"Strength is not energy; some authors have more muscles than talent."
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Quote collection
Joseph Joubert quotes (page 14 of 15)
290 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"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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"There is graciousness and a kind of urbanity in beginning with men by esteem and confidence. It proves, at least, that we have long lived in good company with others and with our selves."
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"Fate and necessity are unconquerable."
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"God multiplies intelligence, which communicates itself, like fire, ad infinitum. Light a thousand torches at one touch, the flame remains always the same."
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"One man finds in religion his literature and his science, another finds in it his joy and his duty."
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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."
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"To the liberal ideas of the age must be opposed the moral ideas of all ages."
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"Know that morality is a curb, not a spur."
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"Every modulated sound is not a song, and every voice that executes a beautiful air does not sing. Singing should enchant. But to produce this effect there must be a quality of soul and voice which is by no means common even with great singers."
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"Let us have justice, and then we shall have enough liberty!"
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"The Bible is to religion what the Iliad is to poetry"
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"One can with dignity be wife and widow but once."
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"A fluent writer always seems more talented than he is. To write well, one needs a natural felicity and an acquired difficulty."
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"I think reading is a gift. It was a gift that was given to me as a child by many people, and now as an adult and a writer, I'm trying to give a little of it back to others. It's one of the greatest pleasures I know." Ann M. Martin "Never write anything that does not give you great pleasure. Emotion is easily transferred from the writer to the reader."
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"Ideas never lack for words. It is words that lack ideas. As soon as the idea has come to its last degree of perfection, the word blossoms."
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"Taste is the literary conscience of the soul."
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"Let your cry be for free souls rather than for freedom. Moral liberty is the only important liberty."
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"We should make ourselves loved, for men are only just towards those whom they love."
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"Be saving, but not at the cost of all liberality. Have the soul of a king and the hand of a wise economist."
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