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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.

-Joseph Joubert

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I Think Reading Is

Joseph Joubert

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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.

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

Words Are Like Eyeglasses They Blur Everything That They Do Not Make Clear.

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.

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

We Disjoint The Mind Like The Body.

Grief - Happiness Is To Feel That One's Soul Is Good; There Is No Other, In Truth, And This Kind Of Happiness May Exist Even In Sorrow, So That There Are Griefs Perfable To Every Joy, And Such As Would Be Preferred By All Those Who Have Felt Them.

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

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

Justice Is The Right Of The Weakest.

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

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

Slander Is The Solace Of Malignity.

Space Is To Place As Eternity Is To Time.

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

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!

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

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

Imagination Is The Eye Of The Soul.

God Has Commanded Time To Console The Afflicted.

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

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

The Lively Phraseology Of Montesquieu Was The Result Of Long Meditation. His Words, As Light As Wings, Bear On Them Grave Reflections.

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

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

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

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

Mediocrity Is Excellence In The Eyes Of The Mediocre.

Order Is To Arrangement What The Soul Is To The Body, And What Mind Is To Matter.

We Live In An Age In Which Superfluous Ideas Abound And Essential Ideas Are Lacking.

Words, Like Glasses, Obscure Everything They Do Not Make Clear. Before Using A Fine Word, Make A Place For It.

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

The True Character Of Epistolary Style Is Playfulness And Urbanity.

Beautiful Works Do Not Intoxicate, But They Enchant.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Innocence Is Always Unsuspicious.

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

Our Life Is Woven Wind.

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

Think Of The Ills From Which You Are Exempt.

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.

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

Never Giving Up

You Want To Talk To Someone; First Open Your Ears.

A False Mind Is False In Everything, Just As A Cross Eye Always Looks Askant. But One May Err Once, Nay, A Hundred Times, Without Being Double-minded. There Can Never Be Mental Duplicity Where There Is Sincerity.

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

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

Thus, If The Clarity Of Our Thoughts Comes Through Better In A Play Of Words, Then The Wordplay Is Good. One Must Know How To Enter The Ideas Of Others And How To Leave Them.

Without Duty, Life Is Sort Of Boneless; It Cannot Hold Itself Together.

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

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.

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

Grace Imitates Modesty, As Politeness Imitates Kindness.

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

There Was A Time When The World Acted On Books; Now Books Act On The World.

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.

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

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

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

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

A Temperate Style Is Alone Classical.

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

In Temperance There Is Ever Cleanliness And Elegance.

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

In Clothes Clean And Fresh There Is A Kind Of Youth With Which Age Should Surround Itself.

Every Legitimate Authority Should Respect Its Extent And Its Limits.

Proverbs May Be Said To Be The Abridgment Of Wisdom.

Ornaments Were Invented By Modesty.

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

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.]

Mediocrity Is Excellent To The Eyes Of Mediocre People.

The Best Remedy For A Short Temper Is A Long Walk.

The Breath Of The Mind Is Attention.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Evening Of Life Brings With It Its Lamps.

Combien De Gens Se Font Abstraits Pour Para?tre Profonds! La Plupart Des Termes Abstraits Sont Des Ombres Qui Cachent Des Vides. How Many People Become Abstract In Order To Appear Profound! Most Abstract Terms Are Shadows That Conceal A Void.

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

Fear Loves The Idea Of Danger.

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

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

Without Duty, Life Is Soft And Boneless.

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.

It Is Better To Debate A Question Without Settling It Than To Settle A Question Without Debating It.

The Idea Of The Nest In The Bird's Mind, Where Does It Come From?

Nothing Ruins The Truth Like Stretching It... Get Rich Quick! Count Your Blessings... Stop Telling God How Big Your Storm Is. Instead, Tell The Storm How Big Your God Is!!!!!! Contentment Begins Where Comparison Ends. The Aim Of Argument, Or Of Discussion, Should Not Be Victory, But Progress.

