Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Diane Monico, and
the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
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MANY THOUGHTS OF
MANY MINDS
A Treasury of Quotations from the
Literature of Every Land
and Every Age.
[Illustration]
COMPILED BY
LOUIS KLOPSCH
PUBLISHED BY
THE CHRISTIAN HERALD,
LOUIS KLOPSCH, Proprietor,
BIBLE HOUSE, NEW YORK.
Copyright, 1896,
By LOUIS KLOPSCH.
PREFACE.
In the limited compass of this small volume, the compiler has
endeavored to employ only such material as is likely to prove of
service to the largest circle of readers. Nearly four hundred subjects
have received consideration at his hands, and the quotations given are
from standard authors of recognized ability. Upwards of twenty-five
hundred extracts from the choicest literature of all ages and tongues,
topically arranged, and in scope so wide as to touch on nearly every
subject that engages the human mind, constitute a treasury of thought
which, it is hoped, will be acceptable and helpful to all into whose
hands this volume may chance to fall.
Many Thoughts of Many Minds.
ABILITY.--No man is without some quality, by the due application of
which he might deserve well of the world; and whoever he be that has
but little in his power should be in haste to do that little, lest he
be confounded with him that can do nothing.--DR. JOHNSON.
We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others
judge us by what we have already done.--LONGFELLOW.
Every person is responsible for all the good within the scope of his
abilities, and for no more.--GAIL HAMILTON.
The possession of great powers no doubt carries with it a contempt for
mere external show.--JAMES A. GARFIELD.
The art of using moderate abilities to advantage wins praise, and often
acquires more reputation than actual brilliancy.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
Ability is a poor man's wealth.--MATTHEW WREN.
The measure of capacity is the measure of sphere to either man or
woman.--ELIZABETH OAKES SMITH.
Natural ability can almost compensate for the want of every kind of
cultivation; but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want
of natural ability.--SCHOPENHAUER.
An able man shows his spirit by gentle words and resolute actions.
--CHESTERFIELD.
ABSOLUTION.--No man taketh away sins (which the law, though holy, just
and good, could not take away), but He in whom there is no sin.--BEDE.
He alone can remit sins who is appointed our Master by the Father of
all; He only is able to discern obedience from disobedience.
--ST. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.
It is not the ambassador, it is not the messenger, but the Lord
Himself that saveth His people. The Lord remaineth alone, for no man
can be partner with God in forgiving sins; this office belongs solely
to Christ, who taketh away the sins of the world.--ST. AMBROSE.
It appertaineth to the true God alone to be able to loose men from
their sins.--ST. CYRIL.
Neither angel, nor archangel, nor yet even the Lord Himself (who alone
can say "I am with you"), can, when we have sinned, release us, unless
we bring repentance with us.--ST. AMBROSE.
ACTION.--The thing done avails, and not what is said about it.--EMERSON.
Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness
without action.--BEACONSFIELD.
There are three sorts of actions: those that are good, those that are
bad, and those that are doubtful; and we ought to be most cautious of
those that are doubtful; for we are in most danger of these doubtful
actions, because they do not alarm us; and yet they insensibly lead to
greater transgressions, just as the shades of twilight gradually
reconcile us to darkness.--A. REED.
To the valiant actions speak alone.--SMOLLETT.
It is well to think well: it is divine to act well.--HORACE MANN.
Active natures are rarely melancholy. Activity and melancholy are
incompatible.--BOVEE.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Finds us farther than to-day.
* * * * *
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, act, in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!
--LONGFELLOW.
Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the
world weigh less than a single lovely action.--LOWELL.
Prodigious actions may as well be done
By weaver's issue, as by prince's son.
--DRYDEN.
It is not to taste sweet things, but to do noble and true things, and
vindicate himself under God's heaven as a God-made man, that the
poorest son of Adam dimly longs. Show him the way of doing that, the
dullest day-drudge kindles into a hero.--CARLYLE.
Deliberate with caution, but act with decision; and yield with
graciousness, or oppose with firmness.--COLTON.
When our souls shall leave this dwelling, the glory of one fair and
virtuous action is above all the scutcheons on our tomb, or silken
banners over us.--J. SHIRLEY.
Our acts make or mar us,--we are the children of our own deeds.
--VICTOR HUGO.
Man, being essentially active, must find in activity his joy, as well
as his beauty and glory; and labor, like everything else that is good,
is its own reward.--WHIPPLE.
ADVERSITY.--Times of great calamity and confusion have ever been
productive of the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the
hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the
darkest storm.--COLTON.
In the day of prosperity we have many refuges to resort to; in the day
of adversity only one.--HORATIUS BONAR.
Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortunes; but great minds
rise above them.--WASHINGTON IRVING.
A wretched soul, bruis'd with adversity,
We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;
But were we burden'd with like weight of pain,
As much, or more, we should ourselves complain.
--SHAKESPEARE.
Heaven is not always angry when he strikes,
But most chastises those whom most he likes.
--POMFRET.
The fire of my adversity has purged the mass of my acquaintance.
--BOLINGBROKE.
On every thorn delightful wisdom grows;
In every rill a sweet instruction flows.
--DR. YOUNG.
