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An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.

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For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?

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Outside, among your fellows, among strangers, you must perceive appearances, a hundred things you cannot do; but inside, the terrible freedom!

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Line in nature is not found;Unit and universe are round;In vain produced, all rays return;Evil will bless, and ice will burn.

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Tobacco, coffee, alcohol, hashish, prussic acid, strychnine, are weak dilutions. The surest poison is time.

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Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can offer with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation, but of the adopted talent of a...more

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To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

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Thought and knowledge are natures in which apparatus and pretension avail nothing. Gowns, and pecuniary foundations, though of towns of gold, can neve...more

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A man is known by the books he reads.

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Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.

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Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

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In the highest civilization, the book is still the highest delight. He who has once known its satisfactions is provided with a resource against calami...more

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The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.

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Your goodness must have some edge to it -- else it is none.

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The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity. The inventor did it, because it was natural to him, and so in him it has a charm. In the imitator, ...more