The 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.
~ Eric Hoffer
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Failure in the management of practical affairs seems to be a qualification for success in the management of public affairs.
~ Eric Hoffer
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The capacity to resist coercion stems partly from the individual’s identification with a group.
~ Eric Hoffer
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There is fear and intolerance in pride; it is sensitive and uncompromising. The less promise and potency in the self, the more imperative is the need for pride. The core of pride is self-rejection.
~ Eric Hoffer
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There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem.
~ Eric Hoffer
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Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both.
~ Eric Hoffer
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They who clamor loudest for freedom are often the ones least likely to be happy in a free society.
~ Eric Hoffer
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Pride is a sense of worth derived from something that is not organically part of us, while self-esteem derives from the potentialities and achievements of the self.
~ Eric Hoffer
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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
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The urge to escape our real self is also an urge to escape the rational and the obvious. The refusal to see ourselves as we are develops a distaste for facts and cold logic.
~ Eric Hoffer
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