Art is the nearest thing to life; it is a mode of amplifying experience and extending our contact with our fellow men beyond the bounds of our personal lot.
He was at a starting point which makes many a man's career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose. . . .
But she took her husband's jokes and joviality as patiently as everything else, considering that "men would be so", and viewing the stronger sex in the light of animals whom it had pleased Heaven to make naturally troublesome, like bulls and turkey-cocks.
Habit is the beneficent harness of routine which enables silly men to live respectfully and unhappy men to live calmly
Plain women he regarded as he did the other severe facts of life, to be faced with philosophy and investigated by science.
It is a sad weakness in us, after all, that the thought of a person's death consecrates him or her anew to us. It is as if life were not sacred too, as if it were comparatively a small thing to fail in love and reverence to the brother or sister who has to climb the whole toilsome mountain with us. It seems as if all our tears and tenderness were due to the one who is spared that hard journey.
The tread Of coming footsteps cheats the midnight watcher Who holds her heart and waits to hear them pause, And hears them never pause, but pass and die.
There's truth in wine, and there may be some in gin and muddy beer; but whether it's truth worth my knowing, is another question.
The soul of man, when it gets fairly rotten, will bear you all sorts of poisonous toad-stools, and no eye can see whence came the seed thereof.
A woman's rank Lies in the fulness of her womanhood: Therein alone she is royal.
autobiography at least saves a man or woman that the world is curious about from the publication of a string of mistakes called 'Memoirs.
Childhood is only the beautiful and happy time in contemplation and retrospect: to the child it is full of deep sorrows, the meaning of which is unknown.
He had the superficial kindness of a good-humored, self-satisfied nature, that fears no rivalry, and has encountered no contrarieties.
Falsehood is easy, truth so difficult.
It is an uneasy lot at best, to be what we call highly taught and yet not to enjoy: to be present at this great spectacle of life and never to be liberated from a small hungry shivering self.
Our life is determined for us--and it makes the mind very free when we give up wishing, and only think of bearing what is laid upon us, and doing what is given us to do.
Better a wrong will than a wavering; better a steadfast enemy than an uncertain friend; better a false belief than no belief at all.
The first condition of human goodness is something to love; the second, something to reverence.
No matter whether failure came A thousand different times, For one brief moment of success, Life rang its golden chimes.
I don't remember ever being see-saw, when I'd made my mind up that a thing was wrong. It takes the taste out o' my mouth for things, when I know I should have a heavy conscience after 'em. I've seen pretty clear, ever since I could cast up a sum, as you can never do what's wrong without breeding sin and trouble more than you can ever see. It's like a bit o' bad workmanship--you never see th' end o' the mischief it'll do. And it's a poor look-out to come into the world to make your fellow creatures worse off instead o' better.
In so complex a thing as human nature, we must consider it is hard to find rules without exception.
We judge other according to results; how else?--not knowing the process by which results are arrived at.
There is a sort of human paste that when it comes near the fire of enthusiasm is only baked into harder shape.
Life would be no better than candlelight tinsel and daylight rubbish if our spirits were not touched by what has been.
For pain must enter into its glorified life of memory before it can turn into compassion.
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