Eric Hoffer Quotes About Liberty
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There can be no freedom without freedom to fail.
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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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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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The aspiration toward freedom is the most essentially human of all human manifestations.
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Absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes. The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep. The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its anti-humanity.
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When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.
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Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden.
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Give people pride and they'll live on bread and water, bless their exploiters, and even die for them. Self-surrender is a transaction of barter: we surrender our sense of human dignity, our judgement, or moral and aesthetic sense for pride. If there is pride in being free, we are ready to die for liberty. If there is pride to be derived from an identification with a leader, we grovel in the dust before a Napoléon, Hitler or Stalin and are ready to die for him. If there is a distinction in suffering we search for martyrdom as for hidden treasure.
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Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power.
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People unfit for freedom - who cannot do much with it - are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an attribute of a "have" type of self. It says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities. The desire for power is basically an attribute of a "have not" type of self.
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