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Do Not Shun This Maxim Because It Is Common-place. On The Contrary, Take The Closest Heed Of What Observant Men, Who Would Probably Like To Show Originality, Are Yet Constrained To Repeat. Therein Lies The Marrow Of The Wisdom Of The World.

-Arthur Helps

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Do Not Shun This

Arthur Helps

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Do Not Shun This Maxim Because It Is Common-place. On The Contrary, Take The Closest Heed Of What Observant Men, Who Would Probably Like To Show Originality, Are Yet Constrained To Repeat. Therein Lies The Marrow Of The Wisdom Of The World.

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Few Have Wished For Memory So Much As They Have Longed For Forgetfulness.

When We Consider The Incidents Of Former Days, And Perceive, While Reviewing The Long Line Of Causes, How The Most Important Events Of Our Lives Originated In The Most Trifling Circumstances; How The Beginning Of Our Greatest Happiness Or Greatest Misery Is To Be Attributed To A Delay, To An Accident, To A Mistake; We Learn A Lesson Of Profound Humility.

Every Happiness Is A Hostage To Fortune.

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More Than Half The Difficulties Of The World Would Be Allayed Or Removed By The Exhibition Of Good Temper.

There Is Hardly A More Common Error Than That Of Taking The Man Who Has One Talent, For A Genius.

Do Not Be Deceived Into Thinking That How A Man Acts Is The Full Picture.

The Worst Use That Can Be Made Of Success Is To Boast Of It.

He Who Is Continually Changing His Point Of View Sees More, And More Clearly, Than One Who, Statue-like, Forever Stands Upon The Same Pedestal; However Lofty And Well-placed That Pedestal May Be.

We Should Lay Up In Our Minds A Store Of Goodly Thoughts Which Will Be A Living Treasure Of Knowledge Always With Us, And From Which, At Various Times, And Amidst All The Shiftings Of Circumstances, We Might Be Sure Of Drawing Some Comfort, Guidance And Sympathy.

Offended Vanity Is The Great Separator In Social Life.

Thoughts There Are, Not To Be Translated Into Any Language, And Spirits Alone Can Read Them.

Alas! It Is Not The Child But The Boy That Generally Survives In The Man.

Nature Intended You To Be The Fountain-spring Of Cheerfulness And Social Life, And Not The Mountain Of Despair And Melancholy.

We Are Frequently Understood The Least By Those Who Have Known Us The Longest.

A Sceptical Young Man One Day Conversing With The Celebrated Dr. Parr, Observed That He Would Believe Nothing Which He Could Not Understand. "then, Young Man, Your Creed Will Be The Shortest Of Any Man's I Know."

War May Be The Game Of Kings, But, Like The Games At Ancient Rome, It Is Generally Exhibited To Please And Pacify The People.

Love, Like The Opening Of The Heavens To The Saints, Shows For A Moment, Even To The Dullest Man, The Possibilities Of The Human Race. He Has Faith, Hope, And Charity For Another Being, Perhaps But A Creation Of His Imagination: Still It Is A Great Advance For A Man To Be Profoundly Loving Even In His Imaginations.

Simple Ignorance Has In Its Time Been Complimented By The Names Of Most Of The Vices, And Of All The Virtues.

No Man Who Has Not Sat In The Assemblies Of Men Can Know The Light, Odd And Uncertain Ways In Which Decisions Are Often Arrived At.

Selfishness, When It Is Punished By The World, Is Mostly Punished Because It Is Connected With Egotism.

Is Boredom Anything Less Than The Sense Of One's Faculties Slowly Dying?

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It Has Always Appeared To Me, That There Is So Much To Be Done In This World, That All Self-inflicted Suffering Which Cannot Be Turned To Good Account For Others, Is A Loss - A Loss, If You May So Express It, To The Spiritual World.

The World Will Tolerate Many Vices, But Not Their Diminutives.

There Is An Honesty Which Is But Decided Selfishness In Disguise. The Person Who Will Not Refrain From Expressing His Or Her Sentiments And Manifesting His Or Her Feelings, However Unfit The Time, However Inappropriate The Place, However Painful This Expression May Be, Lays Claim, Forsooth, To Our Approbation As An Honest Person, And Sneers At Those Of Finer Sensibilities As Hypocrites.

Almost All Human Affairs Are Tedious. Everything Is Too Long. Visits, Dinners, Concerts, Plays, Speeches, Pleadings, Essays, Sermons, Are Too Long. Pleasure And Business Labor Equally Under This Defect, Or, As I Should Rather Say, This Fatal Super-abundance.

Remember That In Giving Any Reason At All For Refusing, You Lay Some Foundation For A Future Request.

Most Terrors Are But Spectral Illusions. Only Have The Courage Of The Man Who Could Walk Up To His Spectre Seated In The Chair Before Him, And Sit Down Upon It; The Horrid Thing Will Not Partake The Chair With You.

If You Are Often Deceived By Those Around You, You May Be Sure That You Deserve To Be Deceived; And That Instead Of Railing At The General Falseness Of Mankind, You Have First To Pronounce Judgment On Your Own Jealous Tyranny, Or On Your Own Weak Credulity.

Some Persons, Instead Of Making A Religion For Their God, Are Content To Make A God Of Their Religion.

Pride, If Not The Origin, Is The Medium Of All Wickedness-the Atmosphere Without Which It Would Instantly Die Away.

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To Hear Always, To Think Always, To Learn Always, It Is Thus That We Live Truly. He Who Aspires To Nothing, Who Learns Nothing, Is Not Worthy Of Living.

Those Who Never Philosophized Until They Met With Disappointments, Have Mostly Become Disappointed Philosophers

If You Would Understand Your Own Age, Read The Works Of Fiction Produced In It. People In Disguise Speak Freely.

Experience Is The Extract Of Suffering.

A Great Many Wise Sayings Have Been Uttered About The Effects Of Solitary Retirement; But The Motives Which Impel Men To Seek It Are Not More Various Than The Effects Which It Produces On Different Individuals. One Thing Is Certain, That Those Who Can With Truth Affirm That They Are "never Less Alone Than When Alone," Might Generally Add That They Never Feel More Lonely Than When Not Alone.

Infinite Toil Would Not Enable You To Sweep Away A Mist; But By Ascending A Little, You May Often Look Over It Altogether. So It Is With Our Moral Improvement: We Wrestle Fiercely With A Vicious Habit, Which Could Have No Hold Upon Us If We Ascended Into A Higher Moral Atmosphere.

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Congratulations

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An Official Man Is Always An Official Man, And Has A Wild Belief In The Value Of Reports.

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There Are No Better Cosmetics Than A Severe Temperance And Purity, Modesty And Humility, A Gracious Temper And Calmness Of Spirit; And There Is No True Beauty Without The Signatures Of These Graces In The Very Countenance.

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