Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think

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C. Wells, 1836 - 493 pages

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Page 430 - They err, who count it glorious to subdue By conquest far and wide, to overrun Large countries, and in field great battles win, Great cities by assault: what do these worthies, But rob, and spoil, burn, slaughter, and enslave Peaceable nations...
Page 340 - And conceiving God to be the fountain of wisdom, I thought it right and necessary to solicit his assistance for obtaining it ; to this end I formed the following little prayer, which was prefixed to my tables of examination, for daily use.
Page 189 - And the children of Israel did so and gathered, some more, some less. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.
Page 364 - Liberty will not descend to a people, a people must raise themselves to liberty ; It is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.
Page 404 - Books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason ; — they made no such demand upon those who wrote them. Those Works, therefore, are the most valuable, that set our thinking faculties in the fullest operation. For as the solar light calls forth all the latent powers and dormant principles of vegetation contained in the kernel, but which, without...
Page xi - That writer does the most, who gives his reader the most knowledge, and takes from him the least time.
Page 310 - ... is there any principle in all nature more mysterious than the union of soul with body; by which a supposed spiritual substance acquires such an influence over a material one, that the most refined thought is able to actuate the grossest matter ? Were we empowered, by a secret wish, to remove mountains, or control the planets in their orbit ; this extensive authority would not be more extraordinary, nor more beyond our comprehension.
Page 103 - A Dervise was journeying alone in the desert, when two merchants suddenly met him. '' You have lost a camel," said he to the merchants. "Indeed we have," they replied. "Was he not blind in his right eye, and lame in his left leg?" said the Dervise. "He was,
Page 186 - It is with nations as with individuals, those who know the least of others, think the highest of themselves ; for the whole family of pride and ignorance are incestuous, and mutually beget each other.
Page 170 - A weak man in office, like a squirrel in a cage, is laboring eternally, but to no purpose, and in constant motion without getting on a jot; like a turnstile, he is in everybody's way, but stops nobody; he talks a great deal, but says very little; looks into everything, but sees into nothing; and has a hundred irons in the fire, but very few of them are hot, and with those few that are he only burns his fingers.

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