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Always Think Of Yourself As Everyone's Servant; Look For Christ Our Lord In Everyone And You Will Then Have Respect And Reverence For Them All.
-Teresa Of Avila
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Always Think Of Yourself

Teresa Of Avila
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Always Think Of Yourself As Everyone's Servant; Look For Christ Our Lord In Everyone And You Will Then Have Respect And Reverence For Them All.

Understanding the Quote: "always think of yourself as everyone's servant; look for christ our lord..."

This quote by Teresa Of Avila reflects deeply on the theme of thinking. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Thinking, Looks, Christ, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Teresa of Avila interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Teresa Of Avila

Teresa Of Avila is celebrated for insightful thoughts on thinking and looks. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Thinking
Looks
Christ
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Learn To Self-conquest, Persevere Thus For A Time, And You Will Perceive Very Clearly The Advantage Which You Gain From It. As Soon You Apply Yourself To Orison, You Will At Once Feel Your Senses Gather Themselves Together: They Seem Like Bees Which Return To The Hive And There Shut Themselves Up To Work At The Making Of Honey. At The First Call Of The Will, They Come Back More And More Quickly. At Last, After Countless Exercises, Of This Kind, God Disposes Them To A State Of Utter Rest And Of Perfect Contemplation.
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I Had Many Friends To Help Me To Fall; But As To Rising Again, I Was So Much Left To Myself, That I Wonder Now I Was Not Always On The Ground. I Praise God For His Mercy; For It Was He Only Who Stretched Out His Hand To Me. May He Be Blessed For Ever! Amen.
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When We Accept What Happens To Us And Make The Best Of It, We Are Praising God.
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For, As I Said A Little Way Back, Perfect Souls Are In No Way Repelled By Trials, But Rather Desire Them And Pray For Them And Love Them. They Are Like Soldiers: The More Wars There Are, The Better They Are Pleased, Because They Hope To Emerge From Them With The Greater Riches.
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Untilled Soil, However Fertile It May Be, Will Bear Thistles And Thorns; So It Is With Man's Mind.
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O My God, What Must A Soul Be Like When It Is In This State! It Longs To Be All One Tongue With Which To Praise The Lord. It Utters A Thousand Pious Follies, In A Continuous Endeavor To Please Him Who Thus Possesses It.
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They Deceive Themselves Who Believe That Union With God Consists In Ecstasies Or Raptures, And In The Enjoyment Of Him. For It Consists In Nothing Except The Surrender And Subjection Of Our Will - With Our Thoughts, Words And Actions - To The Will Of God.
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Keep This In Mind, For It Is Very Important Advice, So Do Not Neglect It Until You Find You Have Such A Fixed Determination Not To Offend The Lord That You Would Rather Lose A Thousand Lives And Be Persecuted By The Whole World, Than Commit One Mortal Sin, And Until You Are Most Careful Not To Commit Venial Sins.
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Dream That The More You Struggle, The More You Prove The Love That You Bear Your God, And The More You Will Rejoice One Day With Your Beloved, In A Happiness And Rapture That Can Never End.
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Be Gentle To All And Stern With Yourself.
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Before Prayer, Endeavour To Realise Whose Presence You Are Approaching And To Whom You Are About To Speak, Keeping In Mind Whom You Are Addressing. If Our Lives Were A Thousand Times As Long As They Are We Should Never Fully Understand How We Ought To Behave Towards God, Before Whom The Very Angels Tremble, Who Can Do All He Wills, And With Whom To Wish Is To Accomplish.
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Strive To Close The Eyes Of The Body And Open Those Of The Soul And Look Into Your Own Heart.
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Patience Obtains Everything.
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I Am Quite Sure I Am More Afraid Of People Who Are Themselves Terrified Of The Devil Than I Am Of The Devil Himself.
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Lord, How You Afflict Your Lovers! But Everything Is Small In Comparison To What You Give Them Afterwards.
