Quote

Vanity in its idler moments is benevolent, is as willing to give pleasure as to take it, and accepts as sufficient reward for its services a kind word or an approving smile.

Alexander Smith

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Alexander Smith
Age: 36 †
Born: 1830
Born: December 31
Died: 1867
Died: January 5
Poet
Cille Mheàrnaig
Moments
Vanity
Give
Sufficient
Idler
Take
Rewards
Idlers
Giving
Smile
Approving
Kind
Accepting
Accepts
Willing
Benevolent
Pleasure
Services
Word
Reward

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Men praise poverty, as the African worships Mumbo Jumbo--from terror of the malign power, and a desire to propitiate at.
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The discovery of a grey hair when you are brushing out your whiskers of a morning - first fallen flake of the coming snows of age - is a disagreeable thing.
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Some books are drenchèd sandsOn which a great soul's wealth lies all in heaps,Like a wrecked argosy.
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The spot of ground on which a man has stood is forever interesting to him.
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A man's real possession is his memory. In nothing else is he rich, in nothing else is he poor.
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A poem round and perfect as a star.
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Trifles make up the happiness or the misery of mortal life.
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To bring the best human qualities to anything like perfection, to fill them with the sweet juices of courtesy and charity, prosperity, or, at all events, a moderate amount of it, is required,--just as sunshine is needed for the ripening of peaches and apricots.
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In my garden I spend my days, in my library I spend my nights. My interests are divided between my geraniums and my books. With the flower I am in the present with the book I am in the past.
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Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition.
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The pale child, Eve, leading her mother, Night.
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Every man's road in life is marked by the grave of his personal likings.
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Every day travels toward death the last only arrives at it.
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An old novel has a history of its own.
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I have learned to prize the quiet, lightning deed, not the applauding thunder at its heels that men call fame.
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Everything is sweetened by risk.
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To have to die is a distinction of which no man is proud.
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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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The truly great rest in the knowledge of their own deserts, nor seek the conformation of the world.
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Death is the ugly fact which Nature has to hide, and she hides it well.
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