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Vicissitudes Quotes

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Vicissitudes Quotes

“And what is more melancholy than the old apple-trees that linger about the spot where once stood a homestead, but where there is now only a ruined chimney rising our of a grassy and weed-grown cellar? They offer their fruit to every wayfarer--apples that are bitter-sweet with the moral of times vicissitude.”

MoralTreeSweetOffersFruitBitterSpotsApplesRisingMelancholyWeedRuinedCellarsChimneysVicissitudesApple TreesBitter Sweet
Book:Mosses from an Old Manse
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“Positive self-esteem operates as, in effect, the immune system of the consciousness, providing resistance, strength, and a capacity for regeneration. When self-esteem is low, our resilience in the face of life's adversities is diminished. We crumble before vicissitudes that a healthier sense of self could vanquish. We tend to be more influenced by the desire to avoid pain than to experience joy. Negatives have more power over us than positives.”

SelfPainFacesJoyDesireConsciousnessSocietyEffectsSelf EsteemLowsCapacityAdversityResilienceResistanceEsteemProvidingImmuneSense Of SelfImmune SystemRegenerationVicissitudesVanquishPositive Self
Book:Power of Self Esteem
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“As the Deity has given us Greeks all other blessings in moderation, so our moderation gives us a kind of wisdom which is timid, in all likelihood, and fit for common people, not one which is kingly and splendid. This wisdom, such as it is, observing that human life is ever subject to all sorts of vicissitudes, forbids us to be puffed up by the good things we have, or to admire a man's felicity while there is still time for it to change.”

PeopleMenGivingHumansKindStillsLife IsGivenCommonSubjectsFitBlessingGood ThingsAdmireHuman LifeGreekModerationObservingDeitiesSplendidLikelihoodFelicityVicissitudes
Author:Solon
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“Humility consists of knowing that in this world the whole soul, not only what we term the ego in its totality, but also the supernatural part of the soul, which is God present in it, is subject to time and to the vicissitudes of change. There must be absolutely acceptance of the possibility that everything material in us should be destroyed. But we must simultaneously accept and repudiate the possibility that the supernatural part of the soul should disappear.”

WorldShouldSoulWholeTermAcceptingKnowingSubjectsPossibilityThis WorldAcceptanceHumilityMaterialsEgoDisappearDestroyedTotalityVicissitudes
Author:Simone Weil
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“The aspect of the venerable mansion has always affected me like a human countenance, bearing the traces not merely of outward storm and sunshine, but expressive also, of the long lapse of mortal life, and accompanying vicissitudes that have passed within. Were these to be worthily recounted, they would form a narrative of no small interest and instruction, and possessing, moreover, a certain remarkable unity, which might almost seem the result of artistic arrangement.”

HumansLongSeemsMightFormCertainInterestResultsAspectUnityStormMortalsArtisticNarrativeRemarkableSunshineAffectedInstructionArrangementsPossessingCountenanceMansionsExpressiveLapsesVicissitudes
Book:Complete Novels of Nathaniel Hawthorne (Illustrated Edition): Fanshawe, The Scarlet Letter with its Adaptation, The House of the Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance, The Marble Faun, The Dolliver Romance, Septimius Felton, Grimshawe's Secret and Biography
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“Art arises in those strange complexities of action that are called human beings. It is a kind of human behavior. As such it is not magic, except as human beings are magical. Nor is it concerned in absolutes, eternities, "forms," beyond those that may reside in the context of the human being and be subject to his vicissitudes. Art is not an inner state of consciousness, whatever that may mean. Neither is it essentially a supreme form of communication. Art is human behavior, and its values are contained in human behavior.”

HumansKindMayMeanArtStatesActionFormValuesHuman BeingsConsciousnessMagicSubjectsStrangeCommunicationBehaviorArt IsConcernedEternityAbsolutesSupremeAriseComplexityHuman BehaviorStates Of ConsciousnessVicissitudes
Author:Baker Brownell
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“Let it be our endeavour, let it be our task, to keep alight the torch of imperial patriotism, to hold fast the affection and the confidence of our kinsmen across the seas; so that in every vicissitude of fortune the British Empire may present an unbroken front to all her foes, and may carry on even to distant ages the glorious traditions of the British flag.”

MayAgeSeaFrontsTraditionTasksFortuneAffectionBritishGloriousEmpiresFlagsFoeTorchesEndeavourBritish EmpireUnbrokenHold FastVicissitudes
Book:Foreign & Colonial Speeches
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“Nietzsche ... argues that all that passes in the life of a society is ephemeral and banausic except for the presence of great personalities, of men like Goethe ... who seem to forge their own destinies, who seem to move unhampered by those burdens of existence which keep most men from rising above the vicissitudes of their daily toil.”

