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Of the three prerequisites of genius the first is soul the second is soul and the third is soul.

Edwin Percy Whipple

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Edwin Percy Whipple
Age: 67 †
Born: 1819
Born: March 8
Died: 1886
Died: June 16
Author
Essayist
Journalist
Literary Critic
Writer
Gloucester
Massachusetts
Three
Soul
Firsts
Prerequisites
First
Third
Thirds
Genius
Second

More quotes by Edwin Percy Whipple

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No education deserves the name unless it develops thought, unless it pierces down to the mysterious spiritual principle of mind, and starts that into activity and growth.
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A thought embodied and embrained in fit words walks the earth a living being.
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Humor, warm and all-embracing as the sunshine, bathes its objects in a genial and abiding light.
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What does competency in the long run mean? It means to all reasonable beings, cleanliness of person, decency of dress, courtesy of manners, opportunities for education, the delights of leisure, and the bliss of giving.
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We like the fine extravagance of that philosopher who declared that no man was as rich as all men ought to be.
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An epigram often flashes light into regions where reason shines but dimly.
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Even in social life, it is persistency which attracts confidence, more than talents and accomplishments.
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Heroism is no extempore work of transient impulse--a rocket rushing fretfully up to disturb the darkness by which, after a moment's insulting radiance, it is ruthlessly swallowed up,--but a steady fire, which darts forth tongues of flame. It is no sparkling epigram of action, but a luminous epic of character.
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There is a natural disposition with us to judge an author's personal character by the character of his works. We find it difficult to understand the common antithesis of a good writer and a bad man.
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Nothing really succeeds which is not based on reality sham, in a large sense, is never successful. In the life of the individual, as in the more comprehensive life of the State, pretension is nothing and power is everything.
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Genius may be almost defined as the faculty of acquiring poverty.
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Irony is an insult conveyed in the form of a compliment.
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Cervantes shrewdly advises to lay a bridge of silver for a flying enemy.
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Sydney Smith playfully says that common sense was invented by Socrates, that philosopher having been one of its most conspicuous exemplars in conducting the contest of practical sagacity against stupid prejudice and illusory beliefs.
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Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of time.
Edwin Percy Whipple
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The universal line of distinction between the strong and the weak is that one persists the other hesitates, falters, trifles, and at last collapses or caves in.
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Nature and society are so replete with startling contrasts that wit often consists in the mere statement and comparison of facts, as when Hume says that the ancient Muscovites wedded their wives with a whip instead of a ring.
Edwin Percy Whipple
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Humor implies a sure conception of the beautiful, the majestic and he true, by whose light it surveys and shape s their opposites. It is a humane influence, softening with mirth the ragged inequities of existence, prompting tolerant views of life, bridging over the space which separates the lofty from the lowly, the great from the humble.
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The familiar writer is apt to be his own satirist. Out of his own mouth is he judged.
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Whenever you find humour, you find pathos close by its side.
Edwin Percy Whipple