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I myself must mix with action, lest I wither by despair. Thirteen virtues necessary for true success: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. To write is to become disinterested. There is a certain renunciation in art. I can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses. It's all how you look at it. If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention than to any other talent. There is a difference between imitating a good man and counterfeiting him. I don't think anyone is free - one creates one's own prison. Among the changing months, May stands confest The sweetest, and in fairest colors dressed. Hollywood is a place where people from Iowa mistake each other for movie stars. A feeling of sadness and longing that is not akin to pain, and resembles sorrow only as the mist resembles the rain. They talk of my drinking but never my thirst. Do not commit the error, common among the young, of assuming that if you cannot save the whole of mankind you have failed. Cadillacs are down at the end of the bat. Let the schools teach the nobility of labour and the beauty of human service: but the superstitions of ages past? Never! Gray hair is a sign of age, not of wisdom. If a person gives you his time, he can give you no more precious gift. Today, well lived, will prepare me for both the pleasure and the pain of tomorrow. Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall. If a man be self-controlled, truthful, wise, and resolute, is there aught that can stay out of reach of such a man? It is enough that I am of value to somebody today.
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