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In The Presence Of Jesus In The Holy Sacrament We Ought To Be Like The Blessed In Heaven Before The Divine Essence
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Let Nothing Disturb You. Let Nothing Frighten You. Everything Passes Away Except God. God Alone Is Sufficient.
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Blessed Be He, Who Came Into The World For No Other Purpose Than To Suffer.
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Whoever Has God Lacks Nothing. God Alone Suffices.
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The Hour I Have Long Wished For Is Now Come.
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If You Fall Sometimes, You Must Not Be Discouraged.
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If God Should Desire To Raise Us To The Position Of One Who Is An Intimate And Shares His Secrets, We Ought To Accept This Gladly.
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All The Trials We Endure Cannot Be Compared To These Interior Battles.
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Teach By Works More Than Words.
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May God Protect Me From Gloomy Saints.
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How Poor Is The Wisdom Of Men, And How Uncertain Their Forecast!
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Humility, However Deep It Be, Neither Disquiets Nor Troubles Nor Disturbs The Soul; It Is Accompanied By Peace, Joy And Tranquillity.
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The Feeling Remains That God Is On The Journey, Too.
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But The Fact Is, Things Always Seem To Come Slowly When You Are Longing For Them.
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I Only Wish I Could Write With Both Hands, So As Not To Forget One Thing While I Am Saying Another.
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How Often I Failed In My Duty To God, Because I Was Not Leaning On The Strong Pillar Of Prayer.
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Discontent With This World Gives Such A Painful Longing To Quit It That, If The Heart Finds Comfort, It Is Solely From The Thought That God Wishes It To Remain Here In Banishment.
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There Is No Affliction, Trial, Or Labor Difficult To Endure, When We Consider The Torments And Sufferings Which Our Lord Jesus Christ Endured For Us.
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A Slight Failing In One Virtue Is Enough To Put All The Others To Sleep.
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Let Us Consider The Glorious Saint Paul: It Seems That No Other Name Fell From His Lips Than That Of Jesus, Because The Name Of Jesus Was Fixed And Embedded In His Heart.
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Humility Must Always Be Doing Its Work Like A Bee Making Honey In The Hive: Without Humility All Will Be Lost.
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I Am Quite Sure That If We Could But Once Approach The Most Holy Sacrament With Great Faith And Love, It Would Suffice To Make Us Rich. How Much More So If We Approach It Often!
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Rich
Holy
Do Not Be Dismayed, Daughters, At The Number Of Things That You Have To Consider Before Setting Out On This Divine Journey, Which Is The Royal Road To Heaven. By Taking This Road We Gain Such Precious Treasures That It Is No Wonder If The Cost Seems To Us A High One. The Time Will Come When We Shall Realize That All We Have Paid Has Been Nothing At All By Comparison With The Greatness Of Our Prizes.
Daughter
Journey
Greatness
I Don't Know What Heavy Penance Could Have Come To Mind That Frequently I Would Not Have Gladly Undertaken Rather Than Recollect Myself In The Practice Of Prayer.
Prayer
Practice
Penance
Who God Possesseth In Nothing Is Wanting; Alone God Sufficeth.
God
Contentment
It Is Love Alone That Gives Worth To All Things.
Romantic
Best Love
Giving
How Is It That We Do Not Die Of Love In Seeing That God Himself Could Do No More Than Shed His Divine Blood For Us Drop By Drop? When As Man He Was Preparing For Death, He Made Himself Our Food In Order To Give Us Life. God Becomes Food, Bread For His Creatures. Is This Not Enough To Make Us Die Of Love?
Men
Blood
Order
I Know The Power Obedience Has Of Making Things Easy Which Seem Impossible.
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Possible And Impossible
Catholic
I Made You, Dear, And All I Make Is Perfect. Please Come Close, For I Desire You.
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Desire
Beloved
People In The World Pay Little Heed To Reason Where Their Own Interests Are Involved.
