Quote

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.

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
Last
Collapse
Strong
Perseverance
Falters
Distinction
Hesitates
Weak
Collapses
Universal
Persists
Line
Trifles
Lines
Caves
Lasts
Persist

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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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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.
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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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Nature does not capriciously scatter her secrets as golden gifts to lazy pets and luxurious darlings, but imposes tasks when she presents opportunities, and uplifts him whom she would inform. The apple that she drops at the feet of Newton is but a coy invitation to follow her to the stars.
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What a man does with his wealth depends upon his idea of happiness. Those who draw prizes in life are apt to spend tastelessly, if not viciously not knowing that it requires as much talent to spend as to make.
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There is a serious and resolute egotism that makes a man interesting to his friends and formidable to his opponents.
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Knowledge, like religion, must be experienced in order to be known.
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Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of time.
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Pretension is nothing power is everything.
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Felicity, not fluency of language, is a merit.
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A politician weakly and amiably in the right, is no match for a politician tenaciously and pugnaciously in the wrong.
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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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Lord Chatham and Napoleon were ns much actors as Garrick or Talma. Now, an imposing air should always be taken as evidence of imposition. Dignity is often a veil between us and the real truth of things.
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An epigram often flashes light into regions where reason shines but dimly.
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Talent is full of thoughts, Genius is thought. Talent is a cistern, Genius a fountain.
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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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The contemplation of beauty in nature, in art, in literature, in human character, diffuses through our being a soothing and subtle joy, by which the heart's anxious and aching cares are softly smiled away.
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A large portion of human beings live not so much in themselves as in what they desire to be. They create what is called an ideal character, in an ideal form, whose perfections compensate in some degree for the imperfections of their own.
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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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