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Eric Hoffer Quotes

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"Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves."

"The only index by which to judge a government or a way of life is by the quality of the people it acts upon. No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion- it is an evil government."

"The central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and children are students together."

"An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head."

"The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything."

"You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you."

"There is probably an element of malice in our readiness to overestimate people - we are, as it were, laying up for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting them down to size."

"We feel free when we escape - even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire."

"You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy."

"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings."

"The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness."

"Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership."

"With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves."

"In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."

"Craving, not having, is the mother of a reckless giving of oneself."

"I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind."

"Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us."

"It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn."

"Call not that man wretched, who whatever ills he suffers, has a child to love."

"Children are the keys of paradise."

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