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In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.
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The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man, and never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game.
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Socially we are woven into the fabric of society, where every man is like one thread in a piece of cloth. No single thread has a right to say, "I will stay here no longer," and draw out. No man has a right to make a hole in the well-woven fabric of society.
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Sorrow makes men sincere.
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There are apartments in the soul which have a glorious outlook; from whose windows you can see across the river of death, and into the shining city beyond; but how often are these neglected for the lower ones, which have earthward-looking windows.
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A man's true state of power and riches is to be in himself.
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The monkey is an organized sarcasm upon the human race.
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Anger is a bow that will shoot sometimes where another feeling will not.
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We pray for those who have ceased to pray. We pray for those that need prayer more than ever, that have fewer and fewer seasons even of thought, that grow hard with years, that are less and less troubled by sin, and that are more and more irreverent of religion. We pray for the children of Christian parents who sometimes weep at the memory of father and mother, but who never have thought of God.
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You are not called to be a canary in a cage. You are called to be an eagle, and to fly sun to sun, over continents.
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The babe at first feeds upon the mother's bosom, but it is always on her heart.
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The soul is a temple; and God is silently building it by night and by day. Precious thoughts are building it; disinterested love is building it; all-penetrating faith is building it.
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There is no liberty to men who know not how to govern themselves.
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I received a letter from a lad asking me for an easy berth. To this I replied: You cannot be an editor; do not try the law; do not think of the ministry; let alone all ships and merchandise; abhor politics; don't practice medicine; be not a farmer or a soldier or a sailor; don't study, don't think. None of these are easy. O, my son, you have come into a hard world. I know of only one easy place in it, and that is the grave!
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The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government.
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It is the triumph of civilization that at last communities have obtained such a mastery over natural laws that they drive and control them. The winds, the water, electricity, all aliens that in their wild form were dangerous, are now controlled by human will, and are made useful servants.
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Though cares and sorrows e'er must come, Though heart be rent, I know that God will give me strength, When mine is spent.
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The little troubles and worries of life may be as stumbling blocks in our way, or we may make them stepping-stones to a nobler character and to Heaven. Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things.
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None love to speak so much, when the mood of speaking comes, as they who are naturally taciturn.
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The world's battlefields have been in the heart chiefly; more heroism has been displayed in the household and the closet, than on the most memorable battlefields in history.
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A bird in a cage is not half a bird.
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No man is such a conqueror, as the one that has defeated himself.
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If you are idle, you are on the road to ruin; and there are few stopping-places upon it. It is rather a precipice than a road
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The soul is often hungrier than the body and no shop can sell it food.