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If for instance the sentiment possessing for the moment the empire of our mind is sorrow, will not the genius sharpen the sorrow and the sorrow purify...more

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His will be done, as done it surely will be, whether we humble ourselves to resignation or not. The impulse of creation forwards it; the strength of p...more

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Renewed hope followed renewed effort: It shone like the former for some weeks, then, like it, faded, flickered: Not a line, not a word reached me. Whe...more

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As to the mouth, it delights at times in laughter; it is disposed to impart all that the brain conceives; though I daresay it would be silent on much ...more

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I thought that a fairer era of life was beginning for me, one that was to have its flowers and pleasures, as well as its thorns and toils. My facultie...more

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Every joy that life gives must be earned ere it be secured; and how hardly earned, those only know who have wrestled for great prizes. The heart’s blo...more

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God surely did not create us, and cause us to live, with the sole end of wishing always to die. I believe, in my heart, we were intended to prize life...more

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Our power of being happy lies a good deal in ourselves, I believe.

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...[M]y inner self moved; my spirit shook its always-fettered wings half loose. I had a sudden feeling as if I, who never yet truly lived, were at las...more

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I think if Eternity held torment, its form would not be fiery rack, nor its nature, despair. I think that on a certain day amongst those days which ne...more

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For once a hope was realized. I held in my hand a morsel of real solid joy: not a dream, not an image of the brain, not one of those shadowy chances i...more

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. . . if there was a hope of comfort for any moment, the heart or head of no human being in this house could yield it . . .

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I knew I was catching at straws; but in the wide and weltering deep where I found myself, I would have caught at cobwebs.

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The world, I soon learned, held a different estimate: and I make no doubt, the world is very right in its view, yet believe also that I am not quite w...more