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Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil.

Eric Hoffer

It is doubtful whether the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power-power to oppress others.
ERIC HOFFER

Difference Doubt Fight Freedom Oppression Power Pride
Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible.
ERIC HOFFER

Choice Goodness Habit Live Possible
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
ERIC HOFFER

Attitude Character Food Hands People
The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.
ERIC HOFFER

Deep Happiness Search Wisdom
A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people’s business.
ERIC HOFFER

Business Character Man Mindset People Worth
Those who would sacrifice a generation to realize an ideal are the enemies of mankind.
ERIC HOFFER

Enemy Ideal Kind Man Sacrifice
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.
ERIC HOFFER

End Goodness Military Rise
The beginning of thought is in disagreement – not only with others but also with ourselves.
ERIC HOFFER

Agreement Beginning Ourselves Thinking
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.
ERIC HOFFER

Ideas Leadership Play Quality World
Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.
ERIC HOFFER

Empty Hate Life Passionate Purpose
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.
ERIC HOFFER

Life Live Obsession Passionate World
Communists are frustrated capitalists.
ERIC HOFFER

Attitude Character Frustration Identity One Liner
Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.
ERIC HOFFER

Corruption Deep Power Weakness
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.
ERIC HOFFER

Action Age Human Invention Language Man Talk
One of the surprising privileges of intellectuals is that they are free to be scandalously asinine without harming their reputations.
ERIC HOFFER

Freedom Harm Intellectual Privilege Reputation
There is a tendency to judge a race, a nation or any distinct group by its leastworthy members.
ERIC HOFFER

Judgement Nation Nature People

Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil.

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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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Popular Authors

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