characterizes all valuable minds.--_Emerson._
Never shrink from anything which your business calls you to do. The
man who is above his business may one day find his business above
him.--_Drew._
The common problem, yours, mine, every one’s,
Is not to fancy what were fair in life,
Provided it could be--but finding first
What may be, then find how to make it fair
Up to our means.
--_Browning._
Every life that has God in it has the index to character and the key to
the highest attainment.--_L. Purington._
Be resolutely and faithfully what you are; be humbly what you aspire
to be. Man’s noblest gift to man is his sincerity, for it embraces his
integrity also.--_Henry D. Thoreau._
We often do more good by our sympathy than by our labors.--_Canon
Farrar._
Dost thou love life? Then waste not time; for time is the stuff that
life is made of.--_Benjamin Franklin._
The best way of training the young, is to train yourself at the same
time; not to admonish them, but to be seen always doing that of which
you would admonish them.--_Plato._
It is a good and safe rule to sojourn in every place, as if you meant
to spend your life there, never omitting an opportunity of doing a
kindness, or speaking a true word, or making a friend.--_Ruskin._
Landor’s definition of a great man: He who can call together the most
select company when it pleases him.
We go apart to get still; that new life, new inspiration, new power of
thought, new supplies from the Fountainhead, may flow in.--_H. Emilie
Cady._
Perhaps it is a good thing to have an unsound hobby ridden hard; for it
is sooner ridden to death.--_Charles Dickens._
“Take a dash of water cold
And a little leaven of prayer,
A little bit of sunshine gold
Dissolved in the morning air;
Add to your meal some merriment
And a thought for kith and kin;
And then, as a prime ingredient
A plenty of work thrown in:
But spice it all with the essence of love
And a little whiff of play:
Let a wise old book and a glance above
Complete a well spent day.”
Judge not thy friend until thou standest in his place.--_Rabbi Hillel._
“He who is always inquiring what people will say, will never give them
opportunity to say anything great about him.”
Borrowing is the canker and the death of every man’s estate.--_Sir
Walter Raleigh._
It is not so much what you say to the children that charges the
atmosphere of your home, as it is the spirit of your life, the temper
you exhibit, the ends which you live for.--_Dr. J. K. McLean._
Punishment closely follows sin, it being born at the same time with it.
Whoever expects punishment, already suffers it; whoever has deserved
it, expects it.--_Montaigne._
I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what
I consider the most enviable of all titles, that of an “Honest
Man.”--_George Washington._
Trust in God, as Moses did, let the way be never so dark; and it shall
come to pass that your life at last shall surpass even your longing.
Not, it may be, in the line of that longing; that shall be as it
pleaseth God; but the glory is as sure as the grace, and the most
ancient heavens are not more sure than that.--_Robert Collyer._
Men suffer all their life long under the foolish superstition that
they can be cheated. But it is as impossible for a man to be cheated
by anyone but himself, as for a thing to be and not to be at the same
time. There is a third silent party to all our bargains. The nature
and soul of things takes on itself the guaranty of the fulfilment of
every contract, so that honest service cannot come to loss. If you
serve an ungrateful master, serve him the more. Put God in your debt.
Every stroke shall be repaid. The longer the payment is withholden, the
better for you; for compound interest on compound interest is the rate
and usage of this exchequer.--_Emerson._
I believe if we could only see beforehand what it is that our Heavenly
Father means us to be, the soul beauty and perfection and glory, the
glorious and lovely spiritual body that this soul is to dwell in
through all eternity, if we could have a glimpse of this, we should not
grudge all the trouble and pains he is taking with us now to bring us
up to that ideal which is his thought of us.--_Annie Keary._
Let thy every word and act be perfect truth, uttered in genuine love.
Let not the forms of business, or the conventional arrangements of
society reduce thee into falsehood. Be true to thyself. Be true to thy
friend. Be true to the world.--_Lydia Maria Child._
Infidelity to self is infidelity to God.--_Charles B. Newcomb._
Learn to handle and control the ignorant part of your being as you
would watch and guide a child. Hold thought and expression to your
highest ideal. Learn from your failure.--_God’s Light as It Came to Me._
Self reliance is the basis of behavior, as it is the guaranty that the
powers are not squandered in too much demonstration.--_Emerson._
For not in far-off realms of space
The Spirit hath its throne;
In every heart it findeth place
And waiteth to be known.
--_F. L. Hosmer._
Difficulties may surround our path; but if the difficulties be not in
ourselves, they may generally be overcome.--_Prof. Jowett._
Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little
things, in which smiles and kindnesses and small obligations,
given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart and secure
comfort.--_Sir Humphrey Davy._
He that respects himself is safe from others;
He wears a coat of mail that none can pierce.
--_Longfellow._
Chilo, having had the question put to him, What is difficult? said: “To
be silent about secrets; to make good use of one’s leisure; and to be
able to submit to injustice.”
We should every day call ourselves to an account. What infirmity have I
mastered to-day? What temptation have I resisted? What virtue acquired?
Our vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the
shrift.--_Seneca._
Life is something, while the senses heed
The spirit’s call;
Life is nothing, when our grosser need
Engulfs it all.
--_Julia Ward Howe._
The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man’s
observation, not overturning it.--_Bulwer._
_Revery is the Sunday of thought_; and who knows which is the more
important and fruitful for man, the laborious tension of the week, or
the life-giving repose of the Sabbath?--_Amiel’s Journal._
There is nothing ridiculous in seeming to be what you really are, but a
good deal in affecting to be what you are not.--_Sir J. Lubbock._
In life’s small things be resolute and great
To keep thy muscles trained: knowest thou when Fate
Thy measure takes, or when she’ll say to thee,
“I find thee worthy, do this thing for me?”
--_Lowell._
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain.
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
--_Emily Dickinson._
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of a
man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be
able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so make a
few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint
the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we
can do.--_Henry D. Thoreau._
Much which we think essential is merely a matter of habit.--_Thomas
Wentworth Higginson._
The royal road to success is to obey the inner genius, to act in
accordance with one’s own intuition, regardless of the fear or favor of
those who are bound to the wheel of conventional consistency.--_Lilian
Whiting._
Act well at the moment, and you have performed a good action for all
eternity.--_Lavater._
New occasions teach new duties;
Time makes ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still, and onward,
Who would keep abreast of truth.
--_James Russell Lowell._
What do we live for if it is not to make life less difficult to each
other?--_George Eliot._
Good to forgive, best to forget.--_Browning._
What reason have we to think any other station in the universe more
sanctifying than our own? There is none, so far as we can tell, under
the more immediate touch of God, none whence sublimer deeps are open to
adoration, none murmuring with the whisper of more thrilling affections
or ennobled as the theater of more glorious duties. Those to whom the
earth is not consecrated will find their heaven profane.--_Dr. James
Martineau._
Whoever can influence men should strive to make them more courageous,
more enduring, more hopeful, simpler, more joyful.--_Bishop Spaulding._
It is our part in life to work with all our strength toward the
realization of ideal humanity, to add one more link to the chain which
joins the man-brute of the past, through the man of the present, to the
man of the future. The man who is likest Him, we have chosen for our
ideal.--_David Starr Jordan._
My own experience and development deepens every day my conviction that
our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize
with individual suffering and individual joy.--_George Eliot._
“When opposition of any kind is necessary, drop all color of emotion
out of it and let it be seen in the white light of truth.”
The true use of a man’s possessions is to help his work, and the
best end of all his work is to show us what he is. The noblest
workers of our world bequeath us nothing so great as the image of
themselves.--_James Martineau._
“What is the secret of your life?” asked Mrs. Browning of Charles
Kingsley; “tell me, that I may make mine beautiful too?” He replied, “I
had a friend.”--_William C. Gannett._
Better make penitents by gentleness than hypocrites by severity.--_St.
Francis de Sales._
Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness; altogether past calculation
its powers of endurance.--_Carlyle._
Yea, from the table of my memory I’ll wipe away all trivial fond
records, that youth and observation copied there; and thy commandment
all along shall live within the book and volume of my brain, unmixed
with baser matter.--_Shakespeare._
I am surprised that intelligent men do not see the immense value of
good temper in their homes; and am amazed that they will take such
pains to have costly houses and fine furniture, and yet sometimes
neglect to bring home with them good temper.--_Theodore Parker._
Everyone should consider his body as a priceless gift from one whom he
loves above all, a marvelous work of art, of indescribable beauty, and
mastery beyond human conception, and so delicate that a word, a breath,
a look, nay, a thought may injure it.--_Nikola Tesla._
Beware of desperate steps; the darkest day,
Lived till to-morrow, will have passed away.
--_Cowper._
Education should be full of feeling. It takes sunlight to draw out
the fragrance of the violet and the perfume of the rose.--_Ellen A.
Richardson._
We are encompassed about by the forces that make for righteousness. All
power we possess, or seem to possess, comes from our accord with these
forces. There is no lasting force, except the power of God.--_David
Starr Jordan._
If one admires the patience, gentleness, sweetness and unfailing energy
of another; if he finds himself renewed and invigorated and inspired by
such contact,--why does he not himself so live that he may bring the
same renewal and inspiration to others?--_Lilian Whiting._
The flighty purpose never is o’ertook
Unless the deed go with it.
--_Shakespeare._
Characters are determined not by the opinions which we profess, but by
those on which our thoughts habitually fasten, which recur to them most
forcibly and which color our ordinary views of God and duty.--_William
Ellery Channing._
We are too busy, too encumbered, too much occupied, too active! We
read too much! The one thing needful is to throw off all one’s load of
cares, and to become young again, living happily and gracefully in the
present hour. We must know how to put occupation aside, which does not
mean that we must be idle.--_Translation, Mrs. Humphry Ward._
The new conditions of life demand the higher spirituality of the
individual. But what is this? Is it a name, a mental state of
exaltation, an ecstasy? Is it an exalted hour, or is it conduct? Is it
a merely theoretical thing, a vision caught in some rare hour?... If it
be thus, it may have a decorative value in ethics, but is devoid of any
practical bearing on our common life. Unless spirituality is the power
that transforms falsehood to truth, selfishness to generosity, unless
it enters into character as a pervasive force, of what use can it be?
Spirituality is not negative. It is not the mere absence of sin. It is
the most positive state.--_The World Beautiful, Lilian Whiting._
The world seemed empty, and black, and cold,
And wretched, and helpless, and very old.
God gave me a thought; a new world grew,
The thought created the world anew.
--_S. W. Foss._
Apology is only egotism wrong side out.--_Oliver Wendell Holmes._
No one has any more right to go about unhappy than he has to go about
ill-bred. He owes it to himself, to his friends, to society and the
community in general, to live up to his best spiritual possibilities,
not only now and then, but every day and every hour.--_Lilian Whiting._
Who shoots at the mid-day sun, though he be sure that he shall never
hit the mark, yet as sure is he that he shall shoot higher than he who
aims but at a bush.--_Sir Philip Sidney._
Blessed are they who have the gift of making friends, for it is one of
God’s best gifts. It involves many things, but, above all, the power of
going out of one’s self, and seeing and appreciating whatever is noble
and loving in another.--_Thomas Hughes._
There is no duty the fulfillment of which will not make you happier,
nor any temptation for which there is no remedy.--_Seneca._
Let nothing come between you and the light.--_Henry D. Thoreau._
“The summer vanishes, but soon shall come
The glad young days of yet another year.
So do not mourn the passing of a joy,
But rather wait the coming of a good,
And know God never takes a gift away
But He sends other gifts to take its place.”
We must be as courteous to a man as to a picture, which we are willing
to give the benefit of a good light.--_Emerson._
The old year is fast slipping back behind us. We cannot stay it if
we would. We must go on and leave our past. Let us go forth nobly.
Let us go as those whom greater thoughts and greater deeds await
beyond.--_Phillips Brooks._
Opportunity is a good angel, but she deserts those who fail to
recognize her. The ring of power must be worn; ... if the charm is not
held to service, it slips away.--_Lilian Whiting._
A dull day need not be a depressing day; depression always implies
physical or moral weakness, and is therefore never to be tolerated so
long as one can struggle against it.--_Hamilton W. Mabie._
’Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours
And ask them what report they bore to heaven.
