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“No man is an island, entire of itself.”
Donne argues against imagining people as self-contained units; individual life is bound up with the lives of others.
Source note: Meditation XVII.
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“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
Friendship is treated as reciprocal practice rather than something one can demand without embodying it.
Source note: Essay “Friendship.”
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“Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.”
Shared effort can increase both practical results and resilience because responsibility does not rest on one person alone.
Source note: Ecclesiastes 4:9, King James Version.
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“What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?”
Voice: Fictional character · Dorothea Brooke
A meaningful life is connected with reducing other people’s burdens, making usefulness and care central rather than peripheral.
Source note: Middlemarch, Book VIII.
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“To err is human; to forgive, divine.”
Error is treated as ordinary human limitation, while forgiveness requires an additional act of generosity.
Source note: An Essay on Criticism, Part II; Pope warns that shallow learning can produce premature confidence before deeper study tempers judgment.
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“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
Voice: Fictional character · Countess of Roussillon
The advice combines generosity with judgment: goodwill can be broad while trust remains selective.
Source note: All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 1, Scene 1; the Countess gives Bertram compact advice about conduct before he leaves.