Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. The very simplicity and nakedness of man's life in the primitive ages imply this advantage, at least, that they left him still but a sojourner in nature. To be awake is to be alive. Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. Every man is a builder of a temple, called his body, to the god he worships, after a style purely his own, nor can he get off by hammering marble instead. We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them. Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
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Each of the arts whose office is to refine, purify, adorn, embellish and grace life is under the patronage of a muse, no god being found worthy to preside over them.
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It is books that teach us to refine our pleasures when young, and to recall them with satisfaction when we are old.
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I have seen manners that make a similar impression with personal beauty; that give the like exhilaration, and refine us like that; and, in memorable experiences, they are suddenly better than beauty, and make that superfluous and ugly. But they must be marked by fine perception, the acquaintance with real beauty. They must always show self-control: you shall not be facile, apologetic, or leaky, but king over your word; and every gesture and action shall indicate power at rest. Then they must be inspired by the good heart. There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us. 'Tis good to give a stranger a meal, or a night's lodging. 'Tis better to be hospitable to his good meaning and thought, and give courage to a companion. We must be as courteous to a man as we are to a picture, which we are willing to give the advantage of a good light.
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Hank Raymond asked me to take over the Women's World Longboard Championships beginning this year. He thought it would be best for the future of women's longboard competition, ... Although the trademark is now in my name, it belongs to the women longboard competitors. And, in time it will be passed on to the next person so they can continue to refine, enhance and achieve the women?s goals for the future. I am really excited about some new possibilities and the future of women's longboard competition. It has long been my goal, for the Women?s World Longboard Championship to stand professionally on its own. Now it?s going to happen!
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War is cruel and you cannot refine it.
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Crises refine life. In them you discover what you are.
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One thousand days to learn; ten thousand days to refine.
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