People
World
Littles
A Beginner Must Look On Himself As One Setting Out To Make A Garden For His Lord's Pleasure, On Most Unfruitful Soil Which Abounds In Weeds. His Majesty Roots Up The Weeds And Will Put In Good Plants Instead. Let Us Reckon That This Is Already Done When The Soul Decides To Practice Prayer And Has Begun To Do So.
Weed
Prayer
Garden
Anyone Who Has The Habit Of Speaking Before God's Majesty As If He Were Speaking To A Slave, Careless About How He Is Speaking, And Saying Whatever Comes Into His Head And Whatever He's Learned From Saying Prayers At Other Times, In My Opinion Is Not Praying. Please, God, May No Christian Pray In This Way.
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Prayer
Saint
His Majesty Knows Best What Is Suitable For Us. There's No Need For Us To Be Advising Him About What He Should Give Us, For He Can Rightly Tell Us That We Don't Know What We're Asking For (cf. Mt. 20:22). The Whole Aim Of Any Person Who Is Beginning Prayer ? And Don't Forget This, Because It's Very Important ? Should Be That He Work And Prepare Himself With Determination And Every Possible Effort To Bring His Will Into Conformity With God's Will.
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Determination
Prayer
Every Part Of The Journey Is Of Importance To The Whole.
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Importance
God Has Been Very Good To Me, For I Never Dwell Upon Anything Wrong Which A Person Has Done, So As To Remember It Afterwards. If I Do Remember It, I Always See Some Other Virtue In That Person.
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Done
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Settle Yourself In Solitude, And You Will Come Upon God In Yourself.
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Solitude
Settling
Be Gentle And Kind With Every One, And Severe With Yourself.
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Gentle
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All The Troubles Of The Church, All The Evils In The World, Flow From This Source: That Men Do Not By Clear And Sound Knowledge And Serious Consideration Penetrate Into The Truths Of Sacred Scripture.
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There Seem To Me A Great Many Blessings Which Come From True Poverty And I Should Be Sorry To Be Deprived Of Them.
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We Cannot Know Whether We Love God, Although There May Be Strong Reason For Thinking So; But There Can Be No Doubt About Whether We Love Our Neighbor Or Not. Be Sure That, In Proportion As You Advance In Fraternal Charity, You Are Increasing Your Love Of God, For His Majesty Bears So Tender An Affection For Us That I Cannot Doubt He Will Repay Our Love For Others By Augmenting, And In A Thousand Different Ways, That Which We Bear For Him.
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Thinking
Doubt
Be Kind To All And Severe To Thyself.
Be Kind
Kind
Severe
Do Not Think You Have Gained A Virtue Unless You Have First Been Tried By Its Opposite.
Thinking
Opposites
Firsts
Love Turns Work Into Rest.
Turns
True Love Grows By Sacrifice And The More Thoroughly The Soul Rejects Natural Satisfaction The Stronger And More Detached Its Tenderness Becomes.
Love
Sacrifice
Soul
Truth Suffers, But Never Dies.
Suffering
Saint
Dies
Lord, How Thou Dost Afflict Thy Lovers!
God
Lovers
Lord
Those Who Give Themselves To Prayer Should In A Special Manner Have Always A Devotion To St. Joseph; For I Know Not How Any Man Can Think Of The Queen Of The Angels, During The Time That She Suffered So Much With The Infant Jesus, Without Giving Thanks To St. Joseph For The Services He Rendered Them Then.
Jesus
Queens
Prayer
Those Who In Fact Risk All For God Will Find That They Have Both Lost All And Gained All.
Risk
Facts
Lost
Holy Church-that Mother Who Is Also A Queen Because She Is A King's Bride.
God
Mother
Kings
If I Should Say Anything That Is Not In Conformity With What Is Held By The Holy Roman Catholic Church, It Will Be Through Ignorance And Not Through Malice. This May Be Taken As Certain, And Also That, Through God's Goodness, I Am, And Shall Always Be, As I Always Have Been, Subject To Her.
Taken
Ignorance
Catholic
Christ Has No Body Now But Mine. He Prays In Me, Works In Me, Looks Through My Eyes, Speaks Through My Words, Works Through My Hands, Walks With My Feet And Loves With My Heart.
Faith
Inspiration
Heart
In Order To Profit From This Path [of Prayer] And Ascend To The Dwelling Places We Desire, The Important Thing Is Not To Think Much But To Love Much; And So, Do That Which Best Stirs You To Love.
Love
Prayer
Thinking
Whenever Conscience Commands Anything, There Is Only One Thing To Fear, And That Is Fear.
Command
One Thing
Conscience
One Always Goes On As One Begins.
Goes On
It Is Certain That The Love Of God Does Not Consist In This Sweetness And Tenderness Which We For The Most Part Desire; But Rather In Serving Him In Justice, Fortitude, And Humility. His Majesty Seeks And Loves Courageous Souls.
Humility
Justice
Soul
Thank God For The Things That I Do Not Own.
Thank God
There Was The Torture Of Sermons, And That Not A Slight One, For I Was Very Fond Of Them.
Torture
Sermons
Vocal Prayer . . . Must Be Accompanied By Reflection. A Prayer In Which A Person Is Not Aware Of Whom He Is Speaking To, What He Is Asking, Who It Is Who Is Asking And Of Whom, I Don't Call Prayer-however Much The Lips May Move.
Prayer
Moving
Reflection
Union Is As If In A Room There Were Two Large Windows Through Which The Light Streamed In; It Enters In Different Places But It All Becomes One.
Light
Two
Different
We Shall Never Learn To Know Ourselves Except By Endeavoring To Know God; For, Beholding His Greatness We Realize Our Own Littleness; His Purity Shows Us Our Foulness; And By Meditating Upon His Humility We Find How Very Far We Are From Being Humble.
Humble
Humility
Greatness
Granting That We Are Always In The Presence Of God, Yet It Seems To Me That Those Who Pray Are In His Presence In A Very Different Sense; For They, As It Were, See That He Is Looking Upon Them, While Others May Go For Days On End Without Even Once Recollecting That God Sees Them.
Different
May
Praying
Out Of Suffering Comes The Serious Mind; Out Of Salvation, The Grateful Heart; Out Of Endurance, Fortitude; Out Of Deliverance Faith. Patient Endurance Attends To All Things.
Faith
Grateful
Heart
Our Greatest Gain Is To Lose The Wealth That Is Of Such Brief Duration And, By Comparison With Eternal Things, Of Such Little Worth; Yet We Get Upset About It And Our Gain Turns To Loss.
Loss
Upset
Saint
[on Her Father:] ... In Losing Him I Lost My Greatest Blessing And Comfort, For He Was Always That To Me.
Father
Blessing
Comfort
What Value Is There In Faith Without Works? And What Are They Worth If They Are Not United To The Merits Of Jesus Christ, Our Only Good?
Jesus
Merit
Christ
Prayer Is An Act Of Love. Words Are Not Needed.
Prayer
Acts Of Love
Needed
Christ Moves Along The Pots And Pans.
Moving
Christ
Pot
You Pay God A Compliment By Asking Great Things Of Him.
God
Prayer
Saint
About The Injunction Of The Apostle Paul That Women Should Keep Silent In Church? Don't Go By One Text Only.
Church
Apostle Paul
Silent
We Need No Wings To Go In Search Of Him, But Have Only To Look Upon Him Present Within Us.
Wings
Saint
Needs
Christ Has No Body Now On Earth But Yours.
Body
Earth
Christ
Happy The Heart Where Love Has Come To Birth.
Happiness
Heart
Birth
Jacob Did Not Cease To Be A Saint Because He Had To Attend To His Flocks.