When Providence, for secret ends,
Corroding cares, or sharp affliction, sends;
We must conclude it best it should be so,
And not desponding or impatient grow.
--POMFRET.
If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.
--PROVERBS 24:10.
Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which, in prosperous
circumstances, would have lain dormant.--HORACE.
In this wild world the fondest and the best
Are the most tried, most troubled and distress'd.
--CRABBE.
The lessons of adversity are often the most benignant when they seem
the most severe. The depression of vanity sometimes ennobles the
feeling. The mind which does not wholly sink under misfortune rises
above it more lofty than before, and is strengthened by affliction.
--CHENEVIX.
There is healing in the bitter cup.--SOUTHEY.
Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity is the
blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction, and the
clearer revelation of God's favor.--BACON.
In all cases of heart-ache, the application of another man's
disappointment draws out the pain and allays the irritation.--LYTTON.
Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.--HEBREWS 12:6.
The brightest crowns that are worn in heaven have been tried and
smelted and polished and glorified through the furnace of tribulation.
--CHAPIN.
Genuine morality is preserved only in the school of adversity, and a
state of continuous prosperity may easily prove a quicksand to
virtue.--SCHILLER.
AFFECTATION.--Affectation is the wisdom of fools, and the folly of
many a comparatively wise man.
We are never rendered so ridiculous by qualities which we possess, as
by those which we aim at, or affect to have.--FROM THE FRENCH.
Affectation is a greater enemy to the face than the small-pox.
--ST. EVREMOND.
All affectation is the vain and ridiculous attempt of poverty to
appear rich.--LAVATER.
Affectation hides three times as many virtues as charity does sins.
--HORACE MANN.
AFFECTION.--A loving heart is the truest wisdom.--DICKENS.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
--COLOSSIANS 3:2.
Caresses, expressions of one sort or another, are necessary to the
life of the affections as leaves are to the life of a tree. If they
are wholly restrained love will die at the roots.--HAWTHORNE.
A solitary blessing few can find,
Our joys with those we love are intertwined,
And he whose wakeful tenderness removes
The obstructing thorn that wounds the breast he loves,
Smooths not another's rugged path alone,
But scatters roses to adorn his own.
Affection is a garden, and without it there would not be a verdant
spot on the surface of the globe.
Of all earthly music, that which reaches the farthest into heaven is
the beating of a loving heart.--BEECHER.
If there is anything that keeps the mind open to angel visits, and
repels the ministry of ill, it is human love.--WILLIS.
AFFLICTION.--God sometimes washes the eyes of his children with tears
in order that they may read aright His providence and His commandments.
--T.L. CUYLER.
The truest help we can render an afflicted man is not to take his
burden from him, but to call out his best energy, that he may be able
to bear the burden.--PHILLIPS BROOKS.
Every man deems that he has precisely the trials and temptations which
are the hardest of all for him to bear; but they are so, because they
are the very ones he needs.--RICHTER.
Affliction is but the shadow of God's wing.--GEORGE MACDONALD.
Aromatic plants bestow
No spicy fragrance where they grow;
But crushed and trodden to the ground,
Diffuse their balmy sweets around.
--GOLDSMITH.
Affliction appears to be the guide to reflection; the teacher of
humility; the parent of repentance; the nurse of faith; the
strengthener of patience, and the promoter of charity.
Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of
extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary
graces.--MATTHEW HENRY.
If you would not have affliction visit you twice, listen at once to
what it teaches.--BURGH.
Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.--JOB 5:7.
Affliction is the wholesome soul of virtue;
Where patience, honor, sweet humanity,
Calm fortitude, take root, and strongly flourish.
--MALLET AND THOMSON.
Affliction's sons are brothers in distress;
A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss!
--BURNS.
With the wind of tribulation God separates in the floor of the soul,
the chaff from the corn.--MOLINOS.
No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous:
nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of
righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.--HEBREWS 12:11.
AGE.--No wise man ever wished to be younger.--SWIFT.
I venerate old age; and I love not the man who can look without
emotion upon the sunset of life, when the dusk of evening begins to
gather over the watery eye, and the shadows of twilight grow broader
and deeper upon the understanding.--LONGFELLOW.
It is only necessary to grow old to become more indulgent. I see no
fault committed that I have not committed myself.--GOETHE.
That which is usually called dotage is not the weak point of all old
men, but only of such as are distinguished by their levity.--CICERO.
We must not take the faults of our youth into our old age; for old age
brings with it its own defects.--GOETHE.
Learn to live well, or fairly make your will;
You've play'd, and lov'd, and ate, and drank your fill;
Walk sober off, before a sprightlier age
Comes titt'ring on, and shoves you from the stage.
--POPE.
If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written
upon the heart. The spirit should not grow old.--JAMES A. GARFIELD.
Forty is the old age of youth; fifty is the youth of old age.--VICTOR
HUGO.
Remember that some of the brightest drops in the chalice of life may
still remain for us in old age. The last draught which a kind
Providence gives us to drink, though near the bottom of the cup, may,
as is said of the draught of the Roman of old, have at the very
bottom, instead of dregs, most costly pearls.--W.A. NEWMAN.
