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The secret of culture is to learn, that a few great points steadily reappear, alike in the poverty of the obscurest farm, and in the miscellan...

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The reverence for the Scriptures is an element of civilization, for thus has the history of the world been preserved, and is preserved.

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Murder in the murderer is no such ruinous thought as poets and romancers will have it; it does not unsettle him, or fright him from his ordinary notice of trifles; it is an act quite easy to be contemplated.

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Under the general name of Commodity, I rank all those advantages which our senses owe to nature. This, of course, is a benefit which is temporary and mediate, not ultimate, like its service to the soul. Yet although low, it is perfect in its kind, and is the only use of nature which all men apprehend. The misery of man appears like childish petulance, when we explore the steady and prodigal provision that has been made for his support and delight on this green ball which floats him through the heavens. What angels invented these splendid ornaments, these rich conveniences, this ocean of air above, this ocean of water beneath, this firmament of earth between? this zodiac of lights, this tent of dropping clouds, this striped coat of climates, this fourfold year? Beasts, fire, water, stones, and corn serve him. The field is at once his floor, his work-yard, his play-ground, his garden, and his bed.

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Life wastes itself whilst we are preparing to live.

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If a man knows the law, find out, though he live in a pine shanty, and resort to him. And if a man can pipe or sing, so as to wrap the imprisoned soul in an elysium; or can paint a landscape, and convey into souls and ochres all the enchantments of Spring or Autumn; or can liberate and intoxicate all people who hear him with delicious songs and verses; it is certain that the secret cannot be kept; the first witness tells it to a second, and men go by fives and tens and fifties to his doors.

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Nothing is beneath you if it is in the direction of your life.

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The compensations of calamity are made apparent to the understanding also, after long intervals of time. A fever, a mutilation, a cruel disappointment, a loss of wealth, a loss of friends, seems at the moment unpaid loss, and unpayable. But the sure years reveal the deep remedial force that underlies all facts.

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Like bees, they must put their lives into the sting they give.

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Life too near paralyses art.

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Great people are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule the world.

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What is life but the angle of vision? A man is measured by the angle at which he looks at objects. What is life but what a man is thinking all...

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To me, however, the question of the times resolved itself into a practical question of the conduct of life. How shall I live? We are incompete...

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If a teacher have any opinion which he wishes to conceal, his pupils will become as fully indoctrinated into that as into any which he publish...

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Spiritual force is stronger than material force thoughts rule the world.

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Good Friday Good Friday in my heart! Fear and affright! My thoughts are the disciples when they fled, My words the words that priest and soldier said, My deed the spear to desecrate the dead. And day, Thy death therein, is changed to night.

more quotes from Mary Elizabeth Coleridge

We were young, we were merry, we were very, very wise, And the door stood open at our feast, When there passed us a woman with the West in her eyes, And a man with his back to the East.

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Christmas Eve I saw a stable, low and very bare, A little child in a manger. The oxen knew Him, had Him in their care, To men He was a stranger, The safety of the world was lying there, And the world's danger.

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I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.

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What we do not call education is more precious than that which we call so.

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