[Illustration: EDWIN MARKHAM
_Come, let us live the poetry we sing._
]
THOUGHTS
Selected from the Writings of
Favorite Authors
BY
Ladies of Fabiola Hospital Association
Oakland, California
[Illustration]
NEW YORK:
DODGE PUBLISHING COMPANY
53 and 55 Fifth Avenue
The Compilers acknowledge with grateful thanks the courtesy of Messrs.
Houghton, Mifflin and Company; Dodd, Mead and Company (for selections
from Hamilton Wright Mabie’s “Before My Library Fire,” “In the
Forest of Arden,” and other publications); Little, Brown and Company
(selections from Lilian Whiting’s “From Dreamland Sent,” “The World
Beautiful,” First, Second and Third Series, and other publications),
and others in allowing insertion of selections from works of which they
own the copyright.
[Thoughts. 4]
Copyrighted, 1901,
by
JESSIE K. FREEMAN and SARAH S. B. YULE.
The pleasantest things in the world are pleasant thoughts, and the
great art in life is to have as many of them as possible.--_Bovée._
To get peace, if you do want it, make for yourselves nests of pleasant
thoughts. None of us yet knows, for none of us has been taught in early
youth, what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thoughts--proof
against all adversity. Bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble
histories, faithful sayings, treasure-houses of precious and restful
thoughts, which care cannot disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty
take away from us--houses built without hands for our souls to live
in.--_Ruskin._
I saw the mountains stand
Silent, wonderful, and grand,
Looking out across the land
When the golden light was falling
On distant dome and spire;
And I heard a low voice calling,
“Come up higher, come up higher,
From the lowland and the mire,
From the mist of earth desire,
From the vain pursuit of pelf,
From the attitude of self;
Come up higher, come up higher.”
--_James G. Clarke._
The thrift of time will repay in after life with usury of profit
beyond your most sanguine dreams, and waste of it will make you
dwindle alike in intellectual and moral stature beyond your darkest
reckoning.--_Gladstone._
Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear
three--all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to
have.--_Edward Everett Hale._
Age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself, though in another dress;
And as the evening twilight fades away
The sky is filled with stars invisible by day.
--_Longfellow._
If there is any person to whom you feel dislike, that is the person of
whom you ought never to speak.--_R. Cecil._
The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what
direction we are moving.--_Oliver Wendell Holmes._
In nature there is no blemish but the mind;--none can be called
deformed but the unkind.--_Shakespeare._
“You never can tell what your thoughts will do,
In bringing you hate or love;
For thoughts are things, and their airy wings
Are swifter than carrier doves.
They follow the law of the universe,--
Each thing must create its kind;
And they speed o’er the track to bring you back
Whatever went out from your mind.”
Do the duty which lies nearest thee, which thou knowest to be a duty.
Thy second duty will already have become clearer.--_Carlyle._
We need a revival of the individual. The question is not, What are they
doing?--but, What am I doing? Not, Why do you not do this, that, or
the other?--but, Why am not I doing this, that, or the other?--_Jenkin
Lloyd Jones._
That man is blessed who every day is permitted to behold anything so
pure and serene as the western sky at sunset, while revolutions vex the
world.--_Henry D. Thoreau._
There’s life alone in duty done,
And rest alone in striving.
--_Whittier._
It is a matter of economy to be happy, to view life and all its
conditions from the brightest angle; it enables one to seize life at
its very best. It expands the soul.--_H. W. Dresser._
To educate the heart, one must be willing to go out of himself, and to
come into loving contact with Others.--_James Freeman Clarke._
Associate reverently, and as much as you can, with your loftiest
thought.--_Henry D. Thoreau._
This question then is ours--are we doing our part in the growth of the
race? In the current of life are we moving forward? Do our years mark
milestones in humanity’s struggle towards perfection? Is the God within
us so much more unrolled, when our development has reached its highest
point? Can we transmit to our children a better heritage of brain and
soul than our fathers left to us? Has the race through us gained some
little in the direction of the law of love? If we have done our part in
this struggle our lives have not been in vain.--_David Starr Jordan._
Virgil said of the winning crew in his boat-race, “They can, because
they believe they can.”
Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to
bear are those which never come.--_Lowell._
To be wise we must first learn to be happy: for those who can finally
issue forth from self by the portal of happiness, know infinitely wider
freedom than those who pass through the gate of sadness.--_Maurice
Materlinck._
When we humor our weaknesses they force themselves continually upon
our attention, like spoiled children. When we assert our mastery of
ourselves and compel its recognition, we stand secure in our sovereign
rights.--_Chas. B. Newcomb._
Put away all sarcasm from your speech. Never complain. Do not prophesy
evil. Have a good word for everyone, or else keep silent.--_Henry Ward
Beecher._
Boys flying kites haul in their white winged birds,
You can’t do that way when you’re flying words.
Thoughts unexpressed may sometimes fall back dead,
But God himself can’t stop them when they’re said.
--_Will Carleton._
Mould conditions aright, and men will grow good to fit them.--_Horace
Fletcher._
Pride
Is littleness; he who feels contempt
For any living thing hath faculties
Which he has never used.
--_Wordsworth._
Treat your friends for what you know them to be. Regard no surfaces.
