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No architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect. Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together. Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless, peacocks and lilies for instance. The beauty of the animal form is in exact proportion to the amount of moral and intellectual virtue expressed by it. If a book is worth reading, it is worth buying. There is hardly anything in the world that some man can't make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey. To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education. When love and skill work together expect a masterpiece. No one can do me any good by loving me; I have more love than I need or could do any good with; but people do me good by making me love them - which isn't easy. The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most. When a man is wrapped up in himself he makes a pretty small package. Cheerfulness is as natural to the heart of man in strong health as color to his cheek; and wherever there is habitual gloom there must be either bad air, unwholesome food, improperly severe labor or erring habits of life. When I have been unhappy, I have heard an opera ... and it seemed the shrieking of winds; when I am happy, a sparrow's chirp is delicious to me. But it is not the chirp that makes me happy, but I that make it sweet. I know well that happiness is in little things. When men are rightly occupied, their amusement grows out of their work, as the color-petals out of a fruitful flower. There is no wealth but life. Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. When I have been unhappy, I have heard an opera ... and it seemed the shrieking of winds; when I am happy, a sparrow's chirp is delicious to me. But it is not the chirp that makes me happy, but I that make it sweet. Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us, snow is exhilarating; there is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall at last unveil. Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall at last unveil. When men are rightfully occupied, then their amusement grows out of their work as the color petals out of a fruitful garden. The weakest among us has a gift, however seemingly trivial, which is peculiar to him and which worthily used will be a gift also to his race. The greatest efforts of the race have always been traceable to the love of praise, as the greatest catastrophes to the love of pleasure. God gives us always strength enough, and sense enough, for everything He wants us to do. The highest reward for man's toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it. When men are rightly occupied, their amusement grows out of their work, as the color-petals out of a fruitful flower. When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece. God alone can finish. God alone can finish. Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty. All that is good in art is the expression of one soul talking to another; and is precious according to the greatness of the soul that utters it. Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. God gives us always strength enough, and sense enough, for everything He wants us to do. Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies, for instance. I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility. Shadows are in reality, when the sun is shining, the most conspicuous thing in a landscape, next to the highest lights. Sometimes gentle, sometimes capricious, sometimes awful, never the same for two moments together; almost human in its passions, almost spiritual in its tenderness, almost Divine in its infinity. Absolute and entire ugliness is rare. |