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The crowning fortune of a man is to be born to some pursuit which finds him employment and happiness, whether it be to make baskets, or broadswords, o...more

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Genius always finds itself a century too early.

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Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.

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To believe your own thought to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men - that is genius.

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The man of genius inspires us with a boundless confidence in our own powers.

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Every industrious man, in every lawful calling, is a useful man. And one principal reason why men are so often useless is that they neglect their own ...more

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In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

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It is the privilege of any human work which is well done to invest the doer with a certain haughtiness. He can well afford not to conciliate whose fa...more

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Solitude, the safeguard of mediocrity, is to genius the stern friend, the cold, obscure shelter where moult the wings which will bear it farther than ...more

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Colleges hate geniuses, just as convents hate saints.

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Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.

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The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work.

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The Artist always has the masters in his eyes.

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Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

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Misunderstood! It is a right fool's word. Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, an...more