What is this little, agile, precious fire, this fluttering motion which
we call the mind?--_Prior._
Just as a particular soil wants some one element to fertilize it, just
as the body in some conditions has a kind of famine for one special
food, so the mind has its wants, which do not always call for what is
best, but which know themselves and are as peremptory as the salt sick
sailor's call for a lemon or raw potato.--_Holmes._
The best way to prove the clearness of our mind is by showing its
faults; as when a stream discovers the dirt at the bottom, it convinces
us of the transparency of the water.--_Pope._
A mind once cultivated will not lie fallow for half an
hour.--_Bulwer-Lytton._
~Mischief.~--The opportunity to do mischief is found a hundred times a
day, and that of doing good once a year.--_Voltaire._
~Miser.~--The miser swimming in gold seems to me like a thirsty fish.--_J.
Petit Senn._
In all meanness there is a deficit of intellect as well as of heart, and
even the cleverness of avarice is but the cunning of
imbecility.--_Bulwer-Lytton._
~Misery.~--There are a good many real miseries in life that we cannot help
smiling at, but they are the smiles that make wrinkles and not
dimples.--_Holmes._
Misery is so little appertaining to our nature, and happiness so much
so, that we in the same degree of illusion only lament over that which
has pained us, but leave unnoticed that which has rejoiced
us.--_Richter._
~Misfortune.~--If all the misfortunes of mankind were cast into a public
stock, in order to be equally distributed among the whole species, those
who now think themselves the most unhappy would prefer the share they
are already possessed of before that which would fall to them by such a
division.--_Socrates._
Depend upon it, that if a man _talks_ of his misfortunes there is
something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is
nothing but pure misery, there never is any recourse to the mention of
it.--_Johnson._
Flowers never emit so sweet and strong a fragrance as before a storm.
Beauteous soul! when a storm approaches thee be as fragrant as a
sweet-smelling flower.--_Richter._
Our bravest lessons are not learned through success, but
misadventure.--_Alcott._
There is a chill air surrounding those who are down in the world, and
people are glad to get away from them, as from a cold room.--_George
Eliot._