Entire and perfect happiness is never
Vouchsafed to man; but nobler minds endeavor
To keep their inward sorrows unrevealed.
With meaner spirits nothing is concealed.
Weak, and unable to conform to fortune,
With rude rejoicing or complaint importune,
They vent their exultation or distress.
Whate'er betides us--grief or happiness--
The brave and wise will bear with steady mind,
The allotment, unforeseen and undefined,
Of good or evil, which the Gods bestow,
Promiscuously dealt to man below.
--_Theognis, Greek._
_Translated by Frere._
1356
Life will always be, to a large extent, what we ourselves make it. Each
mind makes its own little world. The cheerful mind makes it pleasant,
and the discontented mind makes it miserable. "My mind to me a kingdom
is" applies alike to the peasant as to the monarch.
1357
The face is the index of the mind.
--_Crabbe._
1358
It is not position, but mind, that I want, said a lady to her father,
when rejecting a suitor.
1359
Those who visit foreign countries, but who associate only with their own
countrymen, change their climate, but not their customs; they see new
meridians, but the same men, and with heads as empty as their pockets,
return home, with travelled bodies, but untravelled minds.
1360
Youthful minds, like the pliant wax, are susceptible of the most lasting
impressions, and the good or evil bias they then receive is seldom if
ever eradicated.
1361
Little minds are hurt by little things; great minds rise above them.
1362
Noblest minds are easiest bent.
--_Homer._
1363