If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, the whole face of the
earth would have been changed.

If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, the whole face of the
earth would have been changed.

Ah, who could have ever foretold that that little retrousse nose
would change the laws of an empire.
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Ah, who could have ever foretold that that little retrousse nose
would change the laws of an empire.
[Fr., Ah, qui jamais autoir pu dire
Que ce petit nez retrousse
Changerait les lois d'un empire.]

Influencing people is dangerous. Their acts and thoughts become your illegitimate children. You can't get away from them and Heaven read more

Influencing people is dangerous. Their acts and thoughts become your illegitimate children. You can't get away from them and Heaven knows what they mayn't grow up into.

There is no such thing as a good influence. Because to influence a person is to give him one's own read more

There is no such thing as a good influence. Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtures are not real to him. His sins, if there are such thing as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him.

The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water
flowing hidden underground, secretly making read more

The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water
flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.

For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearance, as though they were realities and are often more influenced read more

For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearance, as though they were realities and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are

No star ever rose or set without influence somewhere.

No star ever rose or set without influence somewhere.

God in making man intended by him to reduce all His Works back
again to Himself.

God in making man intended by him to reduce all His Works back
again to Himself.

O may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made read more

O may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence; live
In pulses stirred to generosity,
In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn
For miserable aims that end with self.
In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,
And with their mild persistence urge man's search
To vaster issues.