You Will Find Poetry Nowhere Unless You Bring Some Of It With You.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

Liquid, Flowing Words Are The Choicest And The Best, If Language Is Regarded As Music. But When It Is Considered As A Picture, Then There Are Rough Words Which Are Very Telling, They Make Their Mark.

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

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

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

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.

Lenity Is A Part Of Justice; But She Must Not Speak Too Loud For Fear Of Waking Justice.

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

A Few Words Worthy To Be Remembered Suffice To Give An Idea Of A Great Mind. There Are Single Thoughts That Contain The Essence Of A Whole Volume, Single Sentences That Have The Beauties Of A Large Work, A Simplicity So Finished And So Perfect That It Equals In Merit And In Excellence A Large And Glorious Composition.

Genius Begins Beautiful Works, But Only Labor Finishes Them.

Fully To Understand A Grand And Beautiful Thought Requires, Perhaps, As Much Time As To Conceive It.

Beautiful Thoughts

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.

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

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.

Never Cut What You Can Untie.

Those Readiest To Criticise Are Often Least Able To Appreciate.

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

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.

Good Impulses Are Naught, Unless They Become Good Actions.

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.

Space Is The Stature Of God.

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

The Last Word Should Be The Last Word. It Is Like A Finishing Touch Given To Color; There Is Nothing More To Add. But What Precaution Is Needed In Order Not To Put The Last Word First.

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!

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.

Genius Begins Great Works; Labor Alone Finishes Them.

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

Taste Has Never Been Corrupted By Simplicity.

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

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.

Be Charitable And Indulge To Everyone, But Thyself.

We Use Up In The Passions The Stuff That Was Given Us For Happiness.

Work Like You Don't Need The Money.

All Are Born To Observe Order, But Few Are Born To Establish It.

Thoughts There Are, That Need No Embodying, No Form, No Expression. It Is Enough To Hint At Them Vaguely; A Word, And They Are Heard And Seen.

Politeness Smooths Wrinkles.

The Bible Is To Religion What The Iliad Is To Poetry

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.

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

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

National Literature Begins With Fables And Ends With Novels.

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.

Chance Generally Favors The Prudent.

Children Need Models Rather Than Critics.

The Paper Is Patient, But The Reader Is Not.

The Mind Is The Atmosphere Of The Soul.

Virtue By Calculation Is The Virtue Of Vice.

Everything That Is Exact Is Short.

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.

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.

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

Which Is More Misshapen,--religion Without Virtue, Or Virtue Without Religion?

Before Using A Fine Word, Make A Place For It.

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.

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.

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.

Living Requires But Little Life; Doing Requires Much.

Fate And Necessity Are Unconquerable.

All Luxury Corrupts Either The Morals Or The Taste.

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

Before You Use A Fancy Word, Make Room For It.

Antiquity! I Like Its Ruins Better Than Its Reconstructions.

Reason Is A Bee, And Exists Only On What It Makes; His Usefulness Takes The Place Of Beauty.

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

There Is An Admiration Which Is The Daughter Of Knowledge.

Sexes. One Has The Look Of A Wound, The Other Of Something Skinned.

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

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

Virtue Is The Health Of The Soul.

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

Ask The Young. They Know Everything.

The Soul Paints Itself In Our Machines.

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

Only Just The Right Quantum Of Wit Should Be Put Into A Book; In Conversation A Little Excess Is Allowable.

Remorse Is The Punishment Of Crime; Repentance, Its Expiation. The Former Appertains To A Tormented Conscience; The Latter To A Soul Changed For The Better.

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

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

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.

Tenderness Is The Rest Of Passion.

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

To Teach Is To Learn Twice.

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.

Know That Morality Is A Curb, Not A Spur.

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.

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

Logic Works, Metaphysics Contemplates.

The Beautiful Invariably Possesses A Visible And A Hidden Beauty; And It Is Certain That No Style Is So Beautiful As That Which Presents To The Attentive Reader A Half-hidden Meaning.

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

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

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

Music Has Seven Letters, Writing Has Twenty-six Notes

Pleasures Are Always Children, Pains Always Have Wrinkles.

What Can One Possibly Introduce Into A Mind That Is Already Full, And Full Of Itself?

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

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