Quote

Nothing requires so little mental effort as to narrate or follow a story. Hence everybody tells stories and the readers of stories outnumber all others.

John Lancaster Spalding

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John Lancaster Spalding
Age: 76 †
Born: 1840
Born: June 2
Died: 1916
Died: August 25
Author
Biographer
Catholic Priest
Lebanon
Kentucky
Little
Follow
Nothing
Reader
Narrate
Effort
Outnumber
Everybody
Hence
Story
Readers
Others
Tells
Stories
Requires
Littles
Mental

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Education would be a divine thing, if it did nothing more than help us to think and love great thoughts instead of little thoughts.
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We may avoid much disappointment and bitterness of soul by learning to understand how little necessary to our joy and peace are the things the multitude most desire and seek.
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The highest strength is acquired not in overcoming the world, but in overcoming one's self. Learn to be cruel to thyself, to withstand thy appetites, to bear thy sufferings, and thou shalt become free and able.
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Altruism is a barbarism. Love is the word.
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What we enjoy, not what we possess, is ours, and in labouring for the possession of many things, we lose the power to enjoy the best.
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Worry, whatever its source, weakens, takes away courage, and shortens life.
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We may outgrow the things of children, without acquiring sense and relish for those which become a man.
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A liberal education is that which aims to develop faculty without ulterior views of profession or other means of gaining a livelihood. It considers man an end in himself and not an instrument whereby something is to be wrought. Its ideal is human perfection.
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If we attempt to sink the soul in matter, its light is quenched.
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If there were nothing else to trouble us, the fate of the flowers would make us sad.
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If a state should pass laws forbidding its citizens to become wise and holy, it would be made a byword for all time. But this, in effect, is what our commercial, social, and political systems do. They compel the sacrifice of mental and moral power to money and dissipation.
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The study of law is valuable as a mental discipline, but the practice of pleading tends to make one petty, formal, and insincere. To be driven to look to legality rather than to equity blurs the view of truth and justice.
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It is difficult to be sure of our friends, but it is possible to be certain of our loyalty to them.
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The exercise of authority is odious, and they who know how to govern, leave it in abeyance as much as possible.
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If there are but few who interest thee, why shouldst thou be disappointed if but few find thee interesting?
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Faith, like love, unites opinion, like hate, separates.
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A Wise man knows that much of what he says and does is commonplace and trivial. His thoughts are not all solemn and sacred in his own eyes. He is able to laugh at himself and is not offended when others make him a subject whereon to exercise their wit.
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The aim of education is to strengthen and multiply the powers and activities of the mind rather than to increase its possessions.
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The common man is impelled and controlled by interests the superior, by ideas.
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They who see through the eyes of others are controlled by the will of others.
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