Maxioms by Robert Browning
 If I stoop
 Into a dark tremendous sea of cloud,
  It is but for a time; I read more 
 If I stoop
 Into a dark tremendous sea of cloud,
  It is but for a time; I press God's lamp
   Close to my breast; its splendor soon or late
    Will pierce the gloom; I shall emerge one day. 
 Autumn wins you best by this, its mute
 Appeal to sympathy for its decay.  
 Autumn wins you best by this, its mute
 Appeal to sympathy for its decay. 
 It's wiser being good than bad;
 It's safer being meek than fierce:
  It's fitter being sane than read more 
 It's wiser being good than bad;
 It's safer being meek than fierce:
  It's fitter being sane than mad.
   My own hope is, a sun will pierce
    The thickest cloud earth ever stretched;
     That, after Last, returns the First,
      Though a wide compass round be fetched;
       That what began best, can't end worst,
        Nor what God blessed once, prove accurst. 
Measure your mind's height by the shade it casts.
Measure your mind's height by the shade it casts.
 For thence,--a paradox
 Which comforts while it mocks,--
  Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail:
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 For thence,--a paradox
 Which comforts while it mocks,--
  Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail:
   What I aspired to be,
    And was not, comforts me:
     A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale.