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Children Can Scarcely Be Fashioned To Meet With Our Likes And Our Purpose. Just As God Did Us Give Them, So Must We Hold Them And Love Them, Nurture And Teach Them To Fullness And Leave Them To Be What They Are.

-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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Children Can Scarcely Be

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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Children Can Scarcely Be Fashioned To Meet With Our Likes And Our Purpose. Just As God Did Us Give Them, So Must We Hold Them And Love Them, Nurture And Teach Them To Fullness And Leave Them To Be What They Are.

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More From Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Age Does Not Make Us Childish, As Some Say; It Finds Us True Children.

Every Offense Is Avenged On Earth.

I Can Promise To Be Sincere, But I Cannot Promise To Be Impartial.

To Act Is Easy; To Think Is Hard.

Everything Is Hard Before It Is Easy.

When Married One Has To Get Into An Argument Once In A While Since In This Way One Learns About The Other.

We Are Not All Equal, Nor Can We Be So.

There Are Two Things Parents Should Give Their Children Roots And Wings. Roots To Give Them Bearing And A Sense Of Belonging, But Also Wings To Help Free Them From Constraints And Prejudices And Give Them Other Ways To Travel (or Rather, To Fly).

One Should Not Search For Anything Behind The Phenomena. They Themselves Are The Message.

Truth Is A Torch, But A Terrific One; Therefore We All Try To Reach It With Closed Eyes, Lest We Should Be Scorched.

Every Man Must Form Himself As A Particular Being, Seeking, However, To Attain That General Idea Of Which All Mankind Are Constituents.

Each Traveler Should Know What He Has To See, And What Properly Belongs To Him, On A Journey.

I Must Consider More Closely This Cycle Of Good And Bad Days Which I Find Coursing Within Myself. Passion, Attachment, The Urge To Action, Inventiveness, Performance, Order All Alternate And Keep Their Orbit; Cheerfulness, Vigor, Energy, Flexibility And Fatigue, Serenity As Well As Desire. Nothing Disturbs The Cycle For I Lead A Simple Life, But I Must Still Find The Time And Order In Which I Rotate.

Everything Is Both Simpler Than We Can Imagine And More Entangled Than We Can Conceive.

I Have Heard Myself Accused Of Being An Opponent, An Enemy Of Mathematics, Which No One Can Value More Highly Than I, For It Accomplishes The Very Thing Whose Achievement Has Been Denied Me.

There Is Strong Shadow Where There Is Much Light.

Architecture Is Crystallized Music.

How Many Years Must A Man Do Nothing, Before He Can At All Know What Is To Be Done And How To Do It!

I Hold To Faith In The Divine Love - Which, So Many Years Ago For A Brief Moment In A Little Corner Of The Earth, Walked About As A Man Bearing The Name Of Jesus Christ - As The Foundation On Which Alone My Happiness Rests.

If God Had Wanted Me Otherwise, He Would Have Created Me Otherwise.

Nature Has Neither Kernel Nor Shell

Mysteries Are Not Necessarily Miracles.

One Ought, Everyday, To Hear A Song, Read A Fine Poem, And, If Possible, To Speak A Few Reasonable Words.

These Auspicious Aspects, Which The Astrologers Subsequently Interpreted For Me, May Have Been The Causes Of My Preservation.

If You Want To Understand Poetry, You Have To Go To Its Origin, If You Want To Understand The Poet, You Have To Go To The Poet's Home.

Not The Maker Of Plans And Promises, But Rather The One Who Offers Faithful Service In Small Matters. This Is The Person Who Is Most Likely To Achieve What Is Good And Lasting.

Self-knowledge Comes From Knowing Other Men.

After All, Poets Shouldn't Be Their Own Interpreters And Shouldn't Carefully Dissect Their Poems Into Everyday Prose; That Would Mean The End Of Being Poets. Poets Send Their Creations Into The World, It Is Up To The Reader, The Aesthetician, And The Critic To Determine What They Wanted To Say With Their Creations.

Try Novelties For Salesman's Bait, For Novelty Wins Everyone.

Plants And Flowers Of The Commonest Kind Can Form A Pleasing Diary, Because Nothing Which Calls Back To Us The Remembrance Of A Happy Moment Can Be Insignificant.

All Rights And Laws Are Still Transmitted, Like An Eternal Sickness To The Race. [ger., Es Erben Sich Gesetz And Rechte Wie Eine Ew'ge Krankheit Fort.]

The Bad Thing Is That Thinking About Thought Doesn't Help At All; One Has To Have It From Nature So That The Good Ideas Appear Before Us Like Free Children Of God Calling To Us: Here We Are.

When Two Men Quarrel, Who Owns The Cooler Head Is The More To Blame.

One Is Never Deceived; One Deceives Oneself.

Human Life Runs Its Course In The Metamorphosis Between Receiving And Giving.

Devote Each Day To The Object Then In Time And Every Evening Will Find Something Done.

The Absence Of Temptation Is The Absence Of Virtue.

Science Arose From Poetry... When Times Change The Two Can Meet Again On A Higher Level As Friends.

The World Is So Great And Rich, And Life So Full Of Variety, That You Can Never Lack Occasions For Poems.

Higher Yet And Higher Out Of Clouds And Night, Nearer Yet And Nearer Rising To The Light - Light, Serene And Holy Where My Soul May Rest, Purified And Lowly, Sanctified And Blest.

The Rainbow Mirrors Human Aims And Action. Think, And More Clearly Wilt Thou Grasp It, Seeing Life Is But Light In Many-hued Reflection.

The History Of Science Is Science Itself; The History Of The Individual, The Individual.

Nature! We Are Surrounded By Her And Locked In Her Clasp: Powerless To Leave Her, And Powerless To Come Closer To Her. Unasked And Unwarned She Takes Us Up Into The Whirl Of Her Dance, And Hurries On With Us Till We Are Weary And Fall From Her Arms.

As Beauteous Is The World, And Many A Joy Floats Through Its Wide Dominion. But, Alas, When We Would Seize The Winged Good, It Flies.

The Modern Age Has A False Sense Of Superiority, Because Of The Great Mass Of Data At Its Disposal. But The Valid Criterion Of Distinction Is Rather The Extent To Which Man Knows How To Form And Master The Material At His Command.

Nothing Shows A Man's Character More Than What He Laughs At.

Whoso Is Content With Pure Experience And Acts Upon It Has Enough Of Truth.

I Had Rather Be Mercury, The Smallest Among Seven [planets], Revolving Round The Sun, Than The First Among Five [moons] Revolving Round Saturn.

What We Do Not Understand We Do Not Possess.

Architecture Is Frozen Music. [ger., Die Backunst Ist Eine Erstarrte Musik.]

It Is A Very Hard And Troublesome Thing To Dispose Of Whole, Half, And Quarter-mistakes; To Sift Them And Assign The Portion Of Truth To Its Proper Place.

War Is In Truth A Disease In Which The Juices That Serve Health And Maintenance Are Used For The Sole Purpose Of Nourishing Something Foreign, Something At Odds With Nature.

It Is Natural To Man To Regard Himself As The Object Of The Creation, And To Think Of All Things In Relation To Himself, And The Degree In Which They Can Serve And Be Useful To Him.

Don't Judge Anyone Harshly Until You Yourself Have Been Through His Experiences

Everybody Wants To Be Somebody; Nobody Wants To Grow.

If We Could Do Away With Death, We Wouldn't Object; To Do Away With Capital Punishment Will Be More Difficult. Were That To Happen, We Would Reinstate It From Time To Time.

Ill-humor Is Nothing More Than An Inward Feeling Of Our Own Want Of Merit, A Dissatisfaction With Ourselves Which Is Always United With An Envy That Foolish Vanity Excites.

Plunge Boldly Into The Thick Of Life!

Like The Star That Shines Afar, Without Haste And Without Rest, Let Each One Wheel With Steady Sway Round The Task That Rules The Day, And Do Their Best.

Where The Light Is Brightest, The Shadows Are Deepest.

The Soul Is Indestructible And Its Activity Will Continue Through Eternity. It Is Like The Sun, Which, To Our Eyes, Seems To Set At Night; But It Has In Reality Only Gone To Diffuse Its Light Elsewhere.

We Gladly Put Antiquity Above Our Age But Not Posterity. Only A Father Doesn't Begrudge His Son's Talent.

Properly Speaking, We Learn From Those Books Only That We Cannot Judge. The Author Of A Book That I Am Competent To Criticise Would Have To Learn From Me.

The Heights Charm Us, But The Steps Do Not; With The Mountain In Our View We Love To Walk The Plains.

Let Everyone Sweep In Front Of His Own Door, And The Whole World Will Be Clean.

No Wise Combatant Underestimates Their Antagonist.

Our Friends Show Us What We Can Do; Our Enemies Teach Us What We Must Do.

Still This Planet's Soil For Noble Deeds Grants Scope Abounding.

Colour Itself Is A Degree Of Darkness.

Truth Must Be Repeated Again And Again, Because Error Is Constantly Being Preached Round About.

Again And Again

The Ground That A Good Man Treads Is Hallowed.

No One Should Be Rich Except Those Who Understand It.

No One Can Take From Us The Joy Of The First Becoming Aware Of Something, The So-called Discovery. But If We Also Demand The Honor, It Can Be Utterly Spoiled For Us, For We Are Usually Not The First. What Does Discovery Mean, And Who Can Say That He Has Discovered This Or That? After All It's Pure Idiocy To Brag About Priority; For It's Simply Unconscious Conceit, Not To Admit Frankly That One Is A Plagiarist.

One Can Stand Anything Except A Succession Of Ordinary Days

To Be Loved For What One Is, That Is The Greatest Exception. The Great Majority Love In Others Only What They Lend Him; Their Own Selves, Their Version Of Him.

We Should Know Mankind Better If We Were Not So Anxious To Resemble One Another.

Energy Will Do Anything That Can Be Done In This World.

Take Life Too Seriously, And What Is It Worth? If The Morning Wake Us To No New Joys, If The Evening Bring Us Not The Hopes Of New Pleasures, Is It Worth While To Dress And Undress? Does The Sun Shine On Me Today That I May Reflect On Yesterday? That I May Endeavor To Foresee And Control What Can Neither Be Foreseen Nor Controlled - The Destiny Of Tomorrow?

The Misery That Oppresses You Lies Not In Your Profession But In Yourself! What Man In The World Would Not Find His Situation Intolerable If He Chooses A Craft, An Art, Indeed Any Form Of Life, Without Experiencing An Inner Calling? Whoever Is Born With A Talent, Or To A Talent, Must Surely Find In That The Most Pleasing Of Occupations! Everything On This Earth Has Its Difficult Sides! Only Some Inner Drive - Pleasure, Love - Can Help Us Overcome Obstacles, Prepare A Path, And Lift As Out Of The Narrow Circle In Which Others Tread Out Their Anguished, Miserable Existences!

The New Vulcanism Is Really A Daring Attempt To Connect The Present, Incomprehensible World To A Past, Unknown One.

You Can Put Up With Everything In This World Except Not With A Long Stretch Of Beautiful Days.

If Everyone Sweeps Before His Own Front Door, Then The Street Is Clean.

English Plays, Atrocious In Content, Absurd In Form, Objectionable In Action, Execrable Englishtheatre.

The World Only Goes Forward Because Of Those Who Oppose It.

Don't Dissipate Your Powers; Strive To Concentrate Them. Genius Thinks It Can Do Whatever It Sees Others Doing, But It Will Surely Repent Of Every Ill-judged Outlay.

It Is Working Within Limits That The Craftsman Reveals Himself.

What Man Does Not Know, Or Has Not Thought Of, Wanders In The Night Through The Labyrinth Of The Mind.

One Can Be Instructed In Society, One Is Inspired Only In Solitude.

Look At A Man The Way He Is And He Only Becomes Worse, But Look At Him As If He Were What He Could Be, Then He Becomes What He Should Be.

The Miller Imagines That The Corn Grows Only To Make His Mill Turn.

The World Is Full Of Contradiction.

If We Take People Only As They Are, Then We Make Them Worse; If We Treat Them As If They Were What They Should Be, Then We Bring Them To Where They Can Be Brought.

A Man Is Really Alive Only When He Delights In The Good-will Of Others.

The More One Knows, The More One Comprehends, The More One Realizes That Everything Turns In A Circle.

It Is Only In Misery That We Recognize The Hand Of God Leading Good Men To Good.

Art Is Based On A Strong Sentiment Of Religion,--on A Profound And Mighty Earnestness; Hence It Is So Prone To Co-operate With Religion.

While Man's Desires And Aspirations Stir He Cannot Choose But Err.

Beautiful Is Greater Than Good, For It Includes The Good.

There Is A Great Difference, Whether The Poet Seeks The Particular For The Sake Of The General Or Sees The General In The Particular. From The Former Procedure There Ensues Allegory, In Which The Particular Serves Only As Illustration, As Example Of The General. The Latter Procedure, However, Is Genuinely The Nature Of Poetry; It Expresses Something Particular, Without Thinking Of The General Or Pointing To It.

However Often We Turn To It [the Koran] At First Disgusting Us Each Time Afresh, It Soon Attracts, Astounds, And In The End Enforces Our Reverence. . . . Its Style, In Accordance With Its Contents And Aim Is Stern, Grand, Terrible - Ever And Anon Truly Sublime - Thus This Book Will Go On Exercising Through All Ages A Most Potent Influence.

He Loves Not Who Does Not See The Faults Of The Beloved As Virtues.

Each Ten Years Of A Man's Life Has Its Own Fortunes, Its Own Hopes, Its Own Desires.

We Are Shaped And Fashioned By What We Love.- Henry Ward Beecher - I Never Knew How To Worship Until I Knew How To Love.

It Is Delivery That Makes The Orators Success.

Most Men, Even The Most Accomplished, Are Of Limited Faculties; Every One Sets A Value On Certain Qualities In Himself And Others: These Alone He Is Willing To Favour, These Alone Will He Have Cultivated.

Say What We May Of The Inadequacy Of Translation, Yet The Work Is And Will Always Be One Of The Weightiest And Worthiest Undertakings In The General Concerns Of The World.

Conscience Is The Virtue Of The Observers Not The Agents Of Action

True Happiness Springs From Moderation.

We're Really Up Against It, We Poor Women: A Bachelor's A Hard Thing To Convert

The Intelligent Man Finds Almost Everything Ridiculous, The Sensible Man Hardly Anything.

Nature! We Are Enveloped And Embraced By Her, Incapable Of Emerging From Her And Incapable Of Entering Her More Deeply. Unbidden And Unwarned, She Receives Us Into The Circuits Of Her Dance, Drifting Onward With Us Herself, Until We Grow Tired And Drop From Her Arms.

Only He Who Finds Empiricism Irksome Is Driven To Method.

When You Are In Conflict With Someone, There Is One Factor That Can Make The Difference Between Damaging Your Relationship And Deepening It. That Factor Is Attitude. We Don't Get To Know People When They Come To Us; We Must Go To Them To Find Out What They Are Like.

There Is No Outward Sign Of True Courtesy That Does Not Rest On A Deep Moral Foundation.

It Is In The Half Fools And The Half Wise That The Greatest Danger Lies.

We Amuse Ourselves Painting Our Prison-walls With Bright Figures And Brilliant Landscapes.

Every Day Look At A Beautiful Picture, Read A Beautiful Poem, Listen To Some Beautiful Music, And If Possible, Say Some Reasonable Thing.

Taste Is Only To Be Educated By Contemplation, Not Of The Tolerably Good But Of The Truly Excellent. I Therefore Show You Only The Best Works; And When You Are Grounded In These, You Will Have A Standard For The Rest, Which You Will Know How To Value, Without Overrating Them.

The Most Damaging Prejudice Consists Of Banning Any Kind Of Investigation Of Nature.

The Greater Part Of All The Mischief In The World Arises From The Fact That Men Do Not Sufficiently Understand Their Own Aims.

He Only Fears Men Who Does Not Know Them, And He Who Avoids Them Will Soon Misjudge Them.

The Present Is A Powerful Deity. [ger., Die Gegenwart Ist Eine Machtige Gottin.]

A Vi'let On The Meadow Grew, That No One Saw, That No One Knew, It Was A Modest Flower. A Shepherdess Pass'd By That Way-- Light Footed, Pretty And So Gay; That Way She Came, Softly Warbling Forth Her Lay.

The Man Who Masters Himself Is Delivered From The Force That Binds All Creatures.

Blood Is A Juice Of Rarest Quality. [ger., Blut Ist Ein Ganz Beondrer Saft.]

Hatred Is A Heavy Burden. It Sinks The Heart Deep In The Breast, And Lies Like A Tombstone On All Joys.

A Teacher Who Can Arouse A Feeling For One Single Good Action, For One Single Good Poem, Accomplishes More Than He Who Fills Our Memory With Rows And Rows Of Natural Objects, Classified With Name And Form.

He Who Is Wise Puts Aside All Claims Which May Dissipate His Attention, And Confining Himself To One Branch Excels In That.

Upon The Creatures We Have Made, We Are, Ourselves, At Last, Dependent.

Habit Is The Most Imperious Of All Masters.

If A Good Person Does You Wrong, Act As Though You Had Not Noticed It. If We Practice And Eye For An Eye And A Tooth For A Tooth, Soon The Wholeworld Will Be Blind And Toothless.

He Is The Happiest Man Who Can See The Connection Between The End And The Beginning Of Life.

To A Valet No Man Is A Hero.

Where A Man Has A Passion For Meditating Without The Capacity Of Thinking, A Particular Idea Fixes Itself Fast, And Soon Creates A Mental Disease.

Whatever You Can Do Or Dream, Begin It.

You Are Certainly Wrong To Compare Suicide ... With Great Accomplishments, Since It Cannot Be Considered As Anything But A Weakness. After All, It Is Easier To Die Than To Endure A Harrowing Life With Fortitude.

I Hate Everything That Merely Instructs Me Without Augmenting Or Directly Invigorating My Activity.

One Usually Thinks People To Be More Dangerous Than They Are.

Sceptics Are Yet The Most Credulous.

We Are So Constituted That We Believe The Most Incredible Things; And, Once They Are Engraved Upon The Memory, Woe To Him Who Would Endeavor To Erase Them.

All Perishable Is But An Allegory.

Nobody, They Say, Is A Hero To His Valet. Of Course; For A Man Must Be A Hero To Understand A Hero. The Valet, I Dare Say, Has Great Respect For Some Person Of His Own Stamp.

I Am Very Anxious To Please The Public, Particularly As It Lives And Lets Live.

Higher Aims Are In Themselves More Valuable, Even If Unfulfilled, Than Lower Ones Quite Attained.

What By A Straight Path Cannot Be Reached By Crooked Ways Is Never Won.

To Venture An Opinion Is Like Moving A Piece At Chess: It May Be Taken, But It Forms The Beginning Of A Game That Is Won.

Man Is A Simple Being, And However Rich, Varied, And Unfathomable He May Be, The Cycle Of His Situations Is Soon Run Through.

Many Young Painters Would Never Have Taken Their Pencils In Hand If They Could Have Felt, Known, And Understood, Early Enough, What Really Produced A Master Like Raphael.

Belief Is Not The Beginning Of Knowledge - It Is The End.

Nothing Is Worse Than Active Ignorance.

The Senses Do Not Deceive Us, But The Judgment Does.

Battle Not With Monsters, For Then You Become One.

The Mortal Race Is Far Too Weak Not To Grow Dizzy On Unwonted Brights. [ger., Das Sterbliche Geschlecht Ist Viel Zu Schwach In Ungewohnter Hohe Nicht Zu Schwindeln.]

The Greatest Thing In This World Is Not So Much Where We Stand As In What Direction We Are Moving.

Art Is In Itself Noble; That Is Why The Artist Has No Fear Of What Is Common. This, Indeed, Is Already Ennobled When He Takes It Up.

I Have Come To The Frightening Conclusion That I Am The Decisive Element. It Is My Personal Approach That Creates The Climate.

Ambition And Love Are The Wings Of Great Actions.

Two Souls, Alas, Are Housed Within My Breast, And Each Will Wrestle For The Mastery There.

The Day Is Of Infinite Length For Him Who Knows How To Appreciate And Use It.

He Who Moves Not Forward, Goes Backward.

We All Walk In Mysteries. We Are Surrounded By An Atmosphere About Which We Still Know Nothing At All.

Letters Are Among The Most Significant Memorial A Person Can Leave Behind Them.

Who Can Think Wise Or Stupid Things At All That Were Not Thought Already In The Past.

