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27a2d9d
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It is my conviction that we make ourselves who we want to be and not chain ourselves to the notions of busybodies who wish to judge us.
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Matthew Pearl |
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3adfdc7
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Benjamin Franklin]. Not only one of our nation's founding geniuses but a printer and publisher, too... He knew that to form the soul of America, one must control the presses.
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Matthew Pearl |
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3b53a16
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It is not when a man is at the end of his life, but when a man is at the end of his profession, that his soul shows itself.
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Matthew Pearl |
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785c31a
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People hate the idea of politicians, you see, but love the idea of authors, at least until they meet one.
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Matthew Pearl |
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8ad092e
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Till America has learned to love literature not as an amusement, not as mere doggerel to memorize in a college room, but for its humanizing and ennobling energy, my dear reverend president, she will not have succeeded in that high sense which alone makes a nation out of a people. That which raises it from a dead name to a living power.
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Matthew Pearl |
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79d628e
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Beware the camel's nose--for its whole body will soon follow.
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Matthew Pearl |
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b21f0cf
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When you ask one friend to dine, give him your best wine. When you ask two, the second best will do.
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Matthew Pearl |
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f683e89
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Surprises, like misfortunes, seldom come alone.
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Matthew Pearl |
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d4915ce
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He worshipped at the temple of her intellect and I believe it was a comfort to him to know that she left our world with it still shining.
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love
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Matthew Pearl |
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2aea9e9
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that bookshops will one day disappear altogether and be replaced by mail order, that eventually books themselves would be finally and fully buried by that awful foe, so much cheaper and easier to carry: newspapers.
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Matthew Pearl |
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6ccec44
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Now, on his way to another lecture, the very thought of entering a room full of students, who still thought it was possible to learn all about something, made him yawn.
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Matthew Pearl |
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19283f1
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A man was leaning idly against an elm. ... The man, who towered over the poet even at his slanting angle, too old for a student and too worn for a faculty member, stared at him with the familiar, insatiable gleam of the literary admirer.
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Matthew Pearl |
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1fe2db6
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These writers take the essence of every person around them, turn them into books and stories without permission or even a simple thank-you, and want all the credit and glory for themselves.
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writers
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Matthew Pearl |
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cffefce
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When I ply the cutlass and make the equivalent of sixpence, idiot conscience applauds me. But if I sit in the house and make twenty pounds by writing, idiot conscience wails over my neglect and the day wasted. No, to come down covered with mud and drenched with sweat and rain after some hours in the bush. To change, rub down, and take a chair in the verandah, that makes for a quiet conscience.
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Matthew Pearl |
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906ddd9
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Stevenson threw back his head and made a slow murmuring sound, "If only I could secure a violent death." "Pardon?" "What a fine success!" Stevenson continued, spurring Jack into a canter as he lost himself in his thoughts. "I wish to die in my boots, you see, Mr. Porter. To be drowned, to be shot, to be thrown from this horse into a ditch, Mr. Fergins--aye, to be hanged, rather than pass through the slow dissolution of illnesses!"
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Matthew Pearl |
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545a43d
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Teacher, tender comrade, wife, A fellow farer true through life, Heart whole and soul free, The August father gave to me.
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Matthew Pearl |
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4a824e2
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Books inspire a man to embrace the world or flee it. They start wars and end them. They make the men and women who write and publish them vast fortunes, and nearly as quickly can drive them into madness and despair. Stay away from what you do not fathom from now on...
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inspiration
inspire
writers
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Matthew Pearl |
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45bdb89
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Longfellow smiled. "A great part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, my dear Lowell, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory."
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life
meaning-of-life
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Matthew Pearl |
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235eabf
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It is the one time Dante calls such explicit attention to the idea of contrapasso-a word for which we have no exact translation, no precise definition in English, because the word in itself is its definition... Well, my dear Longfellow, I would say countersuffering ... the notion that each sinner must be punished by continuing the damage of his own sin against him... just as these Schismatics are cut apart...
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divine-comedy
sin
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Matthew Pearl |
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a4a17f8
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We never like the smell of our own vices in other people, Holmes. Ah, let's steer here for a drink or two," Lowell suggested."
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vices
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Matthew Pearl |
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42c83b6
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Milton was the gold standard of religious poets for English and American scholars. But Milton wrote of Hell and Heaven from above and below, respectively, not from the inside: safer advantages.
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john-milton
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Matthew Pearl |
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e0096fe
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No, never mind, I didn't think so. Mead, Dante's theme is man-not a man.' Lowell said finally with a mild patience that he reserved only for students. "The Italians forever twitch at Dante's sleeves trying to make him say he is of their politics and their way of thinking. Their way indeed! To confine it to Florence or Italy is to banish it from the sympathies of mankind. We read Paradise Lost as a poem but Dante's Comedy as a chronicle of o..
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divine-comedy
john-milton
paradise-lost
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Matthew Pearl |
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43fbff3
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Dante is the first Christian poet, the first one whose whole system of thought is colored by a pure Christian theology. But the poem comes nearer to us than this. It is there real history of a brother man, of a tempted, purified, and at last triumphant human soul; it teaches the benign ministry of sorrow. His is the first keel that ever ventured into the silent sea of human consciousness to find a new world of poetry. He held heartbreak at ..
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Matthew Pearl |
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eb9ff26
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Believe that when I am at once a man's friend I am always so-nor is it so very hard to bring me to it. And though a man may enjoy himself in being my enemy, he cannot make me HIS for longer than I wish. Good afternoon." Lowell had a way of leaving a conversation with the other person needing more from him."
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friendship
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Matthew Pearl |
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29e87d2
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When Christina would stop to examine an interesting insect or patch of moss, Gabriel would stand in an impatient pose and shrug, not seeing what was at all interesting about it. Sometimes when writing her children's lyrics she thought of Gabriel and Lizzie's son, had he lived, and what he might have grown into.
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Matthew Pearl |
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3c5763a
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I never fully realized how much a New England birth in itself was worth, but I am happy that that was my lot. I have felt it so keenly these last few days. Dear old New England, with all her sternness and uncompromising opinions; the home of all that is good and noble.
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Matthew Pearl |
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7004d36
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Lo giorno se n'andava" - Day was departing..." Dante slows his deliberation as he prepares to enter the infernal realms for the first time: "... e io sol uno" - "and only I alone..." -how lonely he felt! He has to say it three times! io, sol, uno... "m'apparecchiava a sostener la guerra, si del cammino e si de la pietate."
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loneliness-or-solitude
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Matthew Pearl |
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d3b75a8
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E. C. FERGINS
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Matthew Pearl |