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The ruthlessness born of self-seeking is ineffectual compared with the ruthlessness sustained by dedication to a holy cause. God wishes, said Calvin, that one should put aside all humanity when it is a question of striving for His glory.

Eric Hoffer

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Eric Hoffer
Age: 84 †
Born: 1898
Born: July 25
Died: 1983
Died: May 21
Philosopher
Psychologist
Writer
New York City
New York
Wish
Strive
Ruthlessness
Born
Seeking
Calvin
Self
Glory
Sustained
Holy
Striving
Cause
Dedication
Question
Wishes
Humanity
Aside
Causes
Compared
Ineffectual

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We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about.
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The poor on the borderline of starvation live purposeful lives. To be engaged in a desperate struggle for food and shelter is to be wholly free from a sense of futility
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The revulsion from an unwanted self, and the impulse to forget it, mask it, slough it off and lose it, produce both a readiness to sacrifice the self and a willingness to dissolve it by losing one's individual distinctness in a compact collective whole.
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There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
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It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.
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The misery of a child is interesting to a mother, the misery of a young man is interesting to a young woman, the misery of an old man is interesting to nobody.
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What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people's faces as unfinished as their minds.
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There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his own house.
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If anybody asks me what I have accomplished, I will say all I have accomplished is that I have written a few good sentences.
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A man's worth is what he is divided by what he thinks he is.
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