Essays: First SeriesD. McKay, 1888 - 396 pages |
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Page 75
... perfect in every moment of its ex- istence . Before a leaf - bud has burst , its whole life acts ; in the full - blown flower , there is no more ; in the leafless root , there is no less . Its nature is satisfied , and it satisfies ...
... perfect in every moment of its ex- istence . Before a leaf - bud has burst , its whole life acts ; in the full - blown flower , there is no more ; in the leafless root , there is no less . Its nature is satisfied , and it satisfies ...
Page 83
... perfect circle . It denies the name of duty to many offices that are called duties . But if I can discharge its debts , it enables me to dispense with the popular code . If any one imagines that this law is lax , let him keep its ...
... perfect circle . It denies the name of duty to many offices that are called duties . But if I can discharge its debts , it enables me to dispense with the popular code . If any one imagines that this law is lax , let him keep its ...
Page 84
... perfect persons . We want men and women who shall renovate life and our social state , but we see that most natures are insolvent ; cannot satisfy their own wants , have an ambition out of all proportion to their prac- tical force , and ...
... perfect persons . We want men and women who shall renovate life and our social state , but we see that most natures are insolvent ; cannot satisfy their own wants , have an ambition out of all proportion to their prac- tical force , and ...
Page 97
... perfect army , says Las Casas , " without abol- ishing our arms , magazines , commissaries , and carriages , until in imitation of the Roman cus- tom , the soldier should receive his supply of corn , grind it in his hand - mill , and ...
... perfect army , says Las Casas , " without abol- ishing our arms , magazines , commissaries , and carriages , until in imitation of the Roman cus- tom , the soldier should receive his supply of corn , grind it in his hand - mill , and ...
Page 112
... perfect for being little . Eyes , ears , taste , smell , motion , resistance , appetite , and organs of reproduction that take hold on eternity , all find room to consist in the small creature . So do we put our life into every act ...
... perfect for being little . Eyes , ears , taste , smell , motion , resistance , appetite , and organs of reproduction that take hold on eternity , all find room to consist in the small creature . So do we put our life into every act ...
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Common terms and phrases
action affection appear beautiful soul beauty becomes behold better black event Bonduca Cæsar Calvinistic character child circle conversation divine doctrine Egypt Epaminondas eternal evanescent fact fear feel friendship genius gifts give Greek hand heart heaven Heraclitus heroism hour human instinct intel intellect less light live look lose man's marriage ment mind moral nature ness never noble object OVER-SOUL painted pass perception perfect persons Petrarch Phidias Phocion Pindar Plato Plotinus Plutarch poet poetry proverb prudence Pyrrhonism relations religion Rome sculpture secret seek seems seen sense sensual Shakspeare society Socrates Sophocles soul speak Spinoza spirit stand stoicism sweet talent teach thee things thou thought tion to-day true truth ture universal virtue whilst whole wisdom wise words Xenophon youth
Popular passages
Page 64 - A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.
Page 52 - There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide ; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion ; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.
Page 52 - A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.
Page 75 - These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are ; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose ; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.
Page 128 - Some damning circumstance always transpires. The laws and substances of nature water, snow, wind, gravitation - become penalties to the thief. On the other hand, the law holds with equal sureness for all right action. Love, and you shall be loved. All love is mathematically just, as much as the two sides of an algebraic equation.
Page 78 - Why, then, do we prate of self-reliance ? Inasmuch as the soul is present, there will be power not confident but agent. To talk of reliance is a poor external way of speaking. Speak rather of that which relies, because it works and is.
Page 121 - As no man had ever a point of pride that was not injurious to him, so no man had ever a defect that was not somewhere made useful to him. The stag in the fable admired his horns and blamed his feet, but when the hunter came, his feet saved him, and afterwards, caught in the thicket, his horns destroyed him.
Page 60 - What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.
Page 53 - Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events.
Page 81 - O father, O mother, O wife, O brother, O friend, I have lived with you after appearances hitherto. Henceforward I am the truth's. Be it known unto you that henceforward I obey no law less than the eternal law.