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Contempt For Private Wrongs Was One Of The Features Of Ancient Morals.

-Joseph Joubert

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Contempt For Private Wrongs

Joseph Joubert

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Contempt For Private Wrongs Was One Of The Features Of Ancient Morals.

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Avoid Singularity. There May Often Be Less Vanity In Following The New Modes Than In Adhering To The Old Ones. It Is True That The Foolish Invent Them, But The Wise May Conform To, Instead Of Contradicting, Them.

Words Become Luminous When The Poet's Finger Has Passed Over Them Its Phosphorescence.

Genius Is The Ability To See Things Invisible, To Manipulate Things Intangible, To Paint Things That Have No Features

In The Commerce Of Language Use Only Coin Of Gold And Silver.

When My Friends Lack An Eye, I Look At Them In Profile.

What Can You Possibly Add To A Mind That's Full, Especially One That's Full Of Itself.

In Order To Be Happy, Think Of The Ills You Have Been Spared.

I Quit Paris Unwillingly, Because I Must Part From My Friends; And I Quit The Country Unwillingly, Because I Must Part From Myself.

How Many People Make Themselves Abstract To Appear Profound. The Most Useful Part Of Abstract Terms Are The Shadows They Create To Hide A Vacuum.

The Ways Suited To Confidence Are Familiar To Me, But Not Those That Are Suited To Familiarity.

Whence? Wither? Why? How? - These Questions Cover All Philosophy.

In The Interchange Of Thought Use No Coin But Gold And Silver.

Old Age Takes From The Man Of Intellect No Qualities Save Those That Are Useless To Wisdom.

Old Age Deprives The Intelligent Man Only Of Qualities Useless To Wisdom.

The Breath Of The Mind Is Attention.

The Evening Of Life Brings With It Its Lamps.

All Gardeners Live In Beautiful Places Because They Make Them So.

Justice Is The Truth In Action.

One Day, A Daughter Of Aristotle, Pythias By Name, Was Asked What Color Pleased Her Most. She Replied, "the Color With Which Modesty Suffuses The Face Of Simple, Inoffensive Men.

What Is True By Lamplight Is Not Always True By Sunlight.

We Always Believe God Is Like Ourselves, The Indulgent Think Him Indulgent And The Stern, Terrible.

The Bible Remained For Me A Book Of Books, Still Divine - But Divine In The Sense That All Great Books Are Divine Which Teach Men How To Live Righteously.

Grace Imitates Modesty, As Politeness Imitates Kindness.

Genius Begins Great Works; Labor Alone Finishes Them.

Of The Two, I Prefer Those Who Render Vice Lovable To Those Who Degrade Virtue.

Education Should Be Gentle And Stern, Not Cold And Lax.

It Is Easier To Be Mistaken About The True Than The Beautiful.

Xenophon Wrote With A Swan's Quill, Plato With A Pen Of Gold, And Thucydides With A Brazen Stylus.

All Luxury Corrupts Either The Morals Or The Taste.

Our Ideals, Like Pictures, Are Made From Lights And Shadows.

Music Has Seven Letters, Writing Has Twenty-six Notes

To See The World Is To Judge The Judges.

When You Give, Give With Joy And Smiling.

Those Who Never Retract Their Opinions Love Themselves More Than They Love The Truth.

Genuinely Good Remarks Surprise Their Author As Well As His Audience.

No One Is Mediocre Who Has Good Sense And Good Sentiments.

I Resemble The Poplar,--that Tree Which, Even When Old, Still Looks Young.

Virtue By Calculation Is The Virtue Of Vice.

Without The Spiritual World The Material World Is A Disheartening Enigma.

Old Age Was Naturally More Honored In Times When People Could Not Know Much More Than What They Had Seen.

Life Is A Country That The Old Have Seen, And Lived In. Those Who Have To Travel Through It Can Only Learn From Them.

The Supreme Sway Of Chastity Over The Senses Makes Her Queenly.

I Do Not Call Reason That Brutal Reason Which Crushes With Its Weight What Is Holy And Sacred, That Malignant Reason Which Delights In The Errors It Succeeds In Discovering, That Unfeeling And Scornful Reason Which Insults Credulity.