Begin to patch up thine old body for heaven.--SHAKESPEARE.
Few people know how to be old.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
When men grow virtuous in their old age, they are merely making a
sacrifice to God of the devil's leavings.--SWIFT.
The defects of the mind, like those of the countenance, increase with
age.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
He who would pass the declining years of his life with honor and
comfort, should when young, consider that he may one day become old,
and remember, when he is old, that he has once been young.--ADDISON.
Winter, which strips the leaves from around us, makes us see the
distant regions they formerly concealed; so does old age rob us of our
enjoyments, only to enlarge the prospect of eternity before us.--RICHTER.
The easiest thing for our friends to discover in us, and the hardest
thing for us to discover in ourselves, is that we are growing old.
--H.W. SHAW.
AMBITION.--Most people would succeed in small things if they were not
troubled with great ambitions.--LONGFELLOW.
He who ascends to mountain tops, shall find
The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow;
He who surpasses or subdues mankind,
Must look down on the hate of those below.
--SOUTHEY.
They that stand high, have many blasts to shake them;
And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces.
--SHAKESPEARE.
The path of glory leads but to the grave.--GRAY.
We should be careful to deserve a good reputation by doing well; and
when that care is once taken, not to be over anxious about the
success.--ROCHESTER.
Say what we will, you may be sure that ambition is an error; its wear
and tear of heart are never recompensed,--it steals away the freshness
of life,--it deadens its vivid and social enjoyments,--it shuts our
souls to our own youth,--and we are old ere we remember that we have
made a fever and a labor of our raciest years.--LYTTON.
I charge thee, fling away ambition:
By that sin fell the angels.
--SHAKESPEARE.
A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher
than himself, and a mean man by one which is lower than himself. The
one produces aspiration; the other, ambition. Ambition is the way in
which a vulgar man aspires.--BEECHER.
It is not for man to rest in absolute contentment. He is born to hopes
and aspirations, as the sparks fly upward, unless he has brutified his
nature, and quenched the spirit of immortality, which is his portion.
--SOUTHEY.
Ambition has but one reward for all:
A little power, a little transient fame,
A grave to rest in, and a fading name!
--WILLIAM WINTER.
All my ambition is, I own,
To profit and to please unknown;
Like streams supplied from springs below,
Which scatter blessings as they go.
--DR. COTTON.
ANGELS.--If you woo the company of the angels in your waking hours,
they will be sure to come to you in your sleep.--G.D. PRENTICE.
The accusing spirit, which flew up to heaven's chancery with the oath,
blushed as he gave it in; and the recording angel, as he wrote it
down, dropped a tear upon the word and blotted it out forever.--STERNE.
There are two angels that attend unseen
Each one of us, and in great books record
Our good and evil deeds. He who writes down
The good ones, after every action closes
His volume, and ascends with it to God.
The other keeps his dreadful day-book open
Till sunset, that we may repent; which doing,
The record of the action fades away,
And leaves a line of white across the page.
Now if my act be good, as I believe it,
It cannot be recalled. It is already
Sealed up in heaven, as a good deed accomplished.
The rest is yours.
--LONGFELLOW.
Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.
--MILTON.
ANGER.--And to be wroth with one we love
Doth work like madness in the brain.
--COLERIDGE.
Anger is implanted in us as a sort of sting, to make us gnash with our
teeth against the devil, to make us vehement against him, not to set
us in array against each other.
When anger rushes unrestrain'd to action,
Like a hot steed, it stumbles in its way.
--SAVAGE.
Lamentation is the only musician that always, like a screech-owl,
alights and sits on the roof of an angry man.--PLUTARCH.
He is a fool who cannot be angry; but he is a wise man who will
not.--SENECA.
Men in rage strike those that wish them best.--SHAKESPEARE.
Men often make up in wrath what they want in reason.--W.R. ALGER.
Anger is the most impotent passion that accompanies the mind of man;
it effects nothing it goes about; and hurts the man who is possessed
by it more than any other against whom it is directed.--CLARENDON.
When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.
--JEFFERSON.
An angry man opens his mouth and shuts up his eyes.--CATO.
When a man is wrong and won't admit it, he always gets angry.
--HALIBURTON.
Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.--EPHESIANS 4:26.
Anger begins with folly and ends with repentance.--PYTHAGORAS.
Anger causes us often to condemn in one what we approve of in
another.--PASQUIER QUESNEL.
ANXIETY.--Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions than
ruined by too confident a security.--BURKE.
Can your solicitude alter the cause or unravel the intricacy of human
events?--BLAIR.
Almost all men are over-anxious. No sooner do they enter the world
than they lose that taste for natural and simple pleasures so
remarkable in early life. Every hour do they ask themselves what
progress they have made in the pursuit of wealth or honor; and on they
go as their fathers went before them, till, weary and sick at heart,
they look back with a sigh of regret to the golden time of their
childhood.--ROGERS.
Nothing in life is more remarkable than the unnecessary anxiety which
we endure and generally occasion ourselves.--BEACONSFIELD.
ART.--The perfection of art is to conceal art.--QUINTILIAN.
Art must anchor in nature, or it is the sport of every breath of
folly.--HAZLITT.