MenSeemsMovingExistenceDestinyPersonalityBurdenArguingRisingToilRise AboveEphemeralGreat PersonVicissitudesGreat Personality
Book:Break-Out from the Crystal Palace: The Anarcho-Psychological Critique: Stirner, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky
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“Nothing detains the reader's attention more powerfully than deep involutions of distress, or sudden vicissitudes of fortune; and these might be abundantly afforded by memoirs of the sons of literature. They are entangled by contracts which they know not how to fulfill, and obliged to write on subjects which they do not understand. Every publication is a new period of time, from which some increase or declension of fame is to be reckoned. The gradations of a hero's life are from battle to battle, and of an author's from book to book.”

KnowsWritingBookMightLiteratureAttentionSubjectsSonReaderHeroPeriodsBattleFameIncreaseFortuneMemoirContractsDistressObligedPublicationVicissitudes
Book:The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius
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“In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed, in the same proportion is the proletariat, the modern working class, developed - a class of labourers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital. These labourers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market.”

LongClassModernIncreaseSellsCompetitionProportionLabourArticlesExposedCommerceCommodityWorking ClassProletariatBourgeoisieFluctuationVicissitudesLabourers
Book:Karl Marx: Selected Writings
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“If we set out with... a scrupulous regard to the Constitution, the government will acquire a spirit and a tone productive of permanent blessings to the community. If on the contrary,... the Constitution is slighted, or explained away, upon every frivolous pretext, the future of government will be feeble, distracted and arbitrary. The rights of the subjects will be the sport of every party vicissitude. There will be no settled rule of conduct, but everything will fluctuate with the alternate prevalency of contending factions.”

IfsGovernmentSpiritSportsCommunityPartyRightsSubjectsBlessingConstitutionRegardContraryPermanentToneAcquireProductiveArbitraryDistractedFactionsFrivolousPretextVicissitudesContendingSlighted
Author:Alexander Hamilton
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“The death of a man's wife is like cutting down an ancient oak that has long shaded the family mansion. Henceforth the glare of the world, with its cares and vicissitudes falls upon the old widower's heart, and there is nothing to break their force, or shield him from the full weight of misfortune. It is as if his right hand were withered; as if one wing of his angel was broken, and every movement that he made brought him to the ground.”

IfsMenWorldHeartLongMadeHandsCareFallForceBreakCuttingWifeMovementBrokenAngelWeightWingsAncientMisfortunesShieldsOaksMansionsWitheredGlareVicissitudesFamily ManCutting DownWidowers
Author:Alphonse de Lamartine
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“The patriarchal, the Jewish, and the Christian dispensations, are evidently but the unfolding of one general plan. In the first we see the folded bud; in the second the expanded leaf; in the third the blossom and the fruit. And now, how sublime the idea of a religion thus commencing in the earliest dawn of time; holding on its way through all the revolutions of kingdoms and the vicissitudes of the race; receiving new forms, but always identical in spirit; and, finally, expanding and embracing in one great brotherhood the whole family of man! Who can doubt that such a religion was from God?”

MenWayFirstsIdeasWholeChristianFormSpiritRaceChristianityDoubtPlansRevolutionThirdsFruitKingdomsDawnBrotherhoodReceivingSublimeLeafsExpandingHolding OnIdenticalBudUnfoldingWhole FamilyVicissitudes
Book:Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity
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“Surely no man can reflect, without wonder upon the vicissitudes of human life arising from causes in the highest degree accidental and trifling. If you trace the necessary concatenation of human events a very little way back, you may perhaps discover that a person's very going in or out of a door has been the means of coloring with misery or happiness the remaining current of his life.”

IfsMenWayHumansMayMeanLittlesPersonsHas BeensCausesChanceWonderDoorsEventsDegreesHighestMiseryCurrentsHuman LifeTriflingVicissitudes
Author:Sir Fulke Greville
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“Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.”

CausesInterestOrdinaryEuropeConcernRelationPrimariesCombinationTiesEngagedArtificialControversyEnmityCollisionUnwiseVicissitudesFarewell Address
Book:Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States of America: Published in September, 1796
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“The first promise exchanged by two beings of flesh was at the foot of a rock that was crumbling into dust; they took as witness for their constancy a sky that is not the same for a single instant; everything changed in them and around them, and they believed their hearts free of vicissitudes. O children! always children!”

LoveFirstsHeartChildrenTwoTimeChangeFeetSkyRocksChangedPromiseFleshDustWitnessInstantThings ChangeConstancyChildren LoveCrumblingVicissitudes
Author:Denis Diderot
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“Which class is happiest, the rich, the middle class or the poor? A very successful executive of a large organization touches upon this vital subject in a long letter to all his salesmen. He uses as his text a passage from Robinson Crusoe which included this: ""My Father bid me observe it, and I should always find that the calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind; but that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and were not exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind.”

ShouldLongUseFatherPoorClassSuccessfulRichMiddleSubjectsMankindHigherLettersOrganizationDisasterMiddle ClassExecutivesStationsPassagesExposedCalamitySalesmanVicissitudesRobinson Crusoe
Author:B. C. Forbes
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“The vicissitudes of life resemble one of those gilded balls seen in a fountain. Thrown up by the force of the water, it flies up and down - now at the top, catching the rays of the sun, now cast into the depths, then again shooting up, sometimes so high that it escapes altogether, and falls to the ground.”

LifeSometimesFallForceWaterSunBallsDepthCastsShootingThrownRaysFountainUp And DownCatchingUps & DownsVicissitudesGildedShooting Up
Author:Lady Randolph Churchill
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“...And these vicissitudes come best in youth; For when they happen at a riper age, People are apt to blame the Fates, forsooth, And wonder Providence is not more sage. Adversity is the first path to truth: He who hath proved war, storm, or woman's rage, Whether his winters be eighteen or eighty, Has won experience which is deem'd so weighty.”

PeopleFirstsWarHappensTruthAgeWonderPathFateYouthAdversityBlameWinterStormRageProvidenceSageEightyEighteenVicissitudes
Book:DON JUAN
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“Discussing the attempts of Augustus' generals to add to the extent of the Roman Empire early in his reign: The northern countries of Europe scarcely deserved the expense and labour of conquest. The forests and morasses of Germany were filled with a hardy race of barbarians, who despised life when it was separated from freedom; and though, on the first attack, they seemed to yield to the weight of the Roman power, they soon, by a signal act of despair, regained their independence, and reminded Augustus of the vicissitude of fortune.”

FirstsCountryRaceDespairEuropeWeightIndependenceFilledAddFortuneForestsGermanyEmpiresLabourExpensesYieldReignSignalsConquestDespisedDiscussingBarbariansRoman EmpireHardyAugustusVicissitudes
Author:Edward Gibbon
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“He who accepts life for what it is and never allows himself to be overwhelmed by it does not need to seek refuge for his crushed self-confidence in the solace of a 'saving lie'. If the longed-for success is not forthcoming, if the vicissitudes of fate destroy in the twinkling of an eye what had to be painstakingly built up by years of hard work, then he simply multiplies his exertions. He can look disaster in the eye without despairing.”

IfsNeedsYearsLooksDoeSelfHardEyeLyingAcceptingFateHard WorkBuiltSelf ConfidenceDisasterSavingRefugeOverwhelmedCrushedSolaceExertionTwinklingVicissitudesForthcoming
Book:The free and prosperous commonwealth: an exposition of the ideas of classical liberalism
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“I can remember the times when I started including humor in novels that were suspenseful. I was told you can't do that because you can't keep the audience in suspense if they're laughing. My attitude was, if the character has a sense of humor, then that makes the character more real because that's how we deal with the vicissitudes of life, we deal with it through humor.”

IfsI CanRealCharacterRememberDealsAttitudeNovelAudienceLaughingIncludingSuspenseSense Of HumorMy AttitudeVicissitudes
Author:Dean Koontz
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“And I thought, eight years ago, when I began carefully charting the progress of American Gods, nervously dipping my toes into the waters of blogging, would I have imagined a future in which, instead of recording the vicissitudes of bringing a book into the world, I would be writing about not-even-interestingly missing cups of cold camomile tea? And I thought, yup. Sounds about right. Happy Eighth birthday, blog.”

WorldWritingYearsBookWould BeSoundWaterProgressMissingColdYears AgoEightCupsTeaToesBlogsBloggingVicissitudesAmerican GodsCharting
Author:Neil Gaiman
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“So you see that the process of education, taken in a large way, may be described as nothing but the process of acquiring ideas or conceptions, the best educated mind being the mind which has the largest stock of them, ready to meet the largest possible variety of the emergencies of life. The lack of education means only the failure to have acquired them, and the consequent liability to be 'floored' and 'rattled' in the vicissitudes of experience.”

WayMindMayMeanIdeasProcessTakenReadyEducatedVarietyConceptionEmergenciesLiabilityVicissitudesLack Of EducationEducated Mind
Book:Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals
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