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But the gravest difficulty, and perhaps the most important, in poetry meant solely for recitation, is the difficulty of achieving verbal beauty, or rather of making verbal beauty tell.

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If epic poetry is a definite species, the sagas do not fall within it.

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The balance of private good and general welfare is at the bottom of civilized morals; but the morals of the Heroic Age are founded on individuality, and on nothing else.

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Poetry is the work of poets, not of peoples or communities; artistic creation can never be anything but the production of an individual mind.

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With several different kinds of poetry to choose from, a man would decide that he would like best to be an epic poet, and he would set out, in conscious determination, on an epic poem.

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The epic poet has behind him a tradition of matter and a tradition of style; and that is what every other poet has behind him too; only, for the epic poet, tradition is rather narrower, rather more strictly compelling.

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The Border Ballads, for instance, and the Robin Hood Ballads, clearly suppose a state of society which is nothing but a very circumscribed and not very important heroic age.

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You do not know what you can miss before you try.

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Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.

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Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.

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The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.

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All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.

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Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.

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Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.

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America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.

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If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

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Part of the joy of music is listening to lots of different kinds of music and learning from it. Specifically for me, I like writing songs that move me, and what moves me are beautiful songs on the piano or the guitar and really, really heavy music.

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To make a song is a gift, and once it's done it keeps evolving and changing and becomes a tool to interact with other people. It's like a conversation.

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I was a nervous young man. I wanted to do so many things. And I was so enthusiastic and earnestly in love with so many things that I tried too hard. I tried really, really hard. And I made a lot of mistakes. I was afraid of a lot of stuff. And I kind of feel bad for that person I was.

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I think that we live in a time where it's easier to be suspicious of dedicated men and women, people dedicated to their craft, because the world around them inspires them to be lazy. It inspires them to be negative. It inspires them to be snarky.

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