Life Is A Fragment, A Moment Between

It Is Chiefly Through Books That We Enjoy Intercourse With Superior Minds. In The Best Books, Great Men Talk To Us, Give Us Their Most Precious Thoughts, And Pour Their Souls Into Ours.

[peace] Is The Highest And Most Strenuous Act Of The Soul, But An Entirely Harmonious Act, In Which All Our Powers And Affections Are Blending In A Beautiful Proportion, And Sustain And Perfect One Another. It Is More Than The Silence After Storms. It Is As The Concord Of All Melodious Sounds ... An Alliance Of Love With All Beings, A Sympathy With All That Is Pure And Happy, A Surrender Of Every Separate Will And Interest, A Participation Of The Spirit And Life Of The Universe.... This Is Peace, And The True Happiness Of [humanity].

War Is To Be Ranked Among The Most Dreadful Calamities Which Fall On A Guilty World; And, What Deserves Consideration, It Tends To Multiply And Perpetuate Itself Without End. It Feeds And Grows On The Blood Which It Sheds. The Passions, From Which It Springs, Gain Strength And Fury From Indulgence.

Others Are Affected By What I Am, And Say, And Do. So That A Single Act Of Mine May Spread And Spread In Widening Circles, Through A Nation Or Humanity. Through My Vice I Intensify The Taint Of Vice Throughout The Universe. Through My Misery I Make Multitudes Sad. On The Other Hand, Every Development Of My Virtue Makes Me An Ampler Blessing To My Race. Every New Truth That I Gain Makes Me A Brighter Light To Humanity.

A General Loftiness Of Sentiment, Independence Of Men, Consciousness Of Good Intentions, Self-oblivion In Great Objects, Clear Views Of Futurity; Thoughts Of The Blessed Companionship Of Saints And Angels, Trust In God As The Friend Of Truth And Virtue,--these Are The States Of Mind In Which I Should Live.