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It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been more wonderful to miss it.
It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been more wonderful to miss it.
Let me make the superstitions of a nation and I care not who makes its laws or its songs either.
In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made School Boards.
The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.
I find that principles have no real force except when one is well fed.
When the doctrine of allegiance to party can utterly up-end a man's moral constitution and make a temporary fool of him besides, what excuse are you going to offer for preaching it, teaching it, extending it, perpetuating it? Shall you say, the best good of the country demands allegiance to party? Shall you also say it demands that a man kick his truth and his conscience into the gutter, and become a mouthing lunatic, besides?
Hardly a man in the world has an opinion upon morals, politics or religion which he got otherwise than through his associations and sympathies. Broadly speaking, there are none but corn-pone opinions. And broadly speaking, Corn-Pone stands for Self-Approval. Self-approval is acquired mainly from the approval of other people. The result is Conformity.
Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment.
Be good and you will be lonesome.
Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.