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Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself, and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is
no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise. -Marcus Aurelius, Mediations (2nd C.),
4.20, TR. Maxwell StaniforthImagination is more important than knowledge. --Albert Einstein

Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats
believe every day is April 15.
Ronald Reagan

XXI



So is it not with me as with that Muse,

Stirr'd by a painted beauty to his verse,

Who heaven itself for ornament doth use

And every fair with his fair doth rehearse,

Making a couplement of proud compare'

With sun and moon, with earth and sea's rich gems,

With April's first-born flowers, and all things rare,

That heaven's air in this huge rondure hems.

O! let me, true in love, but truly write,

And then believe me, my love is as fair

As any mother's child, though not so bright

As those gold candles fix'd in heaven's air:

  Let them say more that like of hearsay well;

  I will not praise that purpose not to sell.

 	--William Shakespeare