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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.

-Joseph Joubert

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Professional Critics Are Incapable

Joseph Joubert

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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.

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

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

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

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

Fear Loves The Idea Of Danger.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

Know That Morality Is A Curb, Not A Spur.

Misery Is Almost Always The Result Of Thinking.

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.

Chance Generally Favors The Prudent.

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

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

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

Genius Begins Beautiful Works, But Only Labor Finishes Them.

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

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

The Soul Paints Itself In Our Machines.

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

All Disputation Makes The Mind Deaf; And When People Are Deaf, I Am Dumb.

Success Serves Men As A Pedestal. It Makes Them Seem Greater When Not Measured By Reflection.

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.

Credulity Forges More Miracles Than Trickery Could Invent.

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.

Think Of The Ills From Which You Are Exempt.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Grace Imitates Modesty, As Politeness Imitates Kindness.

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

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

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

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

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.

A Work Is Perfectly Finished Only When Nothing Can Be Added To It And Nothing Taken Away.

When You Give, Give With Joy And Smiling.

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.

Mediocrity Is Excellent To The Eyes Of Mediocre People.

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.

We Disjoint The Mind Like The Body.

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

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.

Ornaments Were Invented By Modesty.

Taste Has Never Been Corrupted By Simplicity.

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

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

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

Grace Is In Garments, In Movements, In Manners; Beauty In The Nude, And In Forms. This Is True Of Bodies; But When We Speak Of Feelings, Beauty Is In Their Spirituality, And Grace In Their Moderation.

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.

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.

There Are Some Men Who Are Witty When They Are In A Bad Humor, And Others Only When They Are Sad.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Virtue By Calculation Is The Virtue Of Vice.

Our Life Is Woven Wind.

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

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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.

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

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!

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

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.

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.

Proverbs May Be Said To Be The Abridgment Of Wisdom.

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.

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

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

To Teach Is To Learn Twice.

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

Living Requires But Little Life; Doing Requires Much.

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

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.

Science Confounds Everything; It Gives To The Flowers An Animal Appetite, And Takes Away From Even The Plants Their Chastity.

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

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

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.

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

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

It Would Be Next To Impossible To Discover A Handsome Woman Who Was Not Also A Vain Woman.

Virtue Is The Health Of The Soul.

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

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.

Without Duty, Life Is Soft And Boneless.

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.

The Evening Of Life Brings With It Its Lamps.

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

Work Like You Don't Need The Money.

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

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

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

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

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

Fate And Necessity Are Unconquerable.

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

To Be An Agreeable Guest One Need Only Enjoy Oneself.

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

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

Our Worries Always Come From Our Weaknesses.

There Are Those To Whom One Must Advise Madness.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

When We Love, It Is The Heart That Judges.

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.]

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

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

Never Giving Up

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

A Thought Is A Thing As Real As A Cannonball.

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

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

Music Has Seven Letters, Writing Has Twenty-six Notes

Children Need Models Rather Than Critics.

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.

Pleasures Are Always Children, Pains Always Have Wrinkles.

National Literature Begins With Fables And Ends With Novels.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

The Mind Conceives With Pain, But It Brings Forth With Delight.

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

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

Good Impulses Are Naught, Unless They Become Good Actions.

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!

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

Justice Is The Right Of The Weakest.

To See The World Is To Judge The Judges.

Those Readiest To Criticise Are Often Least Able To Appreciate.

One Can With Dignity Be Wife And Widow But Once.

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

In Temperance There Is Ever Cleanliness And Elegance.

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 Mind's Direction Is More Important Than Its Progress.

The Simple-hearted And Sincere Never Do More Than Half Deceive Themselves.

Mediocrity Is Excellence In The Eyes Of The Mediocre.

Be Charitable And Indulge To Everyone, But Thyself.

Abuse Of Words Is The Foundation Of Ideology.

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

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

When The Painter Wishes To Represent An Event, He Cannot Place Before Us Too Great A Number Of Personages; But He Cannot Employ Too Few When He Wishes To Portray An Emotion.

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.

Speech Is But The Incorporation Of Thought.

Slander Is The Solace Of Malignity.

Moderation Consists In Being Moved As Angels Are Moved.

Let Us Be Men With Men, And Always Children Before God; For In His Eyes We Are But Children. Old Age Itself, In Presence Of Eternity, Is But The First Moment Of A Morning.

The Breath Of The Mind Is Attention.

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

Beautiful Works Do Not Intoxicate, But They Enchant.

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

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

Justice Is The Truth In Action.

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

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

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

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

The Mind Is The Atmosphere Of The Soul.

The Bible Is To Religion What The Iliad Is To Poetry

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

Innocence Is Always Unsuspicious.

Every Legitimate Authority Should Respect Its Extent And Its Limits.

Logic Works, Metaphysics Contemplates.

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

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

A Temperate Style Is Alone Classical.

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

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