"Surely there is but one assumption wherewith nearly all thinkers have done their work—that is, the confession of the moral law: that there is a good, and that pure cruelty, mere hatred, and ingratitude, for example, are contrary thereto."

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More by Alice Meynell

“To mount a hill is to lift with you something lighter and brighter than yourself or than any meaner burden. You lift the world, you raise the horizon; you give a signal for the distance to stand up.”

“I run, I run, I am gathered to thy heart.”

“Men in cities look upward not much more than animals, and these—except the dog when he bays the moon—look skyward not at all.”

“Compassion in the highest degree is the divinest form of religion.”

“If there is a look of human eyes that tells of perpetual loneliness, so there is also the familiar look that is the sign of perpetual crowds.”

“Childhood is but change made gay and visible.”

Resonant Thoughts

"The United States is the only country with a known birthday. All the rest began, they know not when, and grew into power, they know not how. If there had been no Independence Day, England and America …"

— James G. Blaine

Politics1830–1893

#knowledge

"From triumph to downfall is but a step. I have seen a trifle decide the most important issues in the gravest affairs."

— Napoleon I of France

Politics1769–1821

#justice

"said he could not allow what I said; that either we were in a situation to receive the law or to give it; that he thought the latter was our case; that therefore it was our business to propose the ter…"

— William Pitt

Politics1708–1778

#justice

"To the people of New York, Paris, or London, "death" is a word that is never pronounced because it burns the lips. The Mexican, however, frequents it, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, cele…"

— Octavio Paz

poetry1914–1998

#humor