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The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
Children sweeten labours; but they make misfortunes more bitter. They increase the care of life; but they mitigate the remembrance read more
Children sweeten labours; but they make misfortunes more bitter. They increase the care of life; but they mitigate the remembrance of death. The perpetuity of generation is common to beasts; but memory, merit, and noble works, are proper to men. And surely a man shall see the noblest works and foundations have proceeded from childless men; which have sought to express the images of their minds, where those of their bodies have failed.
Savage peoples are ruled by passion, civilized peoples by the mind. The difference lies not in the respective natures of read more
Savage peoples are ruled by passion, civilized peoples by the mind. The difference lies not in the respective natures of savagery and civilization, but in their attendant circumstances, institutions, and so forth. The difference, therefore, does not operate in every sense, but it does in most of them. Even the most civilized peoples, in short, can be fired with passionate hatred for each other.
The trouble with people is not that they don't know but that they know so much that ain't so.
The trouble with people is not that they don't know but that they know so much that ain't so.
Irony is the hygiene of the mind.
Irony is the hygiene of the mind.
Every man is as Heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.
Every man is as Heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.
The awareness of their individual blemishes and shortcomings inclines the frustrated to detect ill will and meanness in their fellow read more
The awareness of their individual blemishes and shortcomings inclines the frustrated to detect ill will and meanness in their fellow men. Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves.
The burning conviction that we have a holy duty towards others is often a way of attaching our drowning selves read more
The burning conviction that we have a holy duty towards others is often a way of attaching our drowning selves to a passing raft. What looks like a giving hand is often a holding on for dear life. Take away our holy duties and you leave our lives puny and meaningless. There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.
The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions.
The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions.