He who has talent in him must be purer in soul than anyone else. Another will be forgiven much, but to him it will not be forgiven. A man who leaves the house in bright, festive clothes needs only one drop of mud splashed from under a wheel, and people all surround him, point their fingers at him, and talk about his slovenliness, while the same people ignore many spots on other passers-by who are wearing everyday clothes. For on everyday clothes the spots do not show.

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I am who I am and that's who I am

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The longer and more carefully we look at a funny story, the sadder it becomes.

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Everywhere across whatever sorrows of which our life is woven, some radiant joy will gaily flash past.

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Perfect nonsense goes on in the world. Sometimes there is no plausibility at all

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Don't blame the mirror if your face is faulty

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In the end dreams became his life, and his whole life thereafter took a strange turn: one might say he slept while waking and watched while asleep.

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We have the marvelous gift of making everything insignificant.

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Always think of what is useful and not what is beautiful. Beauty will come of its own accord.

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The current generation now sees everything clearly, it marvels at the errors, it laughs at the folly of its ancestors, not seeing that this chronicle is all overscored by divine fire, that every letter of it cries out, that from everywhere the piercing finger is pointed at it, at this current generation; but the current generation laughs and presumptuously, proudly begins a series of new errors, at which their descendants will also laugh afterwards.

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