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Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer

Book by Eric Hoffer · 14 quotes · Men, Self, Humans

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Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer Quotes

“It is the acquisition of skills in particular, irrespective of their utility, that is potent in making life meaningful. Since man has no inborn skills, the survival of the species has depended on the ability to acquire and perfect skills. Hence the mastery of skills is a uniquely human activity and yields deep satisfaction.”

MenHumansAbilityPerfectParticularActivitySkillsSurvivalSpeciesSatisfactionMeaningfulMeaning Of LifeAcquireYieldMasteryUtilityMeaningful LifeAcquisitionHuman ActivityLife Means
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“Unlike the pattern which seems to prevail in the rest of life, in the human species the weak not only survive but often triumph over the strong. The self-hatred inherent in the weak unlocks energies far more formidable then those mobilized by an ordinary struggle for existence.”

HumansSelfSeemsEnergyStrongExistenceStruggleOrdinaryWeakHatredSpeciesPatternsTriumphInherentFormidableHuman SpeciesSelf HatredRest Of LifeStruggle For Existence
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“However much we talk of the inexorable laws governing the life of individuals and of societies, we remain at the bottom convinced that in human affairs everything in more or less fortuitous. We do not even believe in the inevitability of our own death. Hence the difficulty of deciphering the present, of detecting the seeds of things to come as they germinate before our eyes. We are not attuned to seeing the inevitable.”

LifeBelieveHumansEyeLawIndividualBeliefSeeingDifficultyBottomAffairSeedsConvincedInevitableGoverningInevitabilityInexorableFortuitous
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“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.”

PeopleShouldHumansChildrenWisdomTogetherParentKnowledgeStudentsProduceTasksGrandparentFacilityHuman SocietyChildren And ParentsImplants
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“The most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their way, and must compensate for what they miss by realizing and cultivating their capacities and talents.”

WayHumansRealizingCreativeTalentMissingMembersCapacitySpeciesPositive AtheismGiftedConstraintsCultivatingHuman Species
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“To make of human affairs a coherent, precise, predictable whole one must ignore or suppress man as he really is. It is by eliminating man from their equation that the makers of history can predict the future, and the writers of history can give a pattern to the past.”

MenGivingHumansWholePastAffairPatternsMakersPreciseEquationsPredictableEliminating
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“Freedom means freedom from forces and circumstances which would turn man into a thing, which would impose on man the passivity and predictability of matter. By this test, absolute power is the manifestation most inimical to human uniqueness. Absolute power wants to turn people into malleable clay.”

PeopleMenWantHumansMeanMatterTurnsForcePowerHe ManCircumstancesTestsAbsolutesManifestationUniquenessClayPassivityAbsolute PowerPredictability
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