We Can Really Respect A Man Only If He Doesn't Always Look Out For Himself.

He Who Possesses Art And Science Has Religion; He Who Does Not Possess Them, Needs Religion.

Our Passions Are The True Phoenixes; When The Old One Is Burnt Out, A New One Rises From Its Ashes.

Few Men Have Imagination Enough For Reality.

He Who Is Firm In Will Molds The World To Himself. [ger., Aber Wer Fest Auf Dem Sinne Beharrt, Der Bildet Die Welt Sich.]

One Does Not Get To Know That One Exists Until One Rediscovers Oneself In Others.

What Must The English And French Think Of The Language Of Our Philosophers When We Germans Do Not Understand It Ourselves?

Some Of Our Weaknesses Are Born In Us, Others Are The Result Of Education; It Is A Question Which Of The Two Gives Us Most Trouble.

A Man Avails Himself Of The Truth So Long As It Is Serviceable; But He Seizes On What Is False With A Passionate Eloquence As Soon As He Can Make A Momentary Use Of It.

Writing Is Busy Idleness.

Of All Peoples The Greeks Have Dreamt The Dream Of Life Best.

Action Has Magic, Grace And Power In It.

If I Accept You As You Are, I Will Make You Worse; However, If I Treat You As Though You Are What You Are Capable Of Becoming, I Help You Become That.

To Know Of Someone Here And There Whom We Accord With, Who Is Living On With Us, Even In Silence - - This Makes Our Earthly Ball A Peopled Garden.

If You Must Tell Me Your Opinions, Tell Me What You Believe In. I Have Plenty Of Doubts Of My Own.

From Desire I Plunge To Its Fulfilment, Where I Long Once More For Desire.

Wild Dreams Torment Me As I Lie. And Though A God Lives In My Heart, Though All My Power Waken At His Word, Though He Can Move My Every Inmost Part - Yet Nothing In The Outer World Is Stirred. Thus By Existence Tortured And Oppressed I Crave For Death, I Long For Rest.

A Genuine Work Of Art Usually Displeases At First Sight, As It Suggests A Deficiency In The Spectator.

Waste Not A Day In Vain Digression; With Resolute, Courageous Trust Seek Every Possible Impression And Make It Firmly Your Posession You'll Then Work On Because You Must.

Everything Is Simpler Than You Think And At The Same Time More Complex Than You Imagine

Every Decided Colour Does A Certain Violence To The Eye, And Forces The Organ To Opposition.

Love Is An Ideal Thing, Marriage A Real Thing

As Man Is, So Is His God. And Thus Is God Oft Strangely Odd.

A Human Being Needs Only A Small Plot Of Ground On Which To Be Happy, And Even Less To Lie Beneath.

No Man Learns To Know His Inmost Nature By Introspection, For He Rates Himself Sometimes Too Low, And Often Too High, By His Own Measurement. Man Knows Himself Only By Comparing Himself With Other Men; It Is Life That Touches His Genuine Worth.

Men In A State Of Nature, Uncivilized Nations, Children, Have A Great Fondness For Colors In Their Utmost Brightness, And Especially For Yellow-red.

The World Of Reason Is To Be Regarded As A Great And Immortal Being, Who Ceaselessly Works Out What Is Necessary, And So Makes Himself Lord Also Over What Is Accidental.

To Have More, You Must First Be More.

Life Is Too Short To Drink Bad Wine.

Life Is Too Short

You Shall Abstain, Shall Abstain. That Is The Eternal Song.

Life Is But A Preparation For What There Is To Come.

Music, In The Best Sense, Does Not Require Novelty; Nay, The Older It Is, And The More We Are Accustomed To It, The Greater Its Effect.

One Can't Dull A Project Better Than By Discussing It Repeatedly.

Nature Does Not Suffer Her Veil To Be Taken From Her, And What She Does Not Choose To Reveal To The Spirit, Thou Wilt Not Wrest From Her By Levers And Screws.

Nature Is The Living, Visible Garment Of God.

A Great Revolution Is Never The Fault Of The People, But Of The Government.

Let Us Not Dream That Reason Can Ever Be Popular. Passions, Emotions, May Be Made Popular; But Reason Remains Ever The Property Of An Elect Few.

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