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The joy of surmounting obstacles which once seemed unremovable, and pushing the frontier of accomplishment further — what joy is there like unto it?
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Christmas Day is the festival of optimism.
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When I recollect the treasure of friendship that has been bestowed upon me I withdraw all charges against life. If much has been denied me, much, very much has been given. So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart I shall say that life is good.
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The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next.
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Education should train the child to use his brains, to make for himself a place in the world and maintain his rights even when it seems that society would shove him into the scrap-heap.
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I take happiness very seriously. It is a creed, a philosophy and an objective.
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Deep, solemn optimism, it seems to me, should spring from this firm belief in the presence of God in the individual; not a remote, unapproachable governor of the universe, but a God who is very near every one of us, who is present not only in earth, sea and sky, but also in every pure and noble impulse of our hearts.
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Smells are the fallen angels of the senses.
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What induces a child to learn but his delight in knowing?
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God himself is not secure, having given man dominion over his work.
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Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.
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As selfishness and complaint pervert the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.
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The best things in life are unseen, thats why we close our eyes when we kiss, cry, and dream
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We can drift along with general opinion and tradition, or we can throw ourselves upon the guidance of the soul within and steer courageously toward truth... We have a choice in every event and every limitation and....to choose is to create.
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I hung about the dangerous frontier of "guess," avoiding with infinite trouble to myself and others the broad valley of reason.
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They took away what should have been my eyes (but I remembered Milton's Paradise). They took away what should have been my ears, (Beethoven came and wiped away my tears) They took away what should have been my tongue, (but I had talked with god when I was young) He would not let them take away my soul, possessing that I still possess the whole.
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I learned that it is possible for us to create light, sound and order within us no matter what calamity befall us in the outer world.
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Poetry is the gate through which I enter the land of enchantment. Once inside the flaming wall, my limitations fall from me, and my spirit is free.
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This great republic is a mockery of freedom as long as you are doomed to dig and sweat to earn a miserable living while the masters enjoy the fruit of your toil.
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Surely there is no road of effort so steep but a loving deed may soften its hardshness.
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Sometimes, it is true, a sense of isolation enfolds me like a cold mist as I sit alone and wait at life’s shut gate. Beyond there is light, and music, and sweet companionship; but I may not enter. Fate, silent, pitiless, bars the way…Silence sits immense upon my soul. Then comes hope with a smile and whispers, ‘there is joy is self-forgetfulness.’ So I try to make the light in others’ eyes my sun, the music in others; ears my symphony, the smile on others’ lips my happiness.
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One painful duty fulfilled makes the next plainer and easier.
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The human being is born with an incurable capacity for making the best of things.
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Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.