In the alchemy of man's soul almost all noble attributes--courage, honor, love, hope, faith, duty, loyalty, etc.--can be transmuted into ruthlessness. Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us. Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless. Nature has no compassion. It is, in the words of William Blake, "a creation that groans, living on the death; where fish and bird and beast and tree and metal and stone live by devouring." Nature accepts no excuses and the only punishment it knows is death. Eric Hoffer
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More Quotes By Eric Hoffer
  1. Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.

  2. There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.

  3. The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.

  4. The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.

  5. We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities but its own talents.

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