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Men's arguments often prove nothing but their wishes.
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The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility.
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Pedantry crams our heads with learned lumber, and takes out our brains to make room for it.
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Life isn't like a book. Life isn't logical or sensible or orderly. Life is a mess most of the time. And theology must be lived in the midst of that mess.
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There are two way of establishing a reputation, one to be praised by honest people and the other to be accused by rogues. It is best, however, to secure the first one, because it will always be accompanied by the latter.
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He that has energy enough to root out a vice should go further, and try to plant a virtue in its place.
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If we can advance any propositions that are both true and new, these are indisputably our own, by right of discovery; and if we can repeat what is old more briefly and brightly than others, this also becomes our own, by right of conquest.
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No man can purchase his virtue too dear, for it is the only thing whose value must ever increase with the price it has cost us.
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That author, however, who has thought more than he has read, read more than he has written, and written more than he published, if he does not command success, has at least deserved it.
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He that knows himself, knows others; and he that is ignorant of himself, could not write a very profound lecture on other men's heads.
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Discretion has been termed the better part of valour, and it is more certain, that diffidence is the better part of knowledge.
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The present time has one advantage over every other - it is our own.
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He that sympathizes in all the happiness of others, perhaps himself enjoys the safest happiness.
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That writer does the most who gives his reader the most knowledge and takes from him the least time.
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The excess of our youth are checks written against our age and they are payable with interest thirty years later.
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Justice to my readers compels me to admit that I write because I have nothing to do; justice to myself induces me to add that I will cease to write the moment I have nothing to say.