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

Book by Eric Hoffer · 12 quotes · Men, Self, Humans

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

“A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrine and promises but by the refuge it offers from the anxieties, barrenness and meaningless of an individual existence. It cures the poignantly frustrated not by conferring upon them an absolute truth or by remedying the difficulties and abuses which made their lives miserable, but by freeing them from their ineffectual selves and it does this by enfolding and absorbing them into a closely knit and exultant corporate whole.”

DoeMadeSelfWholeIndividualExistenceSocietyMovementPromiseOffersAnxietyMassAbuseDifficultyAbsolutesFollowingDoctrineCuresMiserableCorporateRisingMeaninglessFrustratedRefugeAbsorbingAbsolute TruthTrue Believer
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“When watching men of power in action it must be always kept in mind that, whether they know it or not, their main purpose is the elimination or neutralization of the independent individual- the independent voter, consumer, worker, owner, thinker- and that every device they employ aims at turning men into a manipulable animated instrument which is Aristotle's definition of a slave.”

KnowsMenMindActionPurposeIndividualAimIndependentInstrumentsSlaveWorkersDefinitionsConsumersOwnersDevicesVotersThinkerAnimatedEliminationIndependent Voters
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“Every device employed to bolster individual freedom must have as its chief purpose the impairment of the absoluteness of power. The indications are that such an impairment is brought about not by strengthening the individual and pitting him against the possessors of power, but by distributing and diversifying power and pitting one category or unit of power against the other. Where power is one, the defeated individual, however strong and resourceful, can have no refuge and no recourse.”

PurposeIndividualStrongPowerChiefsDevicesCategoriesIndividualismRefugeDefeatedUnitsEmployedIndicationDespotismStrengtheningResourcefulRecourseIndividual Freedom
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“It is the individual only who is timeless. Societies, cultures, and civilizations -- past and present -- are often incomprehensible to outsiders, but the individual's hungers, anxieties, dreams, and preoccupations have remained unchanged through the millenia.”

DreamPastCultureIndividualCivilizationAnxietyHungerIndividualityConformityOutsidersTimelessPreoccupationPast And PresentTrue Believer
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“The individual's most vital need is to prove his worth, and this usually means an insatiable hunger for action. For it is only the few who can acquire a sense of worth by developing and employing their capacities and talents. The majority prove their worth by keeping busy.”

NeedsMeanActionIndividualTalentProveCapacityMajorityBusyHungerDevelopingAcquireInsatiableEmployingInsatiable Hunger
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“There is no telling to what extremes of cruelty and ruthlessness a man will go when he is freed from the fears, hesitations, doubts and the vague stirrings of decency that go with individual judgement. When we lose our individual independence in the corporateness of a mass movement, we find a new freedom- freedom to hate, bully, lie, torture, murder and betray without shame and remorse. Herein undoubtedly lies part of the attractiveness of a mass movement”

MenLyingHateIndividualLosesDoubtMovementMassMurderShameIndependenceExtremesTyrannyCrueltyJudgementTortureTyrantsBetrayVagueBullyRemorseDecencyHesitationStirringAttractivenessRuthlessnessIndividual Independence
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“Unless a man has talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. Of what avail is freedom to choose if the self be ineffectual? We join a mass movement to escape individual responsibility, or, in the words of the ardent young Nazi, "to be free from freedom."”

IfsMenSelfYoungIndividualResponsibilityHistoryTalentMovementMassBurdenNaziNazismArdentNazi GermanyFreedom To ChooseIndividual Responsibility
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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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“Both the revolutionary and the creative individual are perpetual juveniles. The revolutionary does not grow up because he cannot grow, while the creative individual cannot grow up because he keeps growing.”

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