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  ...or so dear, but comes therefore commended to his pen,--and he will write. In his eyes, a man is the faculty of reporting, and the universe is the possibility of being reported. In conversation, in calamity, he finds new materials; as our German poet said, "some god gave me the power to paint what I suffer." He draws his rents from rage and pain. By acting rashly, he buys the power of talking wisely. Vexations, and a tempest of passion, only fill his sails; as the good Luther writes, When I am angry I can pray well and preach well.   " and if we knew the genesis of fine-strokes of eloquence, they might recall the complaisance of Sultan Amurath, who struck off some Persian heads, that his physician, Vesalius, might see the spasms in the muscles of the neck. His failures are the preparation of his victories. A new thought, or a crisis of passion, apprises him that all that he has yet learned and written is exoteric--is not the fact, but some rumor of the fact. What then? Does he throw away the pen? No; he begins again...   Luther, Martin

Excerpt from Representative Men · This quote is about anger · Search on Google Books to find all references and sources for this quotation.

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