Eric Hoffer Quotes About Literature
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The autonomous individual, striving to realize himself and prove his worth, has created all that is great in literature, art, music, science and technology. The autonomous individual, also, when he can neither realize himself nor justify his existence by his own efforts, is a breeding call of frustration, and the seed of the convulsions which shake our world to its foundations.
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Thought is a process of exaggeration. The refusal to exaggerate is not infrequently an alibi for the disinclination to think or praise.
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Unpredictability, too, can become monotonous.
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We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true; they ruin our dreams.
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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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A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed.
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When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and the strong; it easily becomes a fashion.
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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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Many of the insights of the saint stem from his experience as a sinner.
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We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about.
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Dissipation is a form of self-sacrifice.
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The world leans on us. When we sag, the whole world seems to droop.
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It is probably true that business corrupts everything it touches. It corrupts politics, sports, literature, art, labor unions and so on. But business also corrupts and undermines monolithic totalitarianism. Capitalism is at its liberating best in a noncapitalist environment.
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It is not so much the example of others we imitate as the reflection of ourselves in their eyes and the echo of ourselves in their words.
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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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The real Antichrist is he who turns the wine of an original idea into the water of mediocrity.
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It would be difficult to exaggerate the degree to which we are influenced by those we influence.
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Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart.
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It is a sign of creeping inner death when we can no longer praise the living.
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Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something.
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Take away hatred from some people, and you have men without faith.
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It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.
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The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully.
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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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Call not that man wretched, who whatever ills he suffers, has a child to love.
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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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Whenever you trace the origin of a skill or practices which played a crucial role in the ascent of man, we usually reach the realm of play.
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Craving, not having, is the mother of a reckless giving of oneself.
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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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There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmarks of a fugitive.
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