Quote collection
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"All sorts of Heroes are intrinsically of the same material; that given a great soul, open to the Divine Significance of Life, then there is given a man fit to speak of this, to sing of this, to fight and work for this, in a great, victorious, enduring manner; there is given a Hero, -- the outward shape of whom will depend on the time and the environment he finds himself in."
"In every man's writings, the character of the writer must lie recorded."
"The English are a dumb people. They can do great acts, but not describe them."
"Misery which, through long ages, had no spokesman, no helper, will now be its own helper and speak for itself."
"Not only was Thebes built by the music of an Orpheus; but without the music of some inspired Orpheus was no city ever built, no work that man glories in ever done."
"In every object there is inexhaustible meaning."
"Let me have my own way in exactly everything and a sunnier and pleasanter creature does not exist."
"Of our thinking it is but the upper surface that we shape into articulate thought; underneath the region of argument and conscious discourse lies the region of meditation."
"In the poorest cottage are Books: is one Book, wherein for several thousands of years the spirit of man has found light, and nourishment, and an interpreting response to whatever is Deepest in him."
"I came hither [Craigenputtoch] solely with the design to simplify my way of life and to secure the independence through which I could be enabled to remain true to myself."
"A pygmy standing on the outward crust of this small planet, his far-reaching spirit stretches outward to the infinite, and there alone finds rest."
"The Highest Being reveals himself in man."
"Out of the lowest depths there is a path to the loftiest heights."
"Love not pleasure; love God. This is the Everlasting Yea, wherein all contradiction is solved."
"No man at bottom means injustice; it is always for some obscure distorted image of a right that he contends: an obscure image diffracted, exaggerated, in the wonderfulest way by natural dimness and selfishness; getting tenfold more diffracted by exasperation of contest, till at length it become all but irrecognis-able."
"Men worship the shows of great men; the most disbelieve that there is any reality of great men to worship."
"What unknown seas of feeling lie in man, and will from time to time break through!"
"God Almighty never created a man half as wise as he looks."
"A man's perfection is his work."
"That monstrous tuberosity of civilised life, the capital of England."