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Allow me to offer my congratulations on the truly admirable skill you have shown in keeping clear of the mark. Not to have hit once in so many trials, argues the most splendid talents for missing.

— Thomas De Quincey

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Failure

More quotes by Thomas De Quincey

Solitude, though silent as light, is, like light, the mightiest of agencies; for solitude is essential to man. All men come into this world alone; all leave it alone.

In many walks of life, a conscience is a more expensive encumbrance than a wife or a carriage.

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1822)

It is notorious that the memory strengthens as you lay burdens upon it, and becomes trustworthy as you trust it.

The laughter of girls is, and ever was, among the delightful sounds of earth.

Coleridge and Opium-Eating (1845)

Dyspepsy is the ruin of most things: empires, expeditions, and everything else.

Letter to Hessey (1823)

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A totalitarian state is in effect a theocracy, and its ruling caste, in order to keep its position, has to be thought of as infallible.

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Imagination is a force that can actually manifest a reality.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Thomas De Quincey (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.