When You Go In Search Of Honey You Must Expect To Be Stung By Bees.

In Really Good Acting We Should Be Able To Believe That What We Hear And See Is Of Our Own Imagining; It Should Seem To Be To Us As A Charming Dream.

Let Us Have Justice, And Then We Shall Have Enough Liberty!

There Is Always Some Frivolity In Excellent Minds; They Have Wings To Rise, But Also Stray.

In These Times Gain Is Not Only A Matter Of Greed, But Of Ambition.

Imagination Is The Eye Of The Soul.

To Be Capable Of Respect Is Almost As Rare As To Be Worthy Of It.

Let Your Cry Be For Free Souls Rather Than For Freedom. Moral Liberty Is The Only Important Liberty.

Religion Is Fire Which Example Keeps Alive, And Which Goes Out If Not Communicated.

If Authorities Were Well Organized, There Would Not Be An Unknown Warrior.

We Must Respect The Past, And Mistrust The Present, If We Wish To Provide For The Safety Of The Future.

Chance Generally Favors The Prudent.

Be Saving, But Not At The Cost Of All Liberality. Have The Soul Of A King And The Hand Of A Wise Economist.

A Maxim Is The Exact And Noble Expression Of An Important And Indisputable Truth. Good Maxims Are The Germs Of All Excellence; When Firmly Fixed On The Memory, They Nourish The Will.

If You Are Poor, Distinguish Yourself By Your Virtues; If Rich, By Your Good Deeds.

What A Man Knows Only Through Feeling Can Be Explained Only Through Enthusiasm.

When We Love, It Is The Heart That Judges.

Contempt For Private Wrongs Was One Of The Features Of Ancient Morals.

To The Liberal Ideas Of The Age Must Be Opposed The Moral Ideas Of All Ages.

I Love Prudence Very Little, If It Is Not Moral.

Criticism Even Should Not Be Without Its Charms. When Quite Devoid Of All Amenities, It Is No Longer Literary.

Imitate Time; It Destroys Everything Slowly; It Undermines, It Wears Away, It Detaches, It Does Not Wrench.

I Would Fain Coin Wisdom,—mould It, I Mean, Into Maxims, Proverbs, Sentences, That Can Easily Be Retained And Transmitted. Would That I Could Denounce And Banish From The Language Of Men—as Base Money—the Words By Which They Cheat And Are Cheated!

One Man Finds In Religion His Literature And His Science, Another Finds In It His Joy And His Duty.

The Talkative Man Speaks From His Mouth, The Eloquent Man Speaks From His Heart.

Eyes Raised Toward Heaven Are Always Beautiful, Whatever They Be.

Drawing Is Speaking To The Eye; Talking Is Painting To The Ear.

It Is Not My Words That I Polish, But My Ideas.

Never Cut What You Can Untie.

Space Is To Place As Eternity Is To Time.

God Has Commanded Time To Console The Afflicted.

Politeness Is The Flower Of Humanity.

Nothing Which Does Not Transport Is Poetry. The Lyre Is A Winged Instrument.

Logic Is To Grammar What The Sense Of Words Is To Their Sound.

There Are People Who Are Virtuous Only In A Piece-meal Way; Virtue Is A Fabric From Which They Never Make Themselves A Whole Garment.

He Who Has Not The Weakness Of Friendship Has Not The Strength.

The God Of Metaphysics Is But An Idea. But The God Of Religion, The Maker Of Heaven And Earth, The Sovereign Judge Of Actions And Thoughts, Is A Power.

Poetry Is To Be Found Nowhere Unless We Carry It Within Us.

Our Life Is Woven Wind.

There Are Single Thoughts That Contain The Essence Of A Whole Volume, Single Sentences That Have The Beauties Of A Large Work.

The Art Of Saying Well What One Thinks Is Different From The Faculty Of Thinking. The Latter May Be Very Deep And Lofty And Far- Reaching, While The Former Is Altogether Wanting.

A Part Of Kindness Consists In Loving People More Than They Deserve.

The Soul That Is The Abode Of Chastity Acquires An Energy Which Enables Her To Surmount With Ease The Obstacles That Lie Along The Path Of Duty.