Consider not what they did, but what they intended.--_Henry D. Thoreau._
Small kindnesses, small courtesies, small considerations,
habitually practiced in our social intercourse, give a greater
charm to the character than the display of great talent and
accomplishments.--_Kelty._
I believe that the mind can be profaned by the habit of attending
to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with
triviality.--_Henry D. Thoreau._
Don’t hang a dismal picture on the wall, and do not daub with sables
and glooms in your conversation. Don’t be a cynic and disconsolate
preacher.--_Emerson._
No good thing is failure and no evil thing success.--_W. C. Gannett’s
favorite proverb._
Wisdom is knowing what to do next;
Skill is knowing how to do it, and Virtue is doing it.
--_David Starr Jordan._
Always laugh when you can; it is a cheap medicine. Merriment
is a philosophy not well understood. It is the sunny side of
existence.--_Byron._
If we are not responsible for the thoughts that pass our doors, we are
at least responsible for those we admit and entertain.--_Charles B.
Newcomb._
Not for the crying,
Not for the loud beseeching
Will peace draw near.
Rest with palms folded,
Rest with thine eyelids fallen,
Lo! peace is here.
--_E. R. Sill._
Would you remain always young, and would you carry all joy and buoyancy
of youth into your maturer years? Then have care concerning but one
thing--how you live in your thought world.--_R. W. Trine._
Lord, for to-morrow and its needs
I do not pray,
Help me from stain of sin
Just for to-day.
Let me both diligently work
And duly pray,
Let me be kind in word and deed
Just for to-day.
Let me be slow to do my will,
Prompt to obey,
Help me to sacrifice myself
Just for to-day.
Let me no wrong or idle word
Unthinking say,
Put Thou Thy seal upon my lips
Just for to-day.
So for to-morrow and its needs
I do not pray,
But keep me, guide me, hold me, Lord,
Just for to-day.
--_Canon Farrar._
To live in love is to live an everlasting youth. Whoever enters old age
by this royal road will find the last of life to be the very best of
life. Instead of finding himself descending the hills of life, he will
find it up-hill all the way, into clearer air. There the vision reaches
further; here the sunsets are more golden and the twilight lasts
longer.--_Mrs. Mary A. Livermore._
Those who live on the mountain have a longer day than those who live
in the valley. Sometimes all we need to brighten our day is to rise a
little higher.--_Rev. S. J. Barrows._
Good luck is the willing handmaid of upright, energetic character, and
conscientious observance of duty.--_James Russell Lowell._
The highest compact we can make with our fellow is, let there be truth
between us two forevermore.--_Emerson._
Unfaithfulness in the keeping of an appointment is an act of
clear dishonesty. You may as well borrow a person’s money as his
time.--_Horace Mann._
All service ranks the same with God--
There is no last nor first.
--_Browning._
Logic makes only one demand, that of conscience. But life makes a
thousand. The body wants health; the imagination cries out for beauty;
and the heart for love. Pride asks for consideration; the soul yearns
for peace; the conscience for holiness; our whole being is athirst for
happiness and for perfection.--_Amiel._
What if it does look like rain, it is fine now!--_William Smith._
Was there ever a wiser or more loving conspiracy than that which
keeps the venerable figure of Santa Claus from slipping away, with
all the other old-time myths, into the forsaken wonderland of the
past?--_Hamilton Wright Mabie._
Mankind are always happier for having been happy. So that if you make
them happy now, you make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of
it.--_Sydney Smith._
Never fancy you could be something if only you had a different lot and
sphere assigned you. The very things that you most deprecate, as fatal
limitations or obstructions, are probably what you most want. What
you call hindrances, obstacles, discouragements, are probably God’s
opportunities.--_Horace Bushnell._
Who may not strive, may yet fulfil
The harder task of standing still,
And good but wished, with God is done.
--_Whittier._
Happiness and the sense of victory are only for those who live for
conscience and duty and the soul’s higher ideals.--_Newell Dwight
Hillis._
“Try this for one day:--Think as though your thoughts were visible to
all about you.”
The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows whither he is
going.--_David Starr Jordan._
Beware lest thy friend learn to tolerate one frailty of thine, and so
an obstacle be raised to the progress of thy love.--_Thoreau._
As soon as a stranger is introduced into any company, one of the first
questions which all wish to have answered, is, How does that man get
his living? And with reason; every man is a consumer, and ought to
be a producer. He fails to make his place good in the world unless
he not only pays his debts but also adds something to the common
wealth.--_Emerson._
All impatience disturbs the circulation, scatters force, makes
concentration difficult if not impossible.--_C. B. Newcomb._
When the sun of joy is hidden
And the sky is overcast,
Just remember light is coming
And a storm can never last.
--_J. B. Smiley._
There is no music in a rest, that I know of, but there is the making of
music in it.--_Ruskin._
Our lives are songs;
God writes the words,
And we set them to music at leisure:
And the song is sad, or the song is glad
As we choose to fashion the measure.
We must write the song,
Whatever the words,
Whatever its rhyme, or meter;
And if it is sad, we must make it glad,
And if sweet, we must make it sweeter.
--_Gibbon._
For what you find in these sweet days,
Depends on how you go about it;
A glad heart helps poor eyes to see,
What brightest eyes can’t see without it.
One child sees sunlit air and sky
And bursting leaf buds, round and ruddy;
Another looks at his own feet,
And only sees that it is muddy!
--_Henrietta R. Eliot._
The work of the world is done by few;
God asks that a part be done by you.
--_Sarah K. Bolton._
This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and
government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not
perish from the earth.--_Abraham Lincoln._
We are haunted by an ideal life, and it is because we have within us
the beginning and the possibility of it.--_Phillips Brooks._
Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God.
--_E. B. Browning._
Thoughts are forces: through their instrumentality we have in our
grasp, and as our rightful heritage, the power of making life and all
its manifold conditions exactly what we will.--_R. W. Trine._
People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a
confession of character.--_Emerson._
[Illustration: HORATIO STEBBINS
_The understanding is the vestibule of the mind! Uncover thy
head, and enter the temple of the soul! Behold the power, the
beauty and the love! If we had nothing but understanding, how
little should we know or think or feel!_]
Blessed are the Happiness Makers. Blessed are they who know how to
shine on one’s gloom with their cheer.--_Henry Ward Beecher._
The time will come when the civilized man will feel that the rights of
every living creature on the earth are as sacred as his own. Anything
short of this cannot be perfect civilization.--_David Starr Jordan._
Search thine own heart. What paineth thee
In others, in thyself may be;
All dust is frail, all flesh is weak;
Be thou the true man thou dost seek.
--_Whittier._
Beware of despairing about yourself.--_St. Augustine._
If you were born to honor, show it now:
If put upon you, make the judgment good
That thought you worthy of it.
--_Shakespeare._
Then a voice within his breast
Whispered, audible and clear:
“Do thy duty; that is best;
Leave unto the Lord the rest!”
--_Longfellow._
“There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave,
There are souls that are pure and true;
Then give to the world the best you have,
And the best will come to you.
Give love, and love to your heart will flow,
A strength in your utmost need;
Have faith, and a score of hearts will show
Their faith in your word and deed.”
Fortune will call at the smiling gate.--_Japanese Proverb._
“Talk health; the dreary never-ending tale
Of mortal maladies is worn and stale.
You cannot charm or interest or please
By harping on that minor chord, disease.
Say you are well, or all is well with you
And God shall hear your words and make them true.”
Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil,
but that you have increased a habit.--_Epictetus._
How true it is that what we really see day by day depends less on the
objects and scenes before our eyes than on the eyes themselves and the
minds and hearts that use them.--_F. D. Huntington._
You have not fulfilled every duty, unless you have fulfilled that of
being pleasant.--_Charles Buxton._
If I am not for myself who will be for me? But if I am for myself alone
what am I? If not now--when?--_Hillel._
I asked the New Year for some motto sweet,
Some rule of life by which to guide my feet;
I asked and paused. It answered, soft and low:
“God’s will to know.”
“Will knowledge then suffice, New Year?” I cried;
But ere the question into silence died,
The answer came: “Nay; this remember, too,
God’s will to do.”
“To know; to do; can this be all we give
To Him in Whom we are, and move and live?
No more, New Year?” “This, too, must be your care:
God’s will to bear.”
Once more I asked: “Is there still more to tell?”
And once again the answer sweetly fell;
“Yea, this one thing, all other things above;
God’s will to love.”
--_J. M. C. Bouchard, S. J._
Shun idleness, it is the rust that attaches itself to the most
brilliant metals.--_Voltaire._
Few men suspect how much mere talk fritters away spiritual energy--that
which should be spent in action, spends itself in words. Hence he who
restrains that love of talk lays up a fund of spiritual strength.--_F.
W. Robertson._
Truthfulness is the foundation of all personal excellence. It exhibits
itself in conduct. It is rectitude, truth in action, and shines through
every word and deed.--_Samuel Smiles._
The cry of the age is more for fraternity than for charity. If
one exists, the other will follow, or better still, will not be
needed.--_Dr. Henry D. Chapin._
There is philosophy as well as philanthropy in the keeping in touch
with all sweetness and love, in the being swift to be kind. This is
living on the spiritual plane, and spirituality is power.--_Lilian
Whiting._
Manners are the happy ways of doing things. If they are superficial,
so are the dewdrops, which give such a depth to the morning
meadows.--_Emerson._
Being all fashioned of the self-same dust,
Let us be merciful as well as just.
--_Longfellow._
“The man who never makes mistakes loses a great many chances to learn
something.”
Why should a true and sincere appreciation be termed flattery, and
degraded to the level of insincere praise? Why should an individual
be accused of acting from base and selfish policy because he feels
the glow and warmth of social response?--_The World Beautiful, Lilian
Whiting._
Our power over others lies not so much in the amount of thought within
us as in the power of bringing it out.--_W. E. Channing._
Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each
other’s eyes for an instant?--_Thoreau._
Why should we wear black for the guests of God?--_Ruskin._
I always seek the good that is in people and leave the bad to Him who
made mankind and knows how to round off the corners.--_Goethe’s Mother._
I am not concerned that I have no place,
I am concerned how I may fit myself for one.
I am not concerned that I am not known,
I seek to be worthy to be known.
--_Confucius._
The sunrise never failed us yet.--_Celia Thaxter._
Don’t bewail and bemoan. Omit the negative propositions. Nerve us with
incessant affirmations. Don’t waste yourself in rejection, nor bark
against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.--_Emerson._
How the sting of poverty, or small means, is gone when one keeps
house for one’s own comfort, and not for the comfort of one’s
neighbors.--_Dinah Maria Mulock._
Culture is not an accident of birth, although our surroundings advance
or retard it; it is always a matter of individual education.--_Hamilton
W. Mabie._
No man need hunt for his mission. His mission comes to him. It is not
above, it is not below, it is not far--not to make happy human faces
now and then among the children of misery, but to keep happy human
faces about us all the time.--_J. F. W. Ware._
God’s best gift to us is not things, but opportunities.--_Alice W.
Rollins._
Whoever will prosper in any line of life must save his own time and do
his own thinking. He must spend neither time nor money which he has not
earned.--_David Starr Jordan._
I pray you, O excellent wife, not to cumber yourself and me to get a
rich dinner for this man or this woman who has alighted at our gate,
nor a bed-chamber made ready at too great a cost. These things they
can get for a dollar at any village. But let this stranger, if he
will, in your looks, in your accent, and behavior, read your heart and
earnestness, your thought and will, which he cannot buy at any price in
any village or city, and which he may well travel fifty miles and dine
sparely and sleep hard in order to behold. Certainly, let the board be
spread and let the bed be dressed for the traveler; but let not the
emphasis of hospitality lie in these things. Honor to the house where
they are simple to the verge of hardship, so that there the intellect
is awake and reads the laws of the Universe.--_Emerson._
[Illustration: JOHN VANCE CHENEY
_The happiest heart that ever beat
Was in some quiet breast,
That found the common daylight sweet
And left to heaven the rest._]
“The secret of the joy of living is the proper appreciation of what we
actually possess.”
So then believe that every bird that sings,
And every flower that stars the elastic sod,
And every thought the happy summer brings
To the pure spirit is a word of God.--_Coleridge._
Thrust an Emerson into any Concord, and his pungent presence will
penetrate the entire region. Soon all who come within the radius of
his life respond to his presence as flowers and trees respond with
boughs, brilliant and fragrant, to the sunshine. After a little, each
Emerson stands girt about with Hawthornes, Whittiers, Holmeses and
Lowells.--_Newell Dwight Hillis._
Make it your habit not to be critical about small things.--_Edward
Everett Hale._
The nobler life is just as possible to us all as that which is ignoble.
The moment one will assert his freedom from petty cares, perplexities,
troubles, and anxieties, that moment they fall off of themselves.--_A
Study of Mrs. Browning, Lilian Whiting._
He approaches nearest to the gods who knows how to be silent even
though he knows he is in the right.--_Cato._
Ah! let us hope that to our praise
Good God not only reckons
The moments when we tread His ways,
But when the spirit beckons--
That some slight good is also wrought
Beyond self-satisfaction,
When we are simply good in thought,
Howe’er we fail in action.
--_Lowell._
We need only obey. There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly
listening, we shall hear the right word.--_Emerson._
When a man has not a good reason for doing a thing, he has one reason
for letting it alone.--_Sir Walter Scott._
Pure religion as taught by Jesus Christ is a life, a growth, a divine
spirit within, coming out in love and sympathy and helpfulness to our
fellow-men.--_Dr. H. W. Thomas._
Be sure of the foundation of your life. Know why you live as you do. Be
ready to give a reason for it. Do not, in such a matter as life, build
on opinion or custom, or what you guess is true. Make it a matter of
certainty and science.--_Thomas Starr King._
Nothing raises the price of a blessing like its removal; whereas, it
was its continuance which should have taught us its value.--_Hannah
More._
The soul occupied with great ideas, best performs small duties.--_James
Martineau._
Christianity wants nothing so much in the world as sunny people, and
the old are hungrier for love than for bread. The Oil of Joy is very
cheap, and if you can help the poor with a Garment of Praise, it will
be better for them than blankets.--_Drummond._
You will find it less easy to uproot faults than to choke them by
gaining virtues. Do not think of your faults, still less of others’
faults. In every person who comes near you look for what is good and
strong; honor that; rejoice in it; and as you can, try to imitate
it; and your faults will drop off like dead leaves, when their time
comes.--_Ruskin._
When you hold persistently to the successful mental state, you become a
magnet drawing other people to aid you as you in return can aid them.
But if you are much of the time despondent and gloomy, you become the
negative magnet driving the best from you.--_Prentice Mulford._
There are two days about which nobody should ever worry, and these are
yesterday and to-morrow.--_Robert J. Burdette._
A child, however educated, is still untaught if by his teaching we have
not emphasized his individual character, if we have not strengthened
his will and its guide and guardian, the mind.--_David Starr Jordan._
“I am only a child who is lying
On the bosom of Infinite Love.
I speak not of living or dying;
I know not of sorrow or crying;
My thoughts are dwelling above.
“The spring of the life that is flowing
Is hidden with Christ in God.
Not yet the mystery knowing,
I feel that the peace is growing,
As a river grows deep and broad.
“All I need without price I am buying
By my trust in the Goodness above.
There’s an end to my yearning and sighing,
For just like a child I am lying
On the bosom of Infinite Love.”
The optimist, by his superior wisdom and insight, is making his own
heaven, and in the degree that he makes his own heaven, is he helping
to make one for all the world beside.--_R. W. Trine._
Do not let your head run upon that which is none of your own, but pick
out some of the best of your circumstances, and consider how eagerly
you would wish for them, were they not in your possession.--_Marcus
Aurelius._
Insist on your self; never imitate. There is at this moment for you an
utterance brave and grand as that of the colossal chisel of Phidias, or
the pen of Moses or Dante, but different from these. If you can hear
what these patriarchs say, surely you can reply to them in the same
pitch of voice.--_Emerson._
Just because there’s fallen
A snow-flake on his forehead,
He must go and fancy
’Tis winter all the year!
--_Aldrich._
How poor they are that have not patience.--_Shakespeare._
O God, animate us to cheerfulness! May we have a joyful sense of our
blessings, learn to look on the bright circumstances of our lot, and
maintain a perpetual contentedness.--_W. E. Channing._
Thy love shall chant its own beatitudes
After its own self-working. A child’s kiss
Set on the sighing lips shall make thee glad;
A poor man served by thee shall make thee rich;
A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong;
Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense
Of service which thou renderest.
--_E. B. Browning._
“Then take this honey for the bitterest cup;
There is no failure, save in giving up;
No real fall so long as one still tries,
For seeming setbacks make the strong man wise.
There’s no defeat, in truth, save from within;
Unless you’re beaten there, you’re bound to win.”
A crowd of troubles passed him by
As he with courage waited;
He said, “Where do you troubles fly
When you are thus belated?”
“We go,” they say, “to those who mope,
Who look on life dejected,
Who weakly say ‘good-bye’ to hope,
We go where we’re expected.”
--_Francis J. Allison._
“Bring me men to match my mountains,
Bring me men to match my plains;
Men with empires in their purpose
And new eras in their brains.”
“Who will remember that skies are gray
If he carries a happy heart all day?”
A man is specially and divinely fortunate, not when his conditions
are easy, but when they evoke the very best that is in him; when they
provoke him to nobleness, and sting him to strength, when they clear
his vision, kindle his enthusiasm and inspire his will.--_Hamilton
Wright Mabie._
The deeper the feeling the less demonstrative will be the expression of
it.--_Balzac._
The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. If he
knows I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward.--_H. D.
Thoreau._
“Live blameless; God is near.”--_Inscribed over the door of the house
of Linnæus, at Hammerby, Sweden._
It is always good to know, if only in passing, charming human beings.
It refreshes one like flowers and woods and clear brooks.--_George
Eliot._
Do not discharge in haste the arrow which can never return: it is easy
to destroy happiness; most difficult to restore it.--_Herder._
Disappointment should always be taken as a stimulant, and never viewed
as a discouragement.--_C. B. Newcomb._
In all the crowded Universe
There is but one stupendous word: Love.
There is no tree that rears its crest,
No fern or flower that cleaves the sod
Nor bird that sings above its nest,
But tries to speak this word of God.
--_J. G. Holland._
He who has a thousand friends has not one friend to spare,
And he who has one enemy shall meet him everywhere.
--_From the Arabic._
It is a great folly not to part with your own faults, which is
possible, but to try instead to escape from other people’s faults, which
is impossible.--_Marcus Aurelius._
“To persuade one soul to lead a better life is to leave the world
better than you found it.”
If you intend to be happy, don’t be foolish enough to wait for a just
cause.--_Chap-Book._
Don’t borrow a creed from other people,
Nor hang most faith on the stoutest steeple.
Look up for your law, but oh! look higher
Than the hands on any human spire.
If ten think alike, and you think alone,
That never proves ’tis ten to one
They are right, you wrong; for truth, you see,
Is not a thing of majority.
It never can make you false, them true,
That there’s more of them than there is of you:
If your touch is on Truth’s garment’s hem,
There is more of you than a world of them.
’Tis not alone in the Orient region
That a certain hero’s name is Legion.
Nor was it only for once to be
That the whole herd together ran down to the sea.
Your zenith for no man else is true:
Your beam from the sun comes alone to you.
And the thought the great God gave your brain
Is your own for the world, or the world’s in vain.
--_Edward Rowland Sill._
Discontent is want of self-reliance: it is infirmity of
will.--_Emerson._
“He that brings sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from
himself.”
Give us, oh, give us, the man who sings at his work! Be his occupation
what it may, he is equal to any of those who follow the same pursuit
in silent sullenness. He does more in the same time--he will do it
better--he will persevere longer.--_Carlyle._
Set about what thou intendest to do: the beginning is half the
battle.--_Cæsar._
By the street of By-and-By, one arrives at the house of
Never.--_Cervantes._
No wind serves him who has no destined port.--_Montaigne._
Be sure you give men the best of your wares though they be poor
enough; and the gods will help you to lay by a better store for the
future.--_Henry D. Thoreau._
Reading is indeed to the mind as food is to the body--the material of
which its fibre is made. It is surprising to note the difference in the
quality of mental thought which even one-half hour’s good reading each
day will make.--_Lilian Whiting._
Men are four:
He who knows, and knows he knows,--
He is wise--follow him.
He who knows, and knows not he knows,--
He is asleep--wake him:--
He who knows not, and knows not he knows not,--
He is a fool--shun him.
He who knows not, and knows he knows not,--
He is a child--teach him.
--_Arabian Proverb._
Cherish ideals as the traveler cherishes the north star, and keep the
guiding light pure and bright and high above the horizon.--_Newell
Dwight Hillis._
The days come and go like muffled and veiled figures sent from a
distant friendly party; but they say nothing, and if we do not use the
gifts they bring, they carry them as silently away.--_Emerson._
’Tis not in seeking,
’Tis not in endless striving,
Thy quest is found.
Be still and listen,
Be still and drink the quiet
Of all around.
--_E. R. Sill._
To keep one’s foot firmly set in the way that leads upwards, however
dark and thorny it may be at the moment, is to conquer.--_The World
Beautiful, Lilian Whiting._
And daily, hourly, loving and giving
In the poorest life makes heavenly living.
--_Rose Terry Cooke._
To love is the great glory, the last culture, the highest happiness; to
be loved is little in comparison.--_The Story of William and Lucy Smith,
George S. Merriam._
To persevere in one’s duty, and to be silent, is the best answer to
calumny.--_Washington._
I have lived to know that the secret of happiness is never to allow
your energies to stagnate.--_Adam Clarke._
Entertaining is the finest of all the fine arts, and it cannot be done
by proxy. It cannot be done by the cook, nor yet by the decorator. Let
the hostess give her guests her personal interest, her sympathetic
comprehension, and she will have then mastered the delicate and subtle
art.--_Lilian Whiting._
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at
all.--_Henry D. Thoreau._
I am primarily engaged to myself to be a public servant to all
the gods, to demonstrate to all men that there is a good will and
intelligence at the heart of things, and ever higher and yet higher
leadings.--_Emerson._
Be noble, and the nobleness that lies
In other men, sleeping, but never dead,
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own;
Then shalt thou see it gleam in many eyes,
Then will pure light about thy way be shed.
--_Lowell._
Few causes age the body faster than wilful indolence and monotony of
mind--the mind, that very principle of physical youthfulness.--_James
Lane Allen._
“To speak wisely may not always be easy, but not to speak ill requires
only silence.”
If you have not slept, or if you have slept, or if you have a headache,
or sciatica, or leprosy, or thunder stroke, I beseech you by all the
angels to hold your peace, and not pollute the morning, to which all
the housemates bring serene and pleasant thoughts, by corruptions and
groans.--_Emerson._
“‘Downward the path of life!’ Oh, no!
Up, up, with patient steps, I go;
I watch the skies fast brightening there;
I breathe a sweeter, purer air.”
Happiness rarely is absent. It is we that know not of its presence.
The greatest felicity avails us nothing if we know not that we are
happy.--_Maurice Materlinck._
There is no good in life but love--but love!
What else looks good, is some shade flung from love;
Love gilds it, gives it worth.
--_Robert Browning._
[Illustration: Oliver Wendell Holmes
_The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as
in what direction we are moving._]
Instead of a gem, or even a flower, cast the gift of a lovely thought
into the heart of a friend.--_Geo. Macdonald._
Be satisfied with nothing but your best.--_Edward Rowland Sill._
Do not think it wasted time to submit yourself to any influence that
will bring upon you any noble feeling.--_Ruskin._
Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do
that day, which must be done whether you like it or not. Being forced
to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you ... a hundred
virtues which the idle never know.--_Charles Kingsley._
Foresight is very wise, but foresorrow is very foolish; and castles
are, at any rate, better than dungeons in the air.--_Sir John Lubbock._
It requires a sterner virtue than good nature to hold fast the truth,
that it is nobler to be shabby and honest, than to do things handsomely
in debt.--_Juliana H. Ewing._
“Drop the subject when you cannot agree; there is no need to be bitter
because you know you are right.”
It is not only a part of the wisdom of happiness, but it is absolutely
essential to the conditions of any true work in the world, to so
live that one may not be too greatly affected by the attitude of
other people. A man’s life is, after all, primarily between God and
himself.--_Lilian Whiting._
Get your distaff ready, and God will send you flax.--_Mary A.
Livermore’s favorite proverb._
The thoughts that come often unsought, and, as it were, drop into the
mind, are commonly the most valuable we have, and therefore should be
secured, because they seldom return again.--_Locke._
The little worries that we meet each day
May be as stumbling-blocks across our way,
Or we may make them stepping-stones to be
Of grace, O Lord, to Thee!
--_A. E. Hamilton._
A man’s own good breeding is the best security against other people’s
ill manners.--_Chesterfield._
The best teacher of duties that still lie near to us, is the practice
of those we see and have at hand.--_Carlyle._
“The secret of a sweet and Christian life is learning to live by the
day. It is the long stretches that tire us.”
To one who is in the rôle of host there can be no more bitter rebuke
than to have any guest or chance caller go out from the portals with
the feeling that he is sorry he came--that he is depressed rather
than up-lifted. For all personal association, whether permanent or
transient, whether prearranged or a matter of accidental contact,
should leave behind it a lingering charm, a deeper sense of the
loveliness of life.--_Lilian Whiting._
One of the natural tendencies of the mortal mind is toward proselyting.
The moment we believe something to be true, we begin to try to convert
others to our belief. We learn to say, with some degree of realization,
“God worketh in me to will and to do of His good pleasure,” but we
quite forget that the same God is working equally in our brother
“to will and to do.” “I am the door,” says the Christ within every
man’s own soul. Now you are trying to have your dear one enter in
through your door. He must enter in through his own Christ, his own
desire.--_H. Emilie Cady._
You may not be able to leave your children a great inheritance, but day
by day you may be weaving coats for them which they will wear through
all eternity.--_T. L. Cuyler._
He that cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he must
pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven.--_Lord Herbert._
We exhaust our strength in our impatience at our work, and the
conditions that surround us. There is nothing that comes to us which we
could not do easily with true adjustment, but we waste our forces in
our worries.--_C. B. Newcomb._
It seems as if heroes had done almost all for the world that they
can do; and not much more can come until common men awake and
take their common tasks. I believe the common man’s task is the
hardest.--_Phillips Brooks._
When we climb to heaven ’tis on the rounds of love to men.--_Whittier._
When you find a person a little better than his word, a little
more liberal than his promise, a little more than borne out in his
statements by facts, a little larger in deed than in speech, you
recognize a kind of eloquence in that person’s utterance not laid down
in Blair or Campbell.--_Holmes._
Young man! let the nobleness of your mind impel you to its improvement.
You are too strong to be defeated, save by yourself.--_W. D. Howard._
What we earnestly aspire to be, that in some sense we are.--_Anna
Jameson._
The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not
make a speech, he takes a low business tone, avoids all brag, promises
not at all, performs much. He calls his employment by its lowest names,
and so takes from evil tongues their sharpest weapon.--_Emerson._
“In judging others, weigh carefully the method against the motive. If
the latter be pure, be patient and charitable, however different from
your own the method may be.”
“Refuse to regard as unfortunate the treatment you receive from others;
let it stimulate you to deal more justly with yourself and with them.”
The strength of affection is a proof not of the worthiness of the
object, but of the largeness of the soul which loves.--_F. W.
Robertson._
Every flower is a hint of His beauty; every grain of wheat a token of
His beneficence; every atom of dust, a revelation of His power. In and
through all things He is attracting our regard.--_Furness._
One never speaks of himself except at a loss.--_Montaigne._
It is easy in the world, to live after the world’s opinion: it is easy
in solitude, to live after our own. But the great man is he who in the
midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of
solitude.--_Emerson._
If you knew the light
That your soul casts in my sight,
How I look to you
For the good and true,
The beauteous and the right.
--_Robert Browning._
Manners impress as they indicate real power. A man who is sure of his
point, carries a broad and contented expression, which everybody reads.
And you cannot rightly train one to an air and manner, except by making
him the kind of man of whom that manner is the natural expression.
Nature forever puts a premium on reality.--_Emerson._
Who looks to Heaven alone to save his soul
May keep the path, but will not reach the goal:
But he who walks in love may wander far,
And God will bring him where the blessed are.
--_Henry Van Dyke._
“If you and I--just you and I--
Should laugh instead of worry;
If we should grow--just you and I--
Kinder and sweeter hearted,
Perhaps in some near by and by
A good time might get started;
Then what a happy world ’twould be
For you and me--for you and me!”
Let nothing disturb thee,
Nothing affright thee;
All things are passing;
God never changeth;
Patient endurance
Attaineth to all things;
Who God possesseth
In nothing is wanting;
Alone God sufficeth.
--_Longfellow._
The world is full of judgment-days, and in every assembly that a man
enters, in every action he attempts, he is gauged and stamped. A man
passes for what he is worth.--_Emerson._
Life is noble in proportion to the nobleness of faith; it is successful
in proportion to the fixedness of faith.--_Joseph Le Conte._
We should tell ourselves once for all that it is the first duty of the
soul to become as happy, complete, independent, and great as lies in
its power.--_Maurice Materlinck._
“Cold and reserved natures should remember that though not infrequently
flowers may be found beneath the snow, it is chilly work to dig for
them, and few care to take the trouble.”
Whenever we send out loving thought in generous profusion, every part
of our environment echoes back a sweet benediction.--_Henry Wood._
A good book, whether a novel or not, is one that leaves you farther on
than when you took it up. If when you drop it, it drops you down in the
same old spot, with no finer outlook, no clearer vision, no stimulated
desires for that which is better and higher, it is in no sense a good
book.--_Anna Warner._
Silence is a great peacemaker.--_Longfellow._
Each act of humble service is that divine touching of the ground which
enables one to get the spring whereby he leaps to greater heights.--_R.
W. Trine._
Every noble life leaves the fibre of it interwoven forever in the works
of the world.--_Ruskin._
“It is no use running; to set out betimes is the main point.”
One ought never to speak of the faults of one’s friends; it mutilates
them. They can never be the same afterward.--_William D. Howells._
Whatever betide, every misfortune must be overcome by enduring
it.--_Virgil._
“Never argue with a man who talks loud. You couldn’t convince him in a
thousand years.”
The new science perceives that instincts and aspirations in the mind
are facts of nature that must be interpreted and accounted for by
reason as truly as a stone in the hand.--_Newell Dwight Hillis._
Work and love: that is the body and soul of the human being. Happy he
where they are one.--_Auerbach._
You picture to yourself the beauty of bravery and steadfastness. And
then some little, wretched, disagreeable duty comes which is your
martyrdom, the lamp for your oil; and if you do not do it, your oil is
spilled.--_Phillips Brooks._
“Watch the thought you hold for the neighbor who is yet living in the
consciousness of truth as you understand it. As you are taught of the
Spirit, so will he be taught in the way best adapted to him.”
Why do we so often prefer to believe in the necessity of suffering and
weakness rather than in the possibility of strength and gladness?--_C.
B. Newcomb._
Great powers and natural gifts do not bring privileges to their
possessor, so much as they bring duties.--_Henry Ward Beecher._
Every day should have some part
Free for the Sabbath of the heart.
--_Wordsworth._
The beautiful is as useful as the useful.--_Victor Hugo._
The higher education of women means more for the future than all
conceivable legislative reforms. Its influence does not stop with the
home.--_David Starr Jordan._
“It is not the spurt at the start, but the continued, unresting,
unhasting advance that wins the day.”
That which is past is gone and irrevocable, and wise men have enough to
do with things present and to come.--_Francis Bacon._
Whichever way the wind doth blow
Some heart is glad to have it so;
Then blow it east or blow it west,
The wind that blows, that wind is best.
--_Caroline A. Mason._
A lady’s dress should be such as to please God, not laying aside taste,
for is He not much more pleased when His children look well than
otherwise? I have no idea that Christ was negligent of his dress. His
garment was one counted worthy of casting lots upon.--_Mary Lyon._
Experience shows that success is due less to ability than to zeal. The
winner is he who gives himself to his work, body and soul.--_Charles
Buxton._
“The smelter bends above his pot of silver
Watching its restless heavings to and fro,
’Till ready for the careful coiner,
His face reflected, the fused metal show.”
It is monotony which eats the heart out of joy, destroys the
buoyancy of the spirit, and turns hope to ashes; it is monotony
which saps the vitality of the emotions; depletes the energy of the
will, and finally turns the miracle of daily existence into dreary
commonplace. And monotony has its roots, not in our conditions, but in
ourselves.--_Hamilton Wright Mabie._
Begin, therefore, with little things. Is it a little oil spilt or a
little wine stolen? Say to yourself, this is the price paid for peace
and tranquillity; and nothing is to be had for nothing. And when you
call your servant, consider that it is possible he may not come at your
call, or, if he does, that he may not do what you wish. But it is not
at all desirable for him, and very undesirable for you, that it should
be in his power to cause you any disturbance.--_Epictetus._
Let us never forget that an act of goodness is of itself an act of
happiness. No reward coming after the event can compare with the sweet
reward that went with it.--_Maurice Materlinck._
I said, “I will go out and look for mine enemies,” and that day I found
no friends. Again, I said, “I will go out and look for my friends,” and
that day I found no enemies.--_Gertrude R. Lewis._
Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of
thy mind, for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.--_Marcus Aurelius._
Have faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.--_Confucius._
“If you will call your ‘troubles’ ‘experiences,’ and remember that
every experience develops some latent force within you, you will grow
vigorous and happy, however adverse your circumstances may seem to be.”
Wanting to have a friend is altogether different from wanting to be a
friend. The former is a mere natural human craving, the latter is the
life of Christ in the soul.--_J. R. Miller._
When we cultivate thoughts of strength for others, we ourselves grow
strong. Habitual thoughts of peace bring us tranquillity.--_C. B.
Newcomb._
All high happiness has in it some element of love; all love contains a
desire for peace. One immediate effect of new happiness is to make us
turn toward the past with a wish to straighten out its difficulties,
heal its breaches and forgive its wrongs.--_James Lane Allen._
When I am very weary
I do not try to pray.
I only shut my eyes, and wait
To hear what God will say.
Such rest it is to wait for Him
As comes no other way.
--_Alice E. Worcester._
You have not fulfilled every duty unless you have fulfilled that of
being pleasant.--_Charles Buxton._
We do a great deal of shirking in this life on the ground of not being
geniuses.--_Rose E. Cleveland._
We never know for what God is preparing us in His schools--for what
work on earth, for what work in the hereafter. Our business is to do
our work well in the present place, whatever that may be.--_Dr. Lyman
Abbott._
Health is the first of all liberties, and happiness gives us the energy
which is the basis of health.--_Amiel’s Journal._
Not in the clamor of the crowded street,
Nor in the shouts and plaudits of the throng,
But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.
--_Longfellow._
Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this, that you are dreadfully
like other people.--_James Russell Lowell._
There is a dust that settles on the heart as well as that which rests
upon the ledge. It is better to wear out than to rust out.--_Sir John
Lubbock._
How many a thing which we cast to the ground, when others pick it up
becomes a gem.--_George Meredith._
[Illustration: Chas. W. Wendte
_Success in life is a matter not so much of talent or opportunity as of
concentration and perseverance._]
Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces up, snow is
exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only
different kinds of good weather.--_Ruskin._
A haze on the far horizon,
The infinite, tender sky;
The ripe, rich tint of the corn-fields,
And the wild geese sailing high;
And all over upland and lowland
The charm of the golden-rod,--
Some of us call it Autumn
And others call it God.
--_M. H. Carruth._
I built a chimney for a comrade old,
I did the service not for hope or hire,
And then I traveled on in winters cold;
Yet all the day I glowed before the fire.
--_Edwin Markham._
Flowers, says Ruskin, seem intended for the solace of ordinary
humanity. Children love them; quiet, tender, contented, ordinary people
love them as they grow; they are the cottager’s treasure; and in the
crowded town mark, as with a little broken fragment of rainbow, the
windows of the workers in whose heart rests the covenant of peace.
Great privileges never go save in company with great
responsibilities.--_Hamilton W. Mabie._