1907 in History
| Births in 1907 | Deaths in 1907 |
| Abraham J. Heschel | January 11 |
| Rachel Carson | May 27 |
| Robert A. Heinlein | July 7 |
| Quotes in 1907 |
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The supernatural is the natural not yet understood. Science is simply the classification of the common knowledge of the common people. It is bringing together the things we all know and putting them together so we can use them. This is creation and finds its analogy in Nature, where the elements are combined in certain ways to give us fruits or flowers or grain. This will never be a civilized country until we expend more money for books than we do for chewing gum.
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Obstacles are like wild animals, which are cowards but will bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them, if stand and hesitate, if you take your eyes from theirs, they are liable to spring upon you ; but if you do not flinch, if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight. There can be no failure to a man who has not lost his courage, his character, his self respect, or his self-confidence. He is still a king. This is the test of your manhood: How much is there left in you after you have lost everything outside of yourself? Difficulties flee before absolute fearlessness. Achievement is not always success, while reputed failure often is. It is honest endeavor, persistent effort to do the best possible under any and all circumstances. Many a man has finally succeeded only because he has failed after repeated efforts. If he had never met defeat he would never have known any great victory. There is only one thing for us to do, and that is to do our level best right where we are every day of our lives. To use our best judgment, and then to trust the rest to that Power which holds the forces of the universe in his hands. To many a man, and sometimes to a youth, there comes the opportunity to choose between honorable competence and tainted wealth. The young man who starts out to be poor and honorable, holds in his hand one of the strongest elements of success. There is no failure for the man who realizes his power, who never knows when he is beaten; there is no failure for the determined endeavor; the unconquerable will. There is no failure for the man who gets up every time he falls, who rebounds like a rubber ball, who persists when every one else gives up, who pushes on when every one else turns back. When we are sure that we are on the right road there is no need to plan our journey too far ahead. No need to burden ourselves with doubts and fears as to the obstacles that may bar our progress. We cannot take more than one step at a time.
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Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits. It works in the minutest crannies and it opens out the widest vistas. It "bakes no bread", as has been said, but it can inspire our souls with courage. First... a new theory is attacked as absurd; then it is admitted to be true, but obvious and insignificant; finally it is seen to be so important that its adversaries claim that they themselves discovered it. I myself believe that the evidence for God lies primarily in inner personal experiences. We have to be ready to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood. Our minds thus grow in spots; and like grease-spots, the spots spread. But we let them spread as little as possible: we keep unaltered as much of our old knowledge, as many of our old prejudices and beliefs, as we can. We patch and tinker more than we renew. The novelty soaks in; it stains the ancient mass; but it is also tinged by what absorbs it. Truth happens to an idea. It becomes true, is made true by events.
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Well done is better than well said.