Beauty is at once the ultimate principle and the highest aim of
art.--GOETHE.
Art does not imitate, but interpret.--MAZZINI.
Art is the gift of God, and must be used unto his glory.--LONGFELLOW.
ASSOCIATES.--Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good
manners.--1 CORINTHIANS 15:20.
He who comes from the kitchen smells of its smoke; he who adheres to a
sect has something of its cant; the college air pursues the student,
and dry inhumanity him who herds with literary pedants.--LAVATER.
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise.--SOLOMON.
If you always live with those who are lame, you will yourself learn to
limp.--FROM THE LATIN.
If men wish to be held in esteem, they must associate with those only
who are estimable.--LA BRUYÈRE.
Be very circumspect in the choice of thy company. In the society of
thine equals thou shalt enjoy more pleasure; in the society of thy
superiors thou shalt find more profit. To be the best in the company
is the way to grow worse; the best means to grow better is to be the
worst there.--QUARLES.
A companion of fools shall be destroyed.--PROVERBS 13:20.
Choose the company of your superiors whenever you can have it.--LORD
CHESTERFIELD.
I set it down as a maxim, that it is good for a man to live where he
can meet his betters, intellectual and social.--THACKERAY.
Keep good company, and you shall be of the number.--GEORGE HERBERT.
It is best to be with those in time that we hope to be with in
eternity.--FULLER.
ASTRONOMY.--The contemplation of celestial things will make a man both
speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he descends to
human affairs.--CICERO.
The sun rejoicing round the earth, announced
Daily the wisdom, power and love of God.
The moon awoke, and from her maiden face,
Shedding her cloudy locks, looked meekly forth,
And with her virgin stars walked in the heavens,--
Walked nightly there, conversing as she walked,
Of purity, and holiness, and God.
--ROBERT POLLOK.
I love to rove amidst the starry height,
To leave the little scenes of Earth behind,
And let Imagination wing her flight
On eagle pinions swifter than the wind.
I love the planets in their course to trace;
To mark the comets speeding to the sun,
Then launch into immeasurable space,
Where, lost to human sight, remote they run.
I love to view the moon, when high she rides
Amidst the heav'ns, in borrowed lustre bright;
To fathom how she rules the subject tides,
And how she borrows from the sun her light.
O! these are wonders of th' Almighty hand,
Whose wisdom first the circling orbits planned.
--T. RODD.
ATHEISM.--I should like to see a man sober in his habits, moderate,
chaste, just in his dealings, assert that there is no God; he would
speak at least without interested motives; but such a man is not to be
found.--LA BRUYÈRE.
An Atheist-laugh's a poor exchange
For Deity offended!
--BURNS.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.--PSALM 14:1.
Kircher, the astronomer, having an acquaintance who denied the
existence of a Supreme Being, took the following method to convince
him of his error. Expecting him on a visit, he placed a handsome
celestial globe in a part of the room where it could not escape the
notice of his friend, who, on observing it, inquired whence it came,
and who was the maker.
"It was not made by any person," said the astronomer.
"That is impossible," replied the sceptic; "you surely jest."
Kircher then took occasion to reason with his friend upon his own
atheistical principles, explaining to him that he had adopted this
plan with a design to show him the fallacy of his scepticism.
"You will not," said he, "admit that this small body originated in
mere chance, and yet you contend that those heavenly bodies, to which
it bears only a faint and diminutive resemblance, came into existence
without author or design."
He pursued this chain of reasoning till his friend was totally
confounded, and cordially acknowledged the absurdity of his notions.
By night an atheist half believes a God.--YOUNG.
No one is so much alone in the world as a denier of God.--RICHTER.
When men live as if there were no God, it becomes expedient for them
that there should be none; and then they endeavor to persuade
themselves so.--TILLOTSON.
Atheism is the result of ignorance and pride, of strong sense and
feeble reasons, of good eating and ill living.--JEREMY COLLIER.
Atheism can benefit no class of people,--neither the unfortunate, whom
it bereaves of hope, nor the prosperous, whose joys it renders
insipid.--CHATEAUBRIAND.
AUTHORITY.--Self-possession is the backbone of authority.--HALIBURTON.
Man, proud man!
Dressed in a little brief authority:
Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd.
His glassy essence--like an angry ape
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep.
--SHAKESPEARE.
Though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is oft led by the nose
with gold.--SHAKESPEARE.
AUTHORS.--Choose an author as you choose a friend.--EARL OF ROSCOMMON.
The motives and purposes of authors are not always so pure and high,
as, in the enthusiasm of youth, we sometimes imagine. To many the
trumpet of fame is nothing but a tin horn to call them home, like
laborers from the field, at dinner-time, and they think themselves
lucky to get the dinner.--LONGFELLOW.
It is a doubt whether mankind are most indebted to those who, like
Bacon and Butler, dig the gold from the mine of literature, or to
those who, like Paley, purify it, stamp it, fix its real value, and
give it currency and utility.--COLTON.
Twenty to one offend more in writing too much than too little.--ROGER
ASCHAM.
He who proposes to be an author should first be a student.--DRYDEN.
Nothing is so beneficial to a young author as the advice of a man
whose judgment stands constitutionally at the freezing-point.--DOUGLAS
JERROLD.
