"I know no other way to associate with great tasks than as play: as a sign of greatness, this is an essential presupposition."
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Essentials quotes
Essentials
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Essentials quotes (page 18 of 67)
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"What is the real function, the essential function, the supreme function, of language? Isn't it merely to convey ideas and emotions? Certainly. Then if we can do it with words of fonetic brevity and compactness, why keep the present cumbersome forms?"
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"Some people measure the worth of good actions only by their natural qualities or their difficulty, giving the preference solely to what is conspicuous or brilliant. Such men forget that Christian virtues, which are God's inspiration, should be viewed from the side of grace, not that of nature. The dignity or difficulty of a good action certainly affects what is technically called its accidental worth, but all essential worth must come from love alone."
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"To make an epoch in the world, two conditions are manifestly essential-a good head and a great inheritance."
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"All you have really to do is to keep your back as straight as you can; and not think about what is upon it. The real and essential meaning of "virtue" is that straightness of back."
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"Expression, sentiment, truth to nature, are essential: but all those are not enough. I never care to look at a picture again, if it be ill composed; and if well composed I can hardly leave off looking at it."
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"Unlike the novel, a short story may be, for all purposes, essential."
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"The essential thing is not that there be many truths in a work, but that no truth be abused."
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"For the essential thing about the work of art is that it is work, and very hard work too."
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"Perhaps love is essential because it's unnecessary."
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"I'd rather be useful than rich. It's more essential to feel you're doing something that's worth doing, rather than making a lot of money."
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"The closer you get to the source, the more you begin to understand its essential nature."
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"The virtue of the imagination is its reaching, by intuition and intensity, a more essential truth than is seen at the surface of things."
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"No one can explain how the notes of a Mozart melody, or the folds of a piece of Titian's drapery, produce their essential effects. If you do not feel it, no one can by reasoning make you feel it."
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"I cannot understand why poetry is not taught at schools as a way of seeing, a quick, untiring path to essentials."
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"Achieving the MDGs is not optional; it is an essential investment in a safer, more human and prosperous world"
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"But anyway, it's obvious through human experience that extended families and tribes are terribly important. We can do without an extended family as human beings about as easily as we can do without vitamins or essential minerals."
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