What you are lies with you. ...

What you are lies with you. If you are lazy, and accept your lot, you may live in it. If you are willing to work, you can write your name anywhere you choose, among the only ones who live beyond the grave in this world, the people who write books that help, make exquisite music, carve statues, paint pictures, and work for others. Never mind the calico dress, and the coarse shoes. Work at you books, and before long you will hear yesterday's tormentors boasting that they were once classmates of yours.
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 Gene Stratton-Porter

Quotes from the same author

There was an exquisitely beautiful conception in my brain when I did this piece of work all alone from midnight until morning after the experience of a wonderful day. But I was not able to make the consummation anywhere nearly as beautiful as the inspiration. That, I suppose, is the cry of every heart struggling for self-expression.
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 Gene Stratton-Porter
If you are lazy, and accept your lot, you may live in it. If you are willing to work, you can write your name anywhere you choose.
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 Gene Stratton-Porter
I know men and women. An honourable man is an honourable man, and a liar is a liar; both are born and not made. One cannot change to the other any more than that same old leopard can change its spots. After a man tells a woman the first untruth of that sort, the others come piling thick, fast, and mountain high.
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 Gene Stratton-Porter
Tears were a blessing; they were a relief; they did wash the ache from the heart, ease brain strain, and encourage the soul.
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 Gene Stratton-Porter
Be sure that you are right; and then go ahead.
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 Gene Stratton-Porter