No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this
self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the
mind.--CERVANTES.
There are three difficulties in authorship--to write anything worth
the publishing, to find honest men to publish it, and to get sensible
men to read it.--COLTON.
An author! 'Tis a venerable name!
How few deserve it, and what numbers claim!
Unblest with sense above their peers refin'd,
Who shall stand up, dictators to mankind?
Nay, who dare shine, if not in virtue's cause?
That sole proprietor of just applause.
--YOUNG.
Never write on a subject without having first read yourself full on
it; and never read on a subject till you have thought yourself hungry
on it.--RICHTER.
How many great ones may remember'd be,
Which in their days most famously did flourish,
Of whom no word we hear, nor sign now see,
But as things wip'd out with a sponge do perish,
Because the living cared not to cherish
No gentle wits, through pride or covetize,
Which might their names for ever memorize!
--SPENSER.
The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things
familiar, and familiar things new.--THACKERAY.
To write well is to think well, to feel well, and to render well; it
is to possess at once intellect, soul and taste.--BUFFON.
Young authors give their brains much exercise and little food.--JOUBERT.
AVARICE.--It is surely very narrow policy that supposes money to be
the chief good.--JOHNSON.
Poverty is in want of much, but avarice of everything.--PUBLIUS SYRUS.
There are two considerations which always imbitter the heart of an
avaricious man--the one is a perpetual thirst after more riches, the
other the prospect of leaving what he has already acquired.--FIELDING.
O cursed lust of gold: when for thy sake
The fool throws up his interest in both worlds,
First starved in this, then damn'd in that to come.
--BLAIR.
Many have been ruined by their fortunes; many have escaped ruin by the
want of fortune. To obtain it, the great have become little, and the
little great.--ZIMMERMANN.
Avarice is the vice of declining years.--GEORGE BANCROFT.
Riches, like insects, when conceal'd they lie,
Wait but for wings, and in their season fly.
Who sees pale Mammon pine amidst his store,
Sees but a backward steward for the poor;
This year a reservoir, to keep and spare;
The next a fountain, spouting thro' his heir
In lavish streams to quench a country's thirst,
And men and dogs shall drink him till they burst.
--POPE.
The love of money is the root of all evil.--1 TIMOTHY 6:10.
The avaricious man is like the barren, sandy ground of the desert,
which sucks in all the rain and dews with greediness, but yields no
fruitful herbs or plants for the benefit of others.--ZENO.
Avarice in old age, is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to
increase our provisions for the road, the nearer we approach to our
journey's end?--CICERO.
Poverty wants some, luxury many, and avarice all things.--COWLEY.
BASHFULNESS.--Modesty is the graceful, calm virtue of maturity;
bashfulness the charm of vivacious youth.--MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT.
As those that pull down private houses adjoining to the temples of the
gods, prop up such parts as are contiguous to them; so, in undermining
bashfulness, due regard is to be had to adjacent modesty, good-nature
and humanity.--PLUTARCH.
Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.
--ARISTOTLE.
Women who are the least bashful are not unfrequently the most modest;
and we are never more deceived than when we would infer any laxity of
principle from that freedom of demeanor which often arises from a
total ignorance of vice.--COLTON.
BEAUTY.--It is beauty that begins to please, and tenderness that
completes the charm.--FONTENELLE.
Keats spoke for all time when he said, "A thing of beauty is a joy
forever."--THACKERAY.
Beauty is an outward gift which is seldom despised except by those to
whom it has been refused.--GIBBON.
What is beauty? Not the show
Of shapely limbs and features. No.
These are but flowers
That have their dated hours
To breathe their momentary sweets, then go.
'Tis the stainless soul within
That outshines the fairest skin.
--SIR A. HUNT.
I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within.--SOCRATES.
Happily there exists more than one kind of beauty. There is the
beauty of infancy, the beauty of youth, the beauty of maturity, and,
believe me, ladies and gentlemen, the beauty of age.--G.A. SALA.
There is no beauty on earth which exceeds the natural loveliness of
woman.--J. PETIT-SENN.
There is a self-evident axiom, that she who is born a beauty is half
married.--OUIDA.
Beauty attracts us men, but if, like an armed magnet it is pointed
with gold or silver beside, it attracts with tenfold power.--RICHTER.
If thou marry beauty, thou bindest thyself all thy life for that
which, perchance, will neither last nor please thee one year.--RALEIGH.
It is seldom that beautiful persons are otherwise of great virtue.
--BACON.
The most natural beauty in the world is honesty and moral truth.
--SHAFTESBURY.
Every year of my life I grow more convinced that it is wisest and best
to fix our attention on the beautiful and good and dwell as little as
possible on the dark and the base.--CECIL.
A woman possessing nothing but outward advantages is like a flower
without fragrance, a tree without fruit.--REGNIER.
All orators are dumb, when beauty pleadeth.--SHAKESPEARE.
Who has not experienced how, on near acquaintance, plainness becomes
beautified, and beauty loses its charm, exactly according to the
quality of the heart and mind? And from this cause am I of opinion
that the want of outward beauty never disquiets a noble nature or will
be regarded as a misfortune. It never can prevent people from being
amiable and beloved in the highest degree.--FREDERIKA BREMER.
