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Tormented by the cursed ambition always to put a whole book in a page, a whole page in a sentence, and this sentence in a word. I am speaking of myself.

Joseph Joubert

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Joseph Joubert
Age: 69 †
Born: 1754
Born: May 7
Died: 1824
Died: May 4
Essayist
Philosopher
Writer
Speaking
Ambition
Pages
Word
Tormented
Book
Cursed
Whole
Sentence
Writing
Page
Always
Sentences

More quotes by Joseph Joubert

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Taste is the literary conscience of the soul.
Joseph Joubert
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When one has too great a dread of what is impending, one feels some relief when the trouble has come.
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We should always keep a corner of our heads open and free, that we may make room for the opinions of our friends. Let us have heart and head hospitality.
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I resemble the poplar,--that tree which, even when old, still looks young.
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Reason is a bee, and exists only on what it makes his usefulness takes the place of beauty.
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We should make ourselves loved, for men are only just towards those whom they love.
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Avoid singularity. There may often be less vanity in following the new modes than in adhering to the old ones. It is true that the foolish invent them, but the wise may conform to, instead of contradicting, them.
Joseph Joubert
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Forms of government become established of themselves. They shape themselves, they are not created. We may give them strength and consistency, but we cannot call them into being. Let us rest assured that the form of government can never be a matter of choice: it is almost always a matter of necessity.
Joseph Joubert
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I do not call reason that brutal reason which crushes with its weight what is holy and sacred, that malignant reason which delights in the errors it succeeds in discovering, that unfeeling and scornful reason which insults credulity.
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If authorities were well organized, there would not be an Unknown Warrior.
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Old age takes from the man of intellect no qualities save those that are useless to wisdom.
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Haughty people seem to me to have, like the dwarfs, the stature of a child and the face of a man.
Joseph Joubert
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The dregs may stir themselves as they please they fall back to the bottom by their own coarseness.
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There are people who are virtuous only in a piece-meal way virtue is a fabric from which they never make themselves a whole garment.
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He who has imagination without learning has wings but no feet.
Joseph Joubert
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How many people make themselves abstract to appear profound. The most useful part of abstract terms are the shadows they create to hide a vacuum.
Joseph Joubert
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The true character of epistolary style is playfulness and urbanity.
Joseph Joubert
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Grace is in garments, in movements, in manners beauty in the nude, and in forms. This is true of bodies but when we speak of feelings, beauty is in their spirituality, and grace in their moderation.
Joseph Joubert
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To teach is to learn twice. About all some parents accomplish in life is to send a child to Harvard. The purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place to spend one's leisure.
Joseph Joubert
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Happy is the man who can do only one thing in doing it, he fulfills his destiny.
Joseph Joubert