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1625 Essayist Quotes

The natural principle of war is to do the most harm to our enemy with the least harm to ourselves; and this of course is to be effected by stratagem.

Course Effected Enemy Harm
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A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.
Age Constant Grows Never
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An inexhaustible good nature is one of the most precious gifts of heaven, spreading itself like oil over the troubled sea of thought, and keeping the mind smooth and equable in the roughest weather.

Gifts Good Good Nature Heaven
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Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.
Enough Little Man Nothing
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I am always at a loss at how much to believe of my own stories.

Always Am Believe How
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Marriage is the torment of one, the felicity of two, the strife and enmity of three.
Enmity Felicity Marriage Strife
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I've had it with you and your emotional constipation!

Emotional Had You Your
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Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.

Charity Christmas Fire Flame
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He is the true enchanter, whose spell operates, not upon the senses, but upon the imagination and the heart.

He Heart Imagination Senses
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Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart.

Departing Distant Falls Friends
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After all, it is the divinity within that makes the divinity without; and I have been more fascinated by a woman of talent and intelligence, though deficient in personal charms, than I have been by the most regular beauty.

After Beauty Been Charms
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There is certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have often found in traveling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one's position, and be bruised in a new place.

Bad Bruised Certain Change
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The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance, but, like all other landscapes, the charm fades on a nearer approach, and the thorns and briars become visible.

Approach Become Charm Distance
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Honest good humor is the oil and wine of a merry meeting, and there is no jovial companionship equal to that where the jokes are rather small and laughter abundant.

Abundant Companionship Equal Good
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Indeed, there is an eloquence in true enthusiasm that is not to be doubted.

Doubted Eloquence Enthusiasm Indeed
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There's always a period of curious fear between the first sweet-smelling breeze and the time when the rain comes cracking down.

Always Between Breeze Cracking
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May the days be aimless. Do not advance action according to a plan.

According Action Advance Aimless
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If I were a writer, how I would enjoy being told the novel is dead. How liberating to work in the margins, outside a central perception. You are the ghoul of literature. Lovely.

Being Central Dead Enjoy
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Men with secrets tend to be drawn to each other, not because they want to share what they know but because they need the company of the like-minded, the fellow afflicted.

Afflicted Because Company Drawn
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Every sentence has a truth waiting at the end of it and the writer learns how to know it when he finally gets there.

End Every Finally Gets
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For me, writing is a concentrated form of thinking.

Concentrated Form Thinking Writing
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What one writer can make in the solitude of one room is something no power can easily destroy.

Destroy Easily Make Power
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I embarked on my life - I didn't do anything. I don't have an explanation.

Anything Embarked Explanation Life
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What distinguishes a great artist from a weak one is first their sensibility and tenderness; second, their imagination, and third, their industry.

Artist Distinguishes First Great
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It is very, very easy not to be offended by a book. You just have to shut it.

Book Easy Just Offended
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Our lives teach us who we are.
Lives Our Teach Us
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I hate admitting that my enemies have a point.

Admitting Enemies Hate Point
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A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.

Book Ignore Like Offer
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I quit my job just to quit. I didn't quit my job to write fiction. I just didn't want to work anymore.

Anymore Fiction Job Just
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Most of what matters in your life takes place in your absence.

Absence Life Matters Most
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Be sure that you go to the author to get at his meaning, not to find yours.

Author Find Get Go
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I saw a photograph of a wedding conducted by Reverend Moon of the Unification Church. I wanted to understand this event, and the only way to understand it was to write about it.

Church Event Moon Photograph
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Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself.

Ball Free Game Itself
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I do not need the idea of God to explain the world I live in.

Explain God Idea Live
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When thought becomes excessively painful, action is the finest remedy.

Action Becomes Excess Finest
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Sometimes legends make reality, and become more useful than the facts.

Become Facts Legends Make
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What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.

Ceases Exist Expression Freedom
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Our lives are not what we deserve; they are, let us agree, in many ways deficient.

Agree Deficient Deserve Lives
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If I were asked for a one-sentence sound bite on religion, I would say I was against it.

Against Asked Bite Religion
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One of the extraordinary things about human events is that the unthinkable becomes thinkable.

About Becomes Events Extraordinary
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In this world without quiet corners, there can be no easy escapes from history, from hullabaloo, from terrible, unquiet fuss.

Corners Easy Escapes Fuss
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Rock and roll music - the music of freedom frightens people and unleashes all manner of conservative defense mechanisms.

Conservative Defense Freedom Frighten
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Writers and politicians are natural rivals. Both groups try to make the world in their own images; they fight for the same territory.

Both Fight Groups Images
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Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one.
Act Authors Books Choose
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Doubt, it seems to me, is the central condition of a human being in the twentieth century.

Being Central Century Condition
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Such is the miraculous nature of the future of exiles: what is first uttered in the impotence of an overheated apartment becomes the fate of nations.

Apartment Becomes Fate First
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There is a widespread difficulty in the Muslim world, which has to do with how the people are taught about examining their own history. A whole range of stuff has been placed off limits.

About Been Difficulty Examining
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If you actually want to change your world, there is a better way of doing it than blowing yourself up.

Actually Better Blowing Change
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I don't like books that play to the gallery, but I've become more concerned with telling a story as clearly and engagingly as I can.

Become Books Clearly Concerned
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I've never seen anywhere in the world as beautiful as Kashmir. It has something to do with the fact that the valley is very small and the mountains are very big, so you have this miniature countryside surrounded by the Himalayas, and it's just spectacular. And it's true, the people are very beautiful too.

Anywhere Beautiful Big Countryside
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