Quote

Men praise poverty, as the African worships Mumbo Jumbo--from terror of the malign power, and a desire to propitiate at.

Alexander Smith

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Alexander Smith
Age: 36 †
Born: 1830
Born: December 31
Died: 1867
Died: January 5
Poet
Cille Mheàrnaig
Poverty
Mumbo
Desire
Malign
Power
Jumbo
Men
Worships
African
Terror
Praise
Worship
Propitiate

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The globe has been circumnavigated, but no man ever yet has you may survey a kingdom and note the result in maps, but all the savants in the world could not produce a reliable map of the poorest human personality.
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Looking forward into an empty year strikes one with a certain awe, because one finds therein no recognition. The years behind have a friendly aspect, and they are warmed by the fires we have kindled, and all their echoes are the echoes of our own voices.
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Trifles make up the happiness or the misery of mortal life.
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A thought may be very commendable as a thought, but I value it chiefly as a window through which I can obtain insight on the thinker.
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There is nothing good in this world which time does not improve.
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I would rather be remembered by a song than by a victory.
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Fine phrases I value more than bank-notes. I have ear for no other harmony than the harmony of words. To be occasionally quoted is the only fame I care for.
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A brave soul is a thing which all things serve.
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Nature never quite goes along with us. She is somber at weddings, sunny at funerals, and she frowns on ninety-nine out of a hundred picnics.
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In the entire circle of the year there are no days so delightful as those of a fine October, when the trees are bare to the mild heavens, and the red leaves bestrew the road, and you can feel the breath of winter, morning and evening - no days so calm, so tenderly solemn, and with such a reverent meekness in the air.
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In my garden I spend my days in my library I spend my nights.
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To sit for one's portrait is like being present at one's own creation.
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The saddest thing that befalls a soul is when it loses faith in god and woman.
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Every man's road in life is marked by the grave of his personal likings.
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It is the sternest philosophy, but on the whole the truest, that, in the wide arena of the world, failure and success are not accidents, as we so frequently suppose, but the strictest justice.
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The dead keep their secrets, and in a while we shall be as wise as they - and as taciturn.
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Pleasure has no logic it never treads in its own footsteps.
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In my garden, care stops at the gate and gazes at me wistfully through the bars.
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Stirling, like a huge brooch, clasps Highlands and Lowlands together.
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The greatness of an artist or a writer does not depend on what he has in common with other artists and writers, but on what he has peculiar to himself.
Alexander Smith