Wise or Otherwise | Page 4

she will be surrounded, the glitter of diamonds, the equipages, the great house, all the paraphanalia of wealth, but she hates the trembling, tottering, blear-eyed object who bought her.
The clergyman gives his blessing, society receives them with open arms, and legalized prostitution is upheld by the majesty of the law and encircled by the sanctified robes of the Church.
The ruling passion of the age: worship of self and worship of pelf.
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The age of good breeding has passed; insolence has taken its place.
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A woman ceases to think of self when she looks in the face of her new-born child.
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There are people who go through life as if they were going to their own funeral--and did not enjoy it.
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I would rather have for a friend the most thorough-paced scamp, with a generous heart, than the most respectable, canting, whining, Pharisee.
* * * * *
To stand in a rarefied atmosphere on a mountain height and view the struggles of ordinary mortals below may be poetic, but it is very lonely.
* * * * *
A woman may defy the world for a man she loves, and imagine that he will love her for the sacrifice, but no greater mistake can be made. Men are not so constituted. When he sees her standing alone, dishonored, a mark for the finger of scorn, her charm for him is forever lost.
* * * * * Realism is the grave of love.
* * * * *
A woman's smile is two edged.
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Life is too short to prepare a soul for eternity
* * * * *
A great love is only inspired by a great nature.
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It is as wise to cultivate forgetfulness as memory.
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Society, a haven for fools; literature and art for brains.
* * * * *
Many people have courage to face anything but themselves.
* * * * *
A woman is always in love, either with herself or with love.
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Two things in life man regards with esteem: himself and his pipe.
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Truth and sincerity are only found in the face of a child and the eyes of a dog.
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A young face and an old heart are sorry companions, but an old face and a young heart are sorrier still.
* * * * *
What people will 'say' is the bugbear of small minds.
* * * * *
Love would cease to exist were it not for the gift of idealizing.
* * * * *
A fly is but a small thing, yet it can disturb the greatest philosopher.
* * * * *
Is a new soul created at every birth, or are we merely corpses warmed over?
* * * * *
Kind words and a sympathetic handclasp have done more to reclaim lost souls than all the tracts ever published.
* * * * *
A minute is a short duration of time, yet in that interval one may experience the whole gamut of human emotions.
* * * * *
If the world valued us as we value ourselves the heavens would not be sufficiently large whereon to inscribe our greatness.
* * * * *
What becomes of the characters who play an important part in fiction; the strong, brave, true fiction-people, whom we love as we read? Is there no place for them in the world peopled by shadows?
* * * * *
There are men who will accept any and every sacrifice from a woman and after making her a wreck, socially and morally, will say to her, "I fear that I am injuring you, so I will sacrifice myself and deny myself the pleasure of your society." Such men would sneak into heaven by a side entrance.
* * * * *
Fate, in a sportive mood, performs some wonderful acrobatic feats with human nature; gives love of oriental luxury to the woman with nothing a year; appreciation of all that is beautiful and artistic, to the ploughman; an epicurian taste to the starving mechanic; while to the woman rolling in wealth is given the manners and tastes of the fish-wife; to the multi-millionaire the habits of the canaille, and fate laughs with glee over the fantastic, incongruous muddle of the thing called Life.

BOOK THE SECOND
BY
THAD. W.H. LEAVITT

ODDS AND-ENDS
Man's greatest enemy is himself.
* * * * *
Never chide fate while will sleeps.
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The prophet must know the past.
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Foul words kill the sweetest flowers.
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Repentant tears are the soul's pearls.
* * * * *
Common customs are not nature's laws.
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No man blesses the calm until after the storm.
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Much study makes a full head and an empty stomach.
* * * * *
You cannot fan the ashes