God Is The Place Where I Do Not Remember The Rest.

History Needs Distance, Perspective. Facts And Events Which Are Too Well Attested Cease, In Some Sort, To Be Malleable.

We Shall Always Keep A Spare Corner In Our Heads To Give Passing Hospitality To Our Friends' Opinion.

God Multiplies Intelligence, Which Communicates Itself, Like Fire, Ad Infinitum. Light A Thousand Torches At One Touch, The Flame Remains Always The Same.

Moderation Consists In Being Moved As Angels Are Moved.

We May Convince Others By Our Arguements, But We Can Only Persuade Them By Their Own

National Literature Begins With Fables And Ends With Novels.

The Early And The Latter Part Of Human Life Are The Best, Or, At Least, The Most Worthy Of Respect; The One As The Age Of Innocence, The Other Of Reason.

We Should Always Keep A Corner Of Our Heads Open And Free, That We May Make Room For The Opinions Of Our Friends. Let Us Have Heart And Head Hospitality.

Slander Is The Solace Of Malignity.

Young Authors Give Their Brains Much Exercise And Little Food.

Tormented By The Cursed Ambition Always To Put A Whole Book In A Page, A Whole Page In A Sentence, And This Sentence In A Word. I Am Speaking Of Myself.

Some Superior Minds Are Unrecognized Because There Is No Standard By Which To Weigh Them.

Forms Of Government Become Established Of Themselves. They Shape Themselves, They Are Not Created. We May Give Them Strength And Consistency, But We Cannot Call Them Into Being. Let Us Rest Assured That The Form Of Government Can Never Be A Matter Of Choice: It Is Almost Always A Matter Of Necessity.

There Is Graciousness And A Kind Of Urbanity In Beginning With Men By Esteem And Confidence. It Proves, At Least, That We Have Long Lived In Good Company With Others And With Our Selves.

We Find Little In A Book But What We Put There. But In Great Books, The Mind Finds Room To Put Many Things.

When Credulity Comes From The Heart It Does No Harm To The Intellect.

The Bible Is To Religion What The Iliad Is To Poetry

The Ordinary True, Or Purely Real, Cannot Be The Object Of The Arts. Illusion On A Ground Of Truth,--that Is The Secret Of The Fine Arts.

How Many People Become Abstract As A Way Of Appearing Profound.

The Joy Which Is Caused By Truth And Noble Thoughts Shows Itself In The Words By Which They Are Expressed.

Men Must Be Either The Slaves Of Duty, Or The Slaves Of Force.

Today There Are No More Irreconcilable Enmities, Because There Are No More Disinterested Emotions: That's A Good Thing Born From A Bad Thing.

Fear Loves The Idea Of Danger.

The Punishment Of Those Who Have Loved Women Too Much Is To Love Them Always.

Only Choose In Marriage A Man Whom You Would Choose As A Friend If He Were A Woman.

Wedding Anniversary

You Arrive At Truth Through Poetry; I Arrive At Poetry Through Truth.

Attention Is Like A Narrow Mouthed Vessel; Pour Into It What You Have To Say Cautiously, And, As It Were, Drop By Drop.

Happy Is The Man Who Can Do Only One Thing; In Doing It, He Fulfills His Destiny.

Common Sense Suits Itself To The Ways Of The World. Wisdom Tries To Confirm To The Ways Of Heaven.

Genuine Bon Mots Surprise Those From Whose Lips They Fall, No Less Than They Do Those Who Listen To Them.

It May Be Said That It Is With Our Thoughts As With Our Flowers. Those Whose Expression Is Simple Carry Their Seed With Them; Those That Are Double By Their Richness And Pomp Charm The Mind, But Produce Nothing.

The Essence Of Life Consists In Thinking, And Being Conscious Of One's Soul.

Fancy, An Animal Faculty, Is Very Different From Imagination, Which Is Intellectual. The Former Is Passive; But The Latter Is Active And Creative. Children, The Weak Minded, And The Timid Are Full Of Fancy. Men And Women Of Intellect, Of Great Intellect, Are Alone Possessed Of Great Imagination.

Abuse Of Words Is The Foundation Of Ideology.

