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About this quote

What does it mean?
Weak people rationalize their suffering or flight as virtue, convincing themselves they are chosen rather than shunned.
In plain terms
The weak trick themselves into thinking their failure is actually success.
What can you take from it?
Watch for self-deception where pain is reframed as virtue.

Where it applies

  • personal struggles
  • career setbacks
  • social rejection

Putting it to work

  • seek honest feedback
  • avoid romanticizing suffering

Questions to consider

  • When have I reframed escape as choice?
  • What honest truths am I avoiding?

Another view

Sometimes reframing struggle is necessary for resilience.

More from Eric Hoffer

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

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  2. Nonconformists travel as a rule in bunches. You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone. And woe to him inside a nonconformist clique who does not confor…

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  3. Nature has no compassion. Nature accepts no excuses and the only punishment it knows is death.

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