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About this quote

What does it mean?
Hoffer suggests his freedom comes from lacking responsibilities and ambition, allowing him to live without pressure from present or future claims.
In plain terms
He has time because he avoids busywork and ambition.
What can you take from it?
Lack of ambition grants freedom from time pressure.

Where it applies

  • reflective solitude
  • creative work
  • daily living

Putting it to work

  • reduce commitments
  • decline ambitions
  • prioritize presence

Questions to consider

  • What claims do you allow on your time?
  • How does ambition shape your schedule?

Another view

This perspective may not suit those who find purpose in responsibility or achievement.

More from Eric Hoffer

  1. This food-and-shelter theory concerning man's efforts is without insight. Our most persistent and spectacular efforts are concerned not with the preservation o…

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  2. The sense of worth derived from creative work depends upon 'recognition' by others, which is never automatic. As a result, the path of self-realization, even w…

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  3. I am more and more convinced that taking life over-seriously is a frivolous thing. There is an affected self-dramatizing in the brooding over one's prospects a…

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