The capacity to resist coercion stems partly from the individual’s identification with a group.
~ Eric Hoffer

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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.
~ Eric Hoffer

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Should Americans begin to hate foreigners wholeheartedly, it will be an indication that they have lost confidence in their own way of life.
~ 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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Every extreme attitude is a flight from the self.
~ 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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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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We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand. A doctrine that is understood is shorn of its strength.
~ Eric Hoffer

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A mass movement attracts and holds a following not because it can satisfy the desire for self-advancement, but because it can satisfy the passion for self-renunciation.
~ Eric Hoffer

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It is true that when pride releases energies and serves as a spur to achievement, it can lead to a reconciliation with the self and the attainment of genuine self-esteem.
~ Eric Hoffer

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