Good nature will always supply the absence of beauty; but beauty
cannot supply the absence of good nature.--ADDISON.
There should be, methinks, as little merit in loving a woman for her
beauty as in loving a man for his prosperity; both being equally
subject to change.--POPE.
Socrates called beauty a short-lived tyranny; Plato, a privilege of
nature; Theophrastus, a silent cheat; Theocritus, a delightful
prejudice; Carneades, a solitary kingdom; Domitian said, that nothing
was more grateful; Aristotle affirmed that beauty was better than all
the letters of recommendation in the world; Homer, that 'twas a
glorious gift of nature, and Ovid, alluding to him, calls it a favor
bestowed by the gods.--FROM THE ITALIAN.
Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good,
A shining gloss, that fadeth suddenly;
A flower that dies, when first it 'gins to bud;
A brittle glass, that's broken presently;
A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,
Lost, faded, broken, dead within an hour.
And as good lost is seld or never found,
As fading gloss no rubbing will refresh,
As flowers dead lie wither'd on the ground,
As broken glass no cement can redress,
So beauty blemish'd once, for ever's lost,
In spite of physic, painting, pain and cost.
--SHAKESPEARE.
Give me a look, give me a face,
That makes simplicity a grace;
Robes loosely flowing, hair as free!
Such sweet neglect more taketh me,
Than all the adulteries of art;
That strike mine eyes, but not my heart.
--BEN JONSON.
BENEVOLENCE.--Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward
heaven.--BEECHER.
The disposition to give a cup of cold water to a disciple is a far
nobler property than the finest intellect. Satan has a fine intellect
but not the image of God.--HOWELLS.
Animated by Christian motives and directed to Christian ends, it shall
in no wise go unrewarded; here, by the testimony of an approving
conscience; hereafter, by the benediction of our blessed Redeemer, and
a brighter inheritance in His Father's house.--BISHOP MANT.
God will excuse our prayers for ourselves whenever we are prevented
from them by being occupied in such good works as to entitle us to the
prayers of others.--COLTON.
The lower a man descends in his love, the higher he lifts his life.
--W.R. ALGER.
There is nothing that requires so strict an economy as our
benevolence. We should husband our means as the agriculturalist his
fertilizer, which if he spread over too large a superficies produces
no crop, if over too small a surface, exuberates in rankness and in
weeds.--COLTON.
The conqueror is regarded with awe, the wise man commands our esteem;
but it is the benevolent man who wins our affections.--FROM THE FRENCH.
Never lose a chance of saying a kind word. As Collingwood never saw a
vacant place in his estate but he took an acorn out of his pocket and
popped it in, so deal with your compliments through life. An acorn
costs nothing; but it may sprout into a prodigious bit of timber.
--THACKERAY.
You will find people ready enough to do the Samaritan without the oil
and twopence.--SYDNEY SMITH.
Genuine benevolence is not stationary, but peripatetic. It _goeth_
about doing good.--NEVINS.
Benevolence is not in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth. It
is a business with men as they are, and with human life as drawn by
the rough hand of experience. It is a duty which you must perform at
the call of principle; though there be no voice of eloquence to give
splendor to your exertions, and no music of poetry to lead your
willing footsteps through the bowers of enchantment. It is not the
impulse of high and ecstatic emotion. It is an exertion of principle.
You must go to the poor man's cottage, though no verdure flourish
around it, and no rivulet be nigh to delight you by the gentleness of
its murmurs. If you look for the romantic simplicity of fiction you
will be disappointed; but it is your duty to persevere, in spite of
every discouragement. Benevolence is not merely a feeling but a
principle; not a dream of rapture for the fancy to indulge in, but a
business for the hand to execute.--CHALMERS.
The only way to be loved, is to be and to appear lovely; to possess
and display kindness, benevolence, tenderness; to be free from
selfishness and to be alive to the welfare of others.--JAY.
Beneficence is a duty. He who frequently practices it, and sees his
benevolent intentions realized, at length comes really to love him to
whom he has done good. When, therefore, it is said, "Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself," it is not meant, thou shalt love him first
and do him good in consequence of that love, but, thou shalt do good
to thy neighbor; and this thy beneficence will engender in thee that
love to mankind which is the fulness and consummation of the
inclination to do good.--KANT.
The lessons of prudence have charms,
And slighted, may lead to distress;
But the man whom benevolence warms
Is an angel who lives but to bless.
--BLOOMFIELD.
Every virtue carries with it its own reward, but none in so
distinguished and pre-eminent a degree as benevolence.
BIBLE.--The Bible begins gloriously with Paradise, the symbol of
youth, and ends with the everlasting kingdom, with the holy city. The
history of every man should be a Bible.--NOVALIS.
The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of
suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying.--FLAVEL.
Within that awful volume lies
The mystery of mysteries!
Happiest they of human race,
To whom God has granted grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,
To lift the latch and force the way;
And better had they ne'er been born,
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.
--SCOTT.
Like the needle to the North Pole, the Bible points to heaven.
--R.B. NICHOL.
