~Contempt.~--No sacred fane requires us to submit to contempt.--_Goethe._
There is not in human nature a more odious disposition than a proneness
to contempt, which is a mixture of pride and ill-nature. Nor is there
any which more certainly denotes a bad mind; for in a good and benign
temper there can be no room for this sensation.--_Fielding._
~Contentment.~--That happy state of mind, so rarely possessed, in which we
can say, "I have enough," is the highest attainment of philosophy.
Happiness consists, not in possessing much, but in being content with
what we possess. He who wants little always has enough.--_Zimmermann._
It is both the curse and blessing of our American life that we are never
quite content. We all expect to go somewhere before we die, and have a
better time when we get there than we can have at home. The bane of our
life is discontent. We say we will work so long, and then we will enjoy
ourselves. But we find it just as Thackeray has expressed it. "When I
was a boy," he said, "I wanted some taffy--it was a shilling--I hadn't
one. When I was a man, I had a shilling, but I didn't want any
taffy."--_Robert Collyer._
Submission is the only reasoning between a creature and its Maker; and
contentment in his will is the best remedy we can apply to
misfortunes.--_Sir W. Temple._
Where God hath put exquisite tinge upon the shell washed in the surf,
and planted a paradise of bloom in a child's cheek, let us leave it to
the owl to hoot, and the frog to croak, and the fault-finder to
complain.--_De Witt Talmage._
~Contrast.~--The lustre of diamonds is invigorated by the interposition of
darker bodies; the lights of a picture are created by the shades. The
highest pleasure which nature has indulged to sensitive perception is
that of rest after fatigue.--_Johnson._
~Controversy.~--He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and
sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.--_Burke._
What Tully says of war may be applied to disputing,--it should be always
so managed as to remember that the only true end of it is peace: but
generally true disputants are like true sportsmen,--their whole delight
is in the pursuit; and a disputant no more cares for the truth than the
sportsman for the hare.--_Pope._
I am yet apt to think that men find their simple ideas agree, though in
discourse they confound one another with different names.--_Locke._
A man takes contradiction much more easily than people think, only he
will not bear it when violently given, even though it be well-founded.
Hearts are flowers; they remain open to the softly-falling dew, but shut
up in the violent down-pour of rain.--_Richter._
~Conversation.~--They who have the true taste of conversation enjoy
themselves in a communication of each other's excellences, and not in a
triumph over their imperfections.--_Addison._
It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of
others.--_Montaigne._
Your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious; pleasant without
scurrility, witty without affectation, audacious without impudency,
learned without opinion, and strange without heresy.--_Shakespeare._
No one will ever shine in conversation who thinks of saying fine things;
to please one must say many things indifferent, and many very
bad.--_Francis Lockier._
Conversation warms the mind, enlivens the imagination, and is
continually starting fresh game that is immediately pursued and taken,
and which would never have occurred in the duller intercourse of
epistolary correspondence.--_Franklin._
~Coquetry.~--The most effective coquetry is innocence.--_Lamartine._
God created the coquette as soon as he had made the fool.--_Victor
Hugo._