Prayer
Saint
Flocks
Let Us Remember That Within Us There Is A Palace Of Immense Magnificence.
Magnificence
Palaces
Remember
To Argue Over Who Is The More Noble Is Nothing More Than To Dispute Whether Dirt Is Better For Making Bricks Or For Making Mortar.
Noble
Dirt
Bricks
Learn To Self-conquest, Persevere Thus For A Time, And You Will Perceive Very Clearly The Advantage Which You Gain From It.
Spiritual
Wisdom
Fun
A Soul Which Gives Itself To Prayer, Either Much Or Little, Should On No Account Be Kept Within Narrow Bounds.
Prayer
Giving
Soul
Our Soul Can Find In The Blessed Sacrament All The Joys And Consolations It Desires.
Blessed
Joy
Soul
Untilled Ground, However Rich, Will Bring Forth Thistles And Thorns; So Also The Mind Of Man.
Men
Mind
Thorns
Our Souls May Lose Their Peace And Even Disturb Other People's, If We Are Always Criticizing Trivial Actions - Which Often Are Not Real Defects At All, But We Construe Them Wrongly Through Our Ignorance Of Their Motives.
Peace
Motivation
Real
Never Exaggerate, But Express Your Feelings With Moderation.
Feelings
Moderation
I Once Heard A Spiritual Man Say That He Was Not So Much Astonished At The Things Done By A Soul In Mortal Sin As At The Things Not Done By It. May God, In His Mercy, Deliver Us From Such Great Evil, For There Is Nothing In The Whole Of Our Lives That So Thoroughly Deserves To Be Called Evil As This, Since It Brings Endless And Eternal Evils In Its Train.
Spiritual
Men
Evil
If We Learn To Love The Earth, We Will Find Labyrinths, Gardens, Fountains And Precious Jewels! A Whole New World Will Open Itself To Us. We Will Discover What It Means To Be Truly Alive.
Mean
Garden
Jewels
Trust God That You Are Exactly Where You Are Meant To Be.
Trust In God
Where You Are
Infinite Possibilities
The Closer One Approaches To God, The Simpler One Becomes.
Approach
The Custom Of Speaking To God Almighty As Freely As With A Slave - Caring Nothing Whether The Words Are Suitable Or Not, But Simply Saying The First Thing That Comes To Mind From Being Learnt By Rote By Frequent Repetition - Cannot Be Called Prayer: God Grant That No Christian May Address Him In This Manner.
Christian
Prayer
Caring
When I Took The Habit, The Lord Immediately Showed Me How He Favours Those Who Do Violence To Themselves In Order To Serve Him. No One Saw What I Endured... At The Moment Of My Entrance Into This New State I Felt A Joy So Great That It Has Never Failed Me Even To This Day; And God Converted The Dryness Of My Soul Into A Very Great Tenderness.
Order
Joy
Soul
I Have Often Thought With Wonder Of The Great Goodness Of God; And My Soul Has Rejoiced In The Contemplation Of His Great Magnificence And Mercy. May He Be Blessed For Ever! For I See Clearly That He Has Not Omitted To Reward Me, Even In This Life, For Every One Of My Good Desires.
Blessed
Soul
Desire
We Should Blush For Shame To Show So Much Resentment At What Is Done Or Said Against Us, Knowing That So Many Injuries And Affronts Have Been Offered To Our Redeemer And The Saints.
Knowing
Saint
Done
No One Should Think Or Say Anything Of Another Which He Would Not Wish Thought Or Said Of Himself.
Thinking
Wish
Say Anything
In Order That Love Be Fully Satisfied, It Is Necessary That It Lower Itself And That It Lower Itself To Nothingness And Transform This Nothingness Into Fire.
Love Is
Fire
Order
I Fully Realize That This Gratitude Of Mine Is Not In The Least A Sign Of Perfection: It Must Be My Nature - I Could Be Suborned With A Sardine.
Gratitude
Perfection
Sardines
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