There are two books laid before us to study, to prevent our falling
into error: first, the volume of the Scriptures, which reveal the will
of God; then the volume of the Creatures, which express His power.
--BACON.
Men cannot be well educated without the Bible. It ought, therefore, to
hold the chief place in every situation of learning throughout
Christendom; and I do not know of a higher service that could be
rendered to this republic than the bringing about this desirable
result.--DR. NUTT.
What is the Bible in your house? It is not the Old Testament, it is
not the New Testament, it is not the gospel according to Matthew, or
Mark, or Luke, or John; it is the Gospel according to William, it is
the Gospel according to Mary, it is the Gospel according to Henry and
James, it is the Gospel according to your name. You write your own
Bible.--BEECHER.
A single book has saved me; but that book is not of human origin. Long
had I despised it; long had I deemed it a class-book for the credulous
and ignorant; until, having investigated the Gospel of Christ, with an
ardent desire to ascertain its truth or falsity, its pages proffered
to my inquiries the simplest knowledge of man and nature, and the
simplest, and at the same time the most exalted system of moral
ethics. Faith, hope and charity were enkindled in my bosom; and every
advancing step strengthened me in the conviction that the morals of
this book are as infinitely superior to human morals as its oracles
are superior to human opinions.--M.L. BAUTIN.
Whence but from Heaven, could men unskill'd in arts,
In several ages born, in several parts,
Weave such agreeing truths? or how, or why
Should all conspire to cheat us with a lie?
--DRYDEN.
Good, the more communicated, more abundant grows.--MILTON.
I will answer for it, the longer you read the Bible, the more you will
like it; it will grow sweeter and sweeter; and the more you get into
the spirit of it, the more you will get into the spirit of Christ.
--ROMAINE.
It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without
any mixture of error, for its matter: it is all pure, all sincere,
nothing too much, nothing wanting.--LOCKE.
A Bible and a newspaper in every house, a good school in every
district--all studied and appreciated as they merit--are the principal
support of virtue, morality and civil liberty.--FRANKLIN.
Here there is milk for babes, whilst there is manna for angels; truth
level with the mind of a peasant; truth soaring beyond the reach of a
seraph.--REV. HUGH STOWELL.
It is belief in the Bible, the fruits of deep meditation, which has
served me as the guide of my moral and literary life. I have found
capital safely invested and richly productive of interest, although I
have sometimes made but a bad use of it.--GOETHE.
BIGOTRY.--All looks yellow to the jaundiced eye.--POPE.
Bigotry dwarfs the soul by shutting out the truth.--CHAPIN.
A man must be excessively stupid, as well as uncharitable, who
believes there is no virtue but on his own side.--ADDISON.
Show me the man who would go to heaven alone if he could, and in that
man I will show you one who will never be admitted into heaven.--FELTHAM.
BIOGRAPHY.--The great lesson of biography is to show what man can be
and do at his best. A noble life put fairly on record acts like an
inspiration to others.--SAMUEL SMILES.
Biography, especially the biography of the great and good, who have
risen by their own exertions from poverty and obscurity to eminence
and usefulness, is an inspiring and ennobling study. Its direct
tendency is to reproduce the excellence it records.--HORACE MANN.
To be ignorant of the lives of the most celebrated men of antiquity
is to continue in a state of childhood all our days.--PLUTARCH.
BOASTING.--Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed;
nature never pretends.--LAVATER.
Where boasting ends, there dignity begins.--YOUNG.
A gentleman that loves to hear himself talk will speak more in a
minute than he will stand to in a month.--SHAKESPEARE.
Men of real merit, and whose noble and glorious deeds we are ready to
acknowledge, are yet not to be endured when they vaunt their own
actions.--ÆSCHINES.
The less people speak of their greatness the more we think of
it.--BACON.
Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,
Brags of his substance, not of ornament:
They are but beggars that can count their worth.
--SHAKESPEARE.
BOOKS.--When friends grow cold, and the converse of intimates
languishes into vapid civility and commonplace, books only continue
the unaltered countenance of happier days, and cheer us with that true
friendship which never deceived hope nor deserted sorrow.--WASHINGTON
IRVING.
No book can be so good as to be profitable when negligently read.
--SENECA.
He who loves not books before he comes to thirty years of age, will
hardly love them enough afterward to understand them.--CLARENDON.
I like books. I was born and bred among them, and have the easy
feeling, when I get in their presence, that a stable-boy has among
horses.--O.W. HOLMES.
Many readers judge of the power of a book by the shock it gives their
feelings--as some savage tribes determine the power of muskets by
their recoil; that being considered best which fairly prostrates the
purchaser.--LONGFELLOW.
Nothing can supply the place of books. They are cheering or soothing
companions in solitude, illness, affliction. The wealth of both
continents would not compensate for the good they impart.--CHANNING.
We should have a glorious conflagration if all who cannot put _fire_
into their works would only consent to put their works into the
_fire_.--COLTON.
Books, dear books,
Have been, and are my comforts; morn and night,
Adversity, prosperity, at home,
Abroad, health, sickness--good or ill report,
The same firm friends; the same refreshment rich,
And source of consolation.
--DR. DODD.
