Fear invites danger; concealed cowards insult known
ones.--_Chesterfield._
~Felicity.~--The world produces for every pint of honey a gallon of gall;
for every dram of pleasure a pound of pain; for every inch of mirth an
ell of moan; and as the ivy twines around the oak, so does misery and
misfortune encompass the happy man. Felicity, pure and unalloyed
felicity, is not a plant of earthly growth; her gardens are the
skies.--_Burton._
~Fickleness.~--Everything by starts, and nothing long.--_Dryden._
It will be found that they are the weakest-minded and the
hardest-hearted men that most love change.--_Ruskin._
~Fiction.~--Truth severe, by fairy fiction drest.--_Gray._
Every fiction since Homer has taught friendship, patriotism, generosity,
contempt of death. These are the highest virtues; and the fictions which
taught them were therefore of the highest, though not of unmixed,
utility.--_Sir J. Mackintosh._
I have often maintained that fiction may be much more instructive than
real history.--_Rev. John Foster._
Fiction is of the essence of poetry as well as of painting: there is a
resemblance in one of human bodies, things, and actions which are not
real, and in the other of a true story by fiction.--_Dryden._
Fiction is no longer a mere amusement; but transcendent genius,
accommodating itself to the character of the age, has seized upon this
province of literature, and turned fiction from a toy into a mighty
engine.--_Channing._
The best portraits are those in which there is a slight mixture of
caricature; and we are not aware that the best histories are not those
in which a little of the exaggeration of fictitious narrative is
judiciously employed. Something is lost in accuracy; but much is gained
in effect. The fainter lines are neglected; but the great characteristic
features are imprinted on the mind forever.--_Macaulay._
Those who delight in the study of human nature may improve in the
knowledge of it, and in the profitable application of that knowledge, by
the perusal of such fictions as those before us [Jane Austen's
Novels].--_Archbishop Whately._
~Firmness.~--The greatest firmness is the greatest mercy.--_Longfellow._
Stand firm and immovable as an anvil when it is beaten upon.--_St.
Ignatius._
~Flattery.~--The art of flatterers is to take advantage of the foibles of
the great, to foster their errors, and never to give advice which may
annoy.--_Moliere._
He does me double wrong that wounds me with the flatteries of his
tongue.--_Shakespeare._
Flattery is often a traffic of mutual meanness, where, although both
parties intend deception, neither are deceived, since words that cost
little are exchanged for hopes that cost less.--_Colton._
The most dangerous of all flattery is the inferiority of those about
us.--_Madame Swetchine._
Though flattery blossoms like friendship, yet there is a great
difference in the fruit.--_Socrates._
The coin that is most current among mankind is flattery; the only
benefit of which is that by hearing what we are not we may be instructed
what we ought to be.--_Swift._
Blinded as they are to their true character by self-love, every man is
his own first and chiefest flatterer, prepared, therefore, to welcome
the flatterer from the outside, who only comes confirming the verdict of
the flatterer within.--_Plutarch._
Flattery is an ensnaring quality, and leaves a very dangerous
impression. It swells a man's imagination, entertains his fancy, and
drives him to a doting upon his own person.--_Jeremy Collier._
Because all men are apt to flatter themselves, to entertain the addition
of other men's praises is most perilous.--_Sir W. Raleigh._
Out of the pulpit, I trust none can accuse me of too much plainness of
speech; but there, madame [Queen Mary], I am not my own master, but must
speak that which I am commanded by the King of kings, and dare not, on
my soul, flatter any one on the face of all the earth--_John Knox._
~Flowers.~--Luther always kept a flower in a glass on his writing-table;
and when he was waging his great public controversy with Eckius he kept
a flower in his hand. Lord Bacon has a beautiful passage about flowers.
As to Shakspeare, he is a perfect Alpine valley,--he is full of flowers;
they spring, and blossom, and wave in every cleft of his mind. Even
Milton, cold, serene, and stately as he is, breaks forth into exquisite
gushes of tenderness and fancy when he marshals the flowers.--_Mrs.
Stowe._
Flowers, leaves, fruit, are the air-woven children of
light.--_Moleschott._