The lofty oak from a small acorn grows.

The lofty oak from a small acorn grows.

The gem cannot be polished without friction, not a man perfected without trials.

The gem cannot be polished without friction, not a man perfected without trials.

Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow...

Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow...

He is of the race of the mushroom; he covers himself altogether
with his head.
[Lat., Fungino genere read more

He is of the race of the mushroom; he covers himself altogether
with his head.
[Lat., Fungino genere est; capite se totum tegit.]

He who moves not forward, goes backward

He who moves not forward, goes backward

When something (an affliction) happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.

When something (an affliction) happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.

It is not growing like a tree
In bulk, doth make man better be;
Or standing long read more

It is not growing like a tree
In bulk, doth make man better be;
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:
A lily of a day
Is fairer far in May,
Although it falls and die that night--
It was the plant and flower of Light.

Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.

Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.

"Oh! what a vile and abject thing is man unless he can erect
himself above humanity." Here is a read more

"Oh! what a vile and abject thing is man unless he can erect
himself above humanity." Here is a bon mot and a useful desire,
but equally absurd. For to make the handful bigger than the
hand, the armful bigger then the arm, and to hope to stride
further than the stretch of our legs, is impossible and
monstrous. . . . He may lift himself if God lend him His hand of
special grace; he may lift himself . . . by means wholly
celestial. It is for our Christian religion, and not for his
Stoic virtue, to pretend to this divine and miraculous
metamorphosis.