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About this quote

What does it mean?
Evil is not just an external force but a primal part of human nature hidden in our subconscious.
In plain terms
The devil represents the wild and dangerous parts inside us, not just outside us.
What can you take from it?
Acknowledge the darker impulses within human nature to manage them.

Where it applies

  • conflict resolution
  • self-control
  • understanding crime

Putting it to work

  • practice self-awareness
  • channel aggression constructively
  • study psychology

Questions to consider

  • What inner impulses do you struggle to control?
  • How do you define evil?

Another view

Attributing all evil to internal nature ignores systemic or external causes.

More from Eric Hoffer

  1. The desire to belong is partly a desire to lose oneself.

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  2. The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness. The remarkable thing is that …

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  3. The compulsion to take ourselves seriously is in inverse proportion to our creative capacity. When the creative flow dries up, all we have left is our importan…

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