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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.

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
Become
Holy
Systems
Power
Wise
Mental
States
Law
Effect
Made
Moral
Pass
Would
State
Laws
Forbidding
Time
Social
Sacrifice
Dissipation
Money
Citizens
Compel
Political
Effects
Commercial

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Inferior thinking and writing will make a name for a man among inferior people, who in all ages and countries, are the majority.
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Few know the joys that spring from a disinterested curiosity. It is like a cheerful spirit that leads us through worlds filled with what is true and fair, which we admire and love because it is true and fair.
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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 doubt of an earnest, thoughtful, patient and laborious mind is worthy of respect. In such doubt may be found indeed more faith than in half the creeds.
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In the world of thought a man's rank is determined, not by his average work, but by his highest achievement.
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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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Language should be pure, noble and graceful, as the body should be so: for both are vestures of the Soul.
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They who see through the eyes of others are controlled by the will of others.
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Your faith is what you believe, not what you know.
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We are not masters of the truth which is borne in upon us: it overpowers us.
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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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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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Each forward step we take we leave some phantom of ourselves behind.
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Our prejudices are like physical infirmities — we cannot do what they prevent us from doing.
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There are faults which show heart and win hearts, while the virtue in which there is no love, repels.
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If thou wouldst be interesting, keep thy personality in the background, and be great and strong in and through thy subject.
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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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The first requisite of a gentleman is to be true, brave and noble, and to be therefore a rebuke and scandal to venal and vulgar souls.
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Contradiction is the salt which keeps truth from corruption
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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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