When a book raises your spirit, and inspires you with noble and
courageous feelings, seek for no other rule to judge the work by; it
is good, and made by a good workman.--LA BRUYÈRE.
Books are a guide in youth, and an entertainment for age. They support
us under solitude, and keep us from becoming a burden to ourselves.
They help us to forget the crossness of men and things, compose our
cares and our passions, and lay our disappointments asleep. When we
are weary of the living, we may repair to the dead, who have nothing
of peevishness, pride or design in their conversation.--JEREMY COLLIER.
He that studies books alone, will know how things ought to be; and he
that studies men will know how things are.--COLTON.
It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part;
the rest are confounded with the multitude.--VOLTAIRE.
Good books are to the young mind what the warming sun and the
refreshing rain of spring are to the seeds which have lain dormant in
the frosts of winter. They are more, for they may save from that which
is worse than death, as well as bless with that which is better than
life.--HORACE MANN.
The books which help you most are those which make you think the most.
The hardest way of learning is by easy reading: but a great book that
comes from a great thinker--it is a ship of thought, deep freighted
with truth and with beauty.--THEODORE PARKER.
Books, like friends, should be few, and well chosen.
Thou mayst as well expect to grow stronger by always eating as wiser
by always reading. Too much overcharges nature, and turns more into
disease than nourishment. 'Tis thought and digestion which makes books
serviceable, and gives health and vigor to the mind.--FULLER.
BREVITY.--Brevity is the soul of wit, and tediousness the limbs and
outward flourishes.--SHAKESPEARE.
Brevity in writing is what charity is to all other
virtues--righteousness is nothing without the one, nor authorship
without the other.--SYDNEY SMITH.
If you would be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with
sunbeams--the more they are condensed the deeper they burn.--SOUTHEY.
The more an idea is developed the more concise becomes its expression;
the more a tree is pruned, the better is the fruit.--ALFRED BOUGEANT.
The more you say the less people remember. The fewer the words, the
greater the profit.--FÉNELON.
With vivid words your just conceptions grace,
Much truth compressing in a narrow space;
Then many shall peruse, but few complain,
And envy frown, and critics snarl in vain.
--PINDAR.
Brevity is the child of silence, and is a credit to its parentage.
--H.W. SHAW.
A verse may find him whom a sermon flies.--GEORGE HERBERT.
When a man has no design but to speak plain truth, he may say a great
deal in a very narrow compass.--STEELE.
BUSINESS.--That which is everybody's business is nobody's business.
--IZAAK WALTON.
Formerly when great fortunes were only made in war, war was a
business; but now, when great fortunes are only made by business,
business is war.--BOVEE.
Call on a business man at business times only, and on business,
transact your business and go about your business, in order to give
him time to finish his business.--DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
Men of great parts are often unfortunate in the management of public
business, because they are apt to go out of the common road by the
quickness of their imagination.--SWIFT.
Rare almost as great poets, rarer, perhaps, than veritable saints and
martyrs, are consummate men of business. A man, to be excellent in
this way, requires a great knowledge of character, with that exquisite
tact which feels unerringly the right moment when to act. A discreet
rapidity must pervade all the movements of his thought and action. He
must be singularly free from vanity, and is generally found to be an
enthusiast who has the art to conceal his enthusiasm.--HELPS.
It is very sad for a man to make himself servant to a thing, his
manhood all taken out of him by the hydraulic pressure of excessive
business. I should not like to be merely a great doctor, a great
lawyer, a great minister, a great politician--I should like to be also
something of a man.--THEODORE PARKER.
Not because of any extraordinary talents did he succeed, but because
he had a capacity on a level for business and not above it.--TACITUS.
The great secret both of health and successful industry is the
absolute yielding up of one's consciousness to the business and
diversion of the hour--never permitting the one to infringe in the
least degree upon the other.--SISMONDI.
Few people do business well who do nothing else.--CHESTERFIELD.
To men addicted to delights, business is an interruption; to such as
are cold to delights, business is an entertainment. For which reason
it was said to one who commended a dull man for his application, "No
thanks to him; if he had no business, he would have nothing to
do."--STEELE.
CARE.--To carry care to bed is to sleep with a pack on your back.
--HALIBURTON.
Cast all your care on God: that anchor holds.--TENNYSON.
Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt,
And every grin, so merry, draws one out.
--DR. WOLCOT.
He who climbs above the cares of this world, and turns his face to his
God, has found the sunny side of life.--SPURGEON.
CAUTION.--It is a good thing to learn caution by the misfortunes of
others.--PUBLIUS SYRUS.
Vessels large may venture more,
But little boats should keep near shore.
--BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
Caution is the eldest child of wisdom.--VICTOR HUGO.
All is to be feared where all is to be lost.--BYRON.
CENSURE.--Few persons have sufficient wisdom to prefer censure which
is useful to them to praise which deceives them.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
To arrive at perfection, a man should have very sincere friends, or
inveterate enemies; because he would be made sensible of his good or
ill conduct either by the censures of the one or the admonitions of
the others.--DIOGENES.
Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.--SWIFT.
The villain's censure is extorted praise.--POPE.
CHARACTER.--How wonderfully beautiful is the delineation of the
characters of the three patriarchs in