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Mother
When you came into the world, she held you in her arms.
You thanked her by weeping your eyes out. |
| 2006-05-17 |
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Care your dream
My dream ended when I was born. Although I never knew it then, I just held on to something that would never come to pass. Dreams really do exist. |
| 2006-05-11 |
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Write your own life
Suppose someone gave you a pen - a sealed, solid-colored pen. You couldn't see how much ink it had. It might run dry after the first few tentative words or last just long enough to create a masterpiece (or several) that would last forever and make a difference in the scheme of things... |
| 2006-05-06 |
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If I were a boy again
If I were a boy again, I would practice perseverance more often, and never give up a thing because it was or inconvenient. If we want light, we must conquer darkness. Perseverance can sometimes equal genius in its results. "There are only two creatures," says a proverb, "Who can surmount the pyramids - the eagle and the snail." |
| 2006-05-03 |
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Smile
I was sure that I was to be killed. I became terribly nervous. I fumbled in my pockets to see if there were any cigarettes, which had escaped their search. I found one and because of my shaking hands, I could barely get it to my lips.... |
| 2006-04-29 |
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The color of friendship
Once upon a time the colors of the world started to quarrel. All claimed that they were the best. The most important. The most useful. The favorite. |
| 2006-04-25 |
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Essence of happiness
The notion that we have to work at happiness comes as news to many people. We assume it's a feeling that comes as a result of good things that just happen to us, things over which we have little or no control. But the opposite is true: happiness is largely under our control. It is a battle to be waged and not a feeling to be waited. |
| 2006-04-18 |
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Three passions I have lived for
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. |
| 2006-04-12 |
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Just for today
Just for today I will try to live through this day only and not tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do something for twelve hours that would appall me if I had to keep it up for a lifetime. |
| 2006-04-07 |
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Of studies
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment, and disposition of business. |
| 2006-04-04 |
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Spring
Springs are not always the same. In some years, April bursts upon Virginia hills in one prodigious leap - and all the stage is filled at once, whole choruses of tulips, arabesques of forsythia, cadenzas of flowering plum. The trees grow leaves overnight. |
| 2006-03-30 |
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Youth
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life. |
| 2006-03-28 |
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Love your life
However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. |
| 2006-03-22 |
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The Love Letter (III)
When I arrived I found her sitting on the stoep. She looked lonely and pathetic, and for the first time I wondered why no man had ever taken her and looked after her and loved her. |
| 2006-03-13 |
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The Love Letter (II)
I was always a little in awe of Great-aunt Stephina Roos. Indeed, as children we were all frankly terrified of her. |
| 2006-03-13 |
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