How Many Books There Are Whose Reputation Is Made That Would Not Obtain It Were It Now To Make?

The Soul Paints Itself In Our Machines.

Professional Critics Are Incapable Of Distinguishing And Appreciating Either Diamonds In The Rough Or Gold In Bars. They Are Traders, And In Literature Know Only The Coins That Are Current. Their Critical Lab Has Scales And Weights, But Neither Crucible Or Touchstone.

Innocence Is Always Unsuspicious.

The Aim Of Argument, Or Of Discussion, Should Not Be Victory, But Progress.

We Are All Of Us More Or Less Echoes, Repeating Involuntarily The Virtues, The Defects, The Movements, And The Characters Of Those Among Whom We Live.

Who Ever Has No Fixed Opinions Has No Constant Feelings.

Truth Takes The Stamp Of The Souls It Enters. It Is Rigorous And Rough In Arid Souls, But Tempers And Softens Itself In Loving Natures.

Tenderness Is The Rest Of Passion.

Beautiful Works Do Not Intoxicate, But They Enchant.

The Sound Of The Drum Drives Out Thought; For That Very Reason It Is The Most Military Of Instruments.

One Should Choose For A Wife Only Such A Woman As He Would Choose For A Friend, Were She A Man.

We Know God Easily, If We Do Not Constrain Ourselves To Define Him.

Maxims Are To The Intellect What Laws Are To Actions; They Do Not Enlighten, But They Guide And Direct, And, Although Themselves Blind, Are Protective.

A Thought Is A Thing As Real As A Cannonball.

The Voice Is A Human Sound Which Nothing Inanimate Can Perfectly Imitate. It Has An Authority And An Insinuating Property Which Writing Lacks. It Is Not Merely So Much Air, But Air Modulated And Impregnated With Life.

The Essential Thing Is Not That There Be Many Truths In A Work, But That No Truth Be Abused.

When A Nation Gives Birth To A Man Who Is Able To Produce A Great Thought, Another Is Born Who Is Able To Understand And Admire It.

The Passions Should Be Purged; All May Become Innocent If They Are Well Directed And Moderated. Even Hatred Maybe A Commendable Feeling When It Is Caused By A Lively Love Of Good. Whatever Makes The Passions Pure, Makes Them Stronger, More Durable, And More Enjoyable.

Virtue Is The Health Of The Soul.

A Fluent Writer Always Seems More Talented Than He Is. To Write Well, One Needs A Natural Felicity And An Acquired Difficulty.

He Who Has Imagination Without Learning Has Wings But No Feet.

Men Have Torn Up The Roads Which Led To Heaven, And Which All The World Followed; Now We Have To Make Our Own Ladders.

Necessity May Render A Doubtful Act Innocent, But It Cannot Make It Praiseworthy

Ideas Never Lack For Words. It Is Words That Lack Ideas.

Those Readiest To Criticise Are Often Least Able To Appreciate.

Illusion And Wisdom Combined Are The Charm Of Life And Art.

Never Write Anything That Does Not Give You Great Pleasure. Emotion Is Easily Transferred From The Writer To The Reader.

Never Giving Up

Credulity Forges More Miracles Than Trickery Could Invent.

I Think Reading Is A Gift. It Was A Gift That Was Given To Me As A Child By Many People, And Now As An Adult And A Writer, I'm Trying To Give A Little Of It Back To Others. It's One Of The Greatest Pleasures I Know." Ann M. Martin "never Write Anything That Does Not Give You Great Pleasure. Emotion Is Easily Transferred From The Writer To The Reader.

We Should Make Ourselves Loved, For Men Are Only Just Towards Those Whom They Love.

There Are Some Heads Which Have No Windows, And The Day Can Never Strike From Above; Nothing Enters From Heavenard.

To Teach Is To Learn Twice. About All Some Parents Accomplish In Life Is To Send A Child To Harvard. The Purpose Of A Liberal Education Is To Make One's Mind A Pleasant Place To Spend One's Leisure.

Luckily, I Never Feel At One Time More Than Half My Pains.

Virtue Is The Health Of The Soul. It Gives A Flavor To The Smallest Leaves Of Life.

