It was a dark and stormy night the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.
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Two lives that once part are as ships that divide.
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Destiny is but a phrase of the weak human heart - the dark apology for every error. The strong and virtuous admit no destiny. On earth conscience guides in heaven God watches. And destiny is but the phantom we invoke to silence the one and dethrone the other.
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Nine times out of ten it is over the Bridge of Sighs that we pass the narrow gulf from youth to manhood. That interval is usually marked by an ill placed or disappointed affection. We recover and we find ourselves a new being. The intellect has become hardened by the fire through which it has passed. The mind profits by the wrecks of every passion, and we may measure our road to wisdom by the sorrows we have undergone.
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One of the surest evidences of friendship that one individual can display to another is telling him gently of a fault. If any other can excel it, it is listening to such a disclosure with gratitude, and amending the error.
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'It is destiny' - phrase of the weak human heart 'It is destiny' - dark apology for every error The strong and virtuous admit no destiny.
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When the world has got hold of a lie, it is astonishing how hard it is to kill it. You beat it over the head, till it seems to have given up the ghost, and behold! the next day it is as healthy as ever.
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It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.
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'Know thyself,' said the old philosopher, 'improve thyself,' saith the new. Our great object in time is not to waste our passions and gifts on the things external that we must leave behind, but that we cultivate within us all that we can carry into the eternal progress beyond.
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Dream manfully and nobly, and thy dreams shall be prophets.
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The conscience is the most flexible material in the world. Today you cannot stretch it over a mole hill; while tomorrow it can hide a mountain.
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Common sense is only a modification of talent. Genius is an exaltation of it. The difference is, therefore, in degree, not nature.
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Destiny is but a phrase of the weak human heart - the dark apology for every error. The strong and virtuous admit no destiny. On earth conscience guides; in heaven God watches. And destiny is but the phantom we invoke to silence the one and dethrone the other.
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No author ever drew a character consistent to human nature, but he was forced to ascribe to it many inconsistencies.
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Remorse is the echo of a lost virtue.
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What is past is past, there is a future left to all men, who have the virtue to repent and the energy to atone.
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The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it. For ignorance is the first requisite of the historian - ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art.
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The easiest person to deceive is one's own self.
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How little praise warms out of a man the good that is in him, as the sneer of contempt which he feels is unjust chill the ardor to excel.
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A good cigar is as great a comfort to a man as a good cry is to a woman.
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The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.
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A fool flatters himself, a wise man flatters the fool.
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Beneath the rule of men entirely great, The pen is mightier than the sword.
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A fresh mind keeps the body fresh. Take in the ideas of the day, drain off those of yesterday. As to the morrow, time enough to consider it when it becomes today.
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The mind profits by the wrecks of every passion.
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The world thinks eccentricity in great things is genius, but in small things, only crazy.
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Talent does what it can genius does what it must.
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Chance happens to all, but to turn chance to account is the gift of few.
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The history of the Victorian Age will never be written we know too much about it. For ignorance is the first requisite of the historian - ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art.
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In science read the newest works, in literature read the oldest.
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