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I'm currently reading a biography of Lovecraft (I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft, Joshi) and happened upon this extract from one of Lovecraft's letters:
But later I realized that even success is empty. Failure though I be, I shall reach a level with the greatest - and the smallest - in the damp earth or on the funeral pyre. And I saw that in the interim trivialities are not to be despised. Success is a relative thing - and the victory of a boy at marbles is equal to the victory of an Octavius at Actium when measured by the scale of cosmic infinity... and he who is kind, helpful, and patient with his fellow sufferers, adds as truly to the world's combined fund of tranquility as he who, with greater endowments, promotes the birth of empires, or advances the knowledge of civilization and mankind.
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