Pleasures Are Always Children, Pains Always Have Wrinkles.

In Temperance There Is Ever Cleanliness And Elegance.

Religion Is The Only Metaphysic That The Multitude Can Understand And Adopt.

Man Is Born With The Faculty Of Speech. Who Gives It To Him? He Who Gives The Bird Its Song.

Everything That Is Exact Is Short.

Be Charitable And Indulge To Everyone, But Thyself.

Fate And Necessity Are Unconquerable.

The Worst Thing About New Books Is That They Keep Us From Reading The Old Ones.

How Many People Eat, Drink, And Get Married; Buy, Sell, And Build; Make Contracts And Attend To Their Fortune; Have Friends And Enemies, Pleasures And Pains, Are Born, Grow Up, Live And Die - But Asleep!

Words, Like Glass, Obscure When They Do Not Aid Vision.

Ornaments Were Invented By Modesty.

Taste Is The Literary Conscience Of The Soul.

Proverbs May Be Said To Be The Abridgment Of Wisdom.

Every Legitimate Authority Should Respect Its Extent And Its Limits.

In Bringing Up A Child, Think Of Its Old Age.

He Who Has Imagination Without Learning Has Wings But No Feet. [fr., Celui Qui A De L'imagination Sans Erudition A Des Ailes, Et N'a Pas De Pieds.]

Haughty People Seem To Me To Have, Like The Dwarfs, The Stature Of A Child And The Face Of A Man.

Strength Is Not Energy; Some Authors Have More Muscles Than Talent.

Every Modulated Sound Is Not A Song, And Every Voice That Executes A Beautiful Air Does Not Sing. Singing Should Enchant. But To Produce This Effect There Must Be A Quality Of Soul And Voice Which Is By No Means Common Even With Great Singers.

There Is An Admiration Which Is The Daughter Of Knowledge.

A Man Who Shows No Defect Is A Fool Or A Hypocrite, Whom We Should Mistrust. There Are Defects So Bound To Fine Qualities That They Announce Them,--defects Which It Is Well Not To Correct.

Truth Consists Of Having The Same Idea About Something That God Has.

We Do Not Do Well Except When We Know Where The Best Is And When We Are Assured That We Have Touched It And Hold Its Power Within Us.

Think Of The Ills From Which You Are Exempt.

There Is In The Soul A Taste For The Good, Just As There Is In The Body An Appetite For Enjoyment.

Strength Is Natural, But Grace Is The Growth Of Habit. This Charming Quality Requires Practice If It Is To Become Lasting.

Our Worries Always Come From Our Weaknesses.

Justice Is The Right Of The Weakest.

The Dregs May Stir Themselves As They Please; They Fall Back To The Bottom By Their Own Coarseness.

If Fortune Wishes To Make A Man Estimable, She Gives Him Virtues; If She Wishes To Make Him Esteemed, She Gives Him Success.

We Disjoint The Mind Like The Body.

Ideas Never Lack For Words. It Is Words That Lack Ideas. As Soon As The Idea Has Come To Its Last Degree Of Perfection, The Word Blossoms.

A Temperate Style Is Alone Classical.

Superstition Is The Only Religion Of Which Base Souls Are Capable Of.

To Be An Agreeable Guest One Need Only Enjoy Oneself.

Genius Begins Beautiful Works, But Only Labor Finishes Them.

Speech Is But The Incorporation Of Thought.

The Evening Of A Well Spent Youth Brings It's Lamps With It.

Think That Day Lost Whose Descending Sun, Views From Thy Hand No Noble Action Done.

Religion Is Neither A Theology Nor A Theosophy; It Is More Than That, It Is A Discipline, A Law, A Yoke, An Indissoluble Engagement.

When One Has Too Great A Dread Of What Is Impending, One Feels Some Relief When The Trouble Has Come.

Genuine Witticisms Surprise Those Who Say Them As Much As Those Who Listen To Them; They Arise In Us In Spite Of Us, Or, At Least, Without Our Participation,--like Everything Inspired.

Logic Works, Metaphysics Contemplates.

Never Be Sad For What Is Over, Just Be Glad It Was Once Yours. Kindness Is Loving People More Than They Deserve.

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