivete in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity.
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A passionate obsession with the outside world or the private lives of others is an attempt to compensate for a lack of meaning in one’s own life.
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It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one’s neighbor.
ERIC HOFFER