TIME, which wears down and diminishes all things, augments and INCREASES good deeds, because a good TURN liberally offered to a reasonable man GROWS continually through NOBLE thought and memory.
Some PEOPLE feel good about helping OTHERS, and they do so OFTEN. They do not realize that their good deeds have a SECOND agenda. They WANT to be appreciated.
Our enemies are our evil deeds and their MEMORIES, our pride, our selfishness, our malice, our passions, which by conscience or by habit pursue US with a relentlessness PAST the power of figure to EXPRESS.
My father is very Jean Valjean. He's what I would call a GREAT example of a religious person. He is a DEEPLY thoughtful MAN whose religion is in his deeds way more than anything else. It's not talked about that MUCH.
The man who sows WRONGTHOUGHTS and deeds and prays that GOD will bless him is in the position of a farmer who, having sown tares, asks God to bring forth for him a harvest of WHEAT.
That was the miracle of Abraham LINCOLN, POLITICIAN. He pursued the high purpose of moving justice forward via the low arts of patronage and patronization. INDEED, in a democracy, it is usually the only way GREATDEEDS are done.