--_Young’s Night Thoughts._
For the will and not the gift makes the giver.--_Lessing._
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the
year.--_Emerson._
If I shoot at the sun I may hit a star.--_P. T. Barnum._
The highest point of achievement of yesterday is the starting point of
to-day.--_Motto of Paulist Fathers._
I look upon that man as happy, who, when there is a question of
success, looks into his work for a reply; not into the market, not into
opinion, not into patronage. Work is victory. You want but one verdict;
if you have your own, you are secure of the rest.--_Emerson._
There is ever a song somewhere, my dear,
Be the skies above or dark or fair,
There is ever a song that our hearts may hear--
There is ever a song somewhere, my dear--
There is ever a song somewhere!
--_James Whitcomb Riley._
“The Present, the Present is all thou hast
For thy sure possessing;
Like the Patriarch’s angel, hold it fast
Till it gives its blessing.”
What a sublime doctrine it is that goodness cherished _now_, is eternal
life already entered upon!--_William Ellery Channing._
He who feels contempt
For any living thing, hath faculties
That he has never used:
And thought with him
Is in its infancy.
--_Phillips Brooks._
“‘This one thing I do,’ or, ‘These forty things I dabble in,’--which
shall it be?”
I expect to pass through this life but once. If, therefore, there is
any kindness I can show, or any good I can do to any fellow-being,
let me do it now, let me not defer it, for I shall not pass this way
again.--_Mrs. A. B. Hegeman._
We get no good by being ungenerous, even to a book.--_E. B. Browning._
Build a little fence of trust around to-day,
Fill the space with loving deeds and therein stay;
Look not through the sheltering bars upon to-morrow,
God will help thee bear what comes of joy or sorrow.
--_Mary Frances Butts._
A wide-spreading, hopeful disposition is the best umbrella for this
vale of tears.--_Wm. D. Howells._
He who meets life as though it meant something worth finding out, and
who expresses his best self, is the one who has the permanent basis of
happiness.--_H. W. Dresser._
Conscience is nothing else but the echo of God’s voice within the
soul.--_E. B. Hall._
We prepare ourselves for sudden deeds by the reiterated choice of good
or evil, that gradually determines character.--_George Eliot._
To be courteous to one’s peers is all very well, but it is fairness and
courtesy and consideration to those in dependent or limited conditions
that constitute the true test of the gentleman or lady.--_Lilian
Whiting._
I like not only to be loved, but to be told I am loved. The realm of
silence is large enough beyond the grave.--_George Eliot._
I should count myself fortunate if my home were remembered
for some inspiring quality of faith, charity, and aspiring
intelligence.--_Hamilton W. Mabie._
How soon a smile of God can change the world!
How we are made for happiness--how work
Grows play, adversity a winning fight!
--_Browning._
Let this auspicious morning be expressed
With a white stone distinguished from the rest,
White as thy fame, and as thy honor clear,
And let new joys attend on thy now added year.
--_Dryden._
Give to a gracious message a host of tongues; but let ill tidings tell
themselves.--_Shakespeare._
Still o’er the earth hastes Opportunity,
Seeking the hardy soul that seeks for her.
Be not abroad, nor deaf with household cares
That chatter loudest as they mean the least;
Swift-willed is thrice willed; late means nevermore;
Impatient is her foot, nor turns again.
--_James Russell Lowell._
To live content with small means--to seek elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy not respectable,
and wealthy not rich--to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act
frankly, to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open
heart--to bear all cheerfully--do all bravely, await occasions--never
hurry; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow
up through the common. This is to be my symphony.--_William Ellery
Channing._
Let us do our duty in our shop or our kitchen, the market, the street,
the office, the school, the home, just as faithfully as if we stood
in the front rank of some great battle, and we knew that victory for
mankind depended on our bravery, strength, and skill. When we do that,
the humblest of us will be serving in that great army which achieves
the welfare of the world.--_Theodore Parker._
Opportunities correspond with almost mathematical accuracy to the
ability for using them.--_Lilian Whiting._
The blessedness of life depends more upon its interests than upon its
comforts.--_George Macdonald._
No man finds himself until he has created a world for his own soul;
a world apart from care and weakness and the confusion of strife, in
which the faiths that inspire him, and the ideals that lead him are the
great and lasting verities.--_Hamilton W. Mabie._
Endeavor to be patient in bearing the defects and infirmities of
others, of what sort soever they be; for thou thyself also hast many
failings which must be borne with by others.--_Thomas à Kempis._
He who does a good deed is instantly ennobled. He who does a mean deed
is by the action itself contracted. He who puts off impurity thereby
puts on purity.--_Emerson._
They also serve who only stand and wait.--_Milton._
He that is choice of his time will be choice of his company and choice
of his actions.--_Jeremy Taylor._
In all things throughout the world, the man who looks for the crooked
will see the crooked, and the man who looks for the straight will see
the straight.--_Ruskin._
Begin, live, aspire, realize the best ideal of the moment; and this
earnest effort shall lead the way to greater achievement.--_H. W.
Dresser._
Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the
mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gayety and life to
everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good,
just, and beautiful.--_Plato._
If thou wouldst speak a word of loving cheer,
Oh, speak it now. This moment is thine own.
--_Nellie M. Richardson._
Can a man help imitating that with which he holds reverential
converse?--_Plato._
If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a
better mouse-trap, than his neighbor, though he builds his house in the
woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.--_Emerson._
Come, let us live the poetry we sing.--_Edwin Markham._
“Instead of wishing that all men were of our mind, we should account it
one of the first blessings of life that there are men who do not agree
with us. The currents of sea and air are not more necessary than the
currents of thought.”
In looking back over our lives, we often see that what seemed at the
time the worst hours and the most hopeless in their wretchedness
were in reality the best of all! They developed powers within us
that had heretofore slept; developed energies of which we had never
dreamed.--_James Freeman Clarke._
Let your task be to render yourself worthy of love, and this even
more for your own happiness than for that of another’s.--_Maurice
Materlinck._
There is great danger in constant dissatisfaction. Sooner or later,
it will involve the health, or finances, or both, for it destroys the
mental balance, and impairs the judgment.--_C. B. Newcomb._
“Don’t nurse opportunity too long--take it into active partnership with
you at once, lest it leave you for other company.”
We just shake hands at meeting
With many that come nigh;
We nod the head in greeting
To many that go by,--
But welcome through the gateway
Our few old friends and true;
Then hearts leap up, and straightway
There’s open house for you,
Old Friends, there’s open house for you!
The surface will be sparkling,
Let but a sunbeam shine;
Yet in the deep lies darkling,
The true life of the wine!
The froth is for the many,
The wine is for the few;
Unseen, untoucht of any,
We keep the best for you,
Old Friends, the very best for you!
The many cannot know us;
They only pace the strand,
Where at our worst we show us--
The waters thick with sand!
But out beyond the leaping
Dim surge ’tis clear and blue;
And there, Old Friends, we are keeping
A sacred calm for you,
Old Friends, a waiting calm for you.--_Gerald Massey._
It is my custom every night to run all over the words and actions of
the past day; for why should I fear the sight of my errors when I can
admonish and forgive myself? I was a little too hot in such a dispute:
my opinion might have been as well spared, for it gave offense, and did
no good at all. The thing was true; but all truths are not to be spoken
at all times.--_Seneca._
Also, I think that good must come of good,
And ill of evil--surely--unto all--
In every place and time--seeing sweet fruit
Groweth from wholesome roots, and bitter things
From poison stocks; yea, seeing, too, how spite
Breeds hate, and kindness, friends, and patience, peace.
--_Edwin Arnold._
If we would listen intently, we might hear the divine voice within,
assuring us that God is our life; that spirit is the only substantial
entity and that love is the only law.--_Henry Wood._
Let us grow out of the idea that because we do some one a favor or
render him a service, that he is thereby under some transcendent
obligation to us. Let us recognize the truth--that it is we who are
obliged if he will permit us to do him a favor.--_Lilian Whiting._