Quote

Modest egotism is the salt of conversation you do not want too much of it, but if it is altogether omitted, everything tastes flat.

Henry Van Dyke

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Henry Van Dyke
Age: 80 †
Born: 1852
Born: November 10
Died: 1933
Died: April 10
Diplomat
Poet
Writer
Germantown
Philadelphia
Conversation
Omitted
Taste
Egotism
Everything
Tastes
Much
Altogether
Flat
Flats
Modest
Salt

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Be grateful for the tiny details of your life and make room for unexpected and beautiful blessings.
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One truly affectionate soul in a family will evert a sweetening and harmonizing influence upon all its members.
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O' who will walk with me along lifes merry way? A comrade blithe and full of glee, who dares to laugh out loud and free.
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Heaven is blest with perfect rest, but the blessing of Earth is toil.
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A clean and sensitive conscience, a steady and scrupulous integrity in small things as well as large, is the most valuable of all possessions, to a nation as to an individual.
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Happiness is inward, and not outward and so, it does not depend on what we have, but on what we are.
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Who can explain the secret pathos of Nature's loveliness? It is a touch of melancholy inherited from our mother Eve. It is an unconscious memory of the lost Paradise. It is the sense that even if we should find another Eden, we would not be fit to enjoy it perfectly nor stay in it forever.
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Jazz: Music invented for the torture of imbeciles.
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Heaven often seems distant and unknown, but if He who made the road... is our guide, we need not fear to lose the way.
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Use what talents you possess the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.
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Natural beauty and wonder are priceless heirlooms which God has bestowed upon our nation. How shall we escape the contempt of the coming generation if we suffer this irreplaceable heritage to be wasted?
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Half of the secular unrest and dismal, profane sadness of modern society comes from the vain ideas that every man is bound to be a critic for life.
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Courage is the standing army of the soul which keeps it from conquest, pillage, and slavery.
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There is no personal charm so great as the charm of a cheerful temperament.
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No matter what theory of the origin of government you adopt, if you follow it out to its legitimate conclusions it will bring you face to face with the moral law.
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Love is not getting, but giving It is goodness, and honor, and peace and pure living.
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We measure success by accumulation. The measure is false. The true measure is appreciation. He who loves most has most.
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Man said, I am tired of kings! Sons of the robber-chiefs of yore, They make me pay for their lust and their war I am the puppet, they pull the strings The blood of my heart is the wine they drink. I will govern myself for awhile I think, And see what that brings!
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The shadow by my finger cast Divides the future from the past: Before it, sleeps the unborn hour, In darkness, and beyond thy power. Behind its unreturning line, The vanished hour, no longer thine: One hour alone is in thy hands,- The NOW on which the shadow stands.
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Hymns of today that may be sung by people who know the thought of the age...are not afraid that any truth of science will destroy Christianity, or any revolution will overthrow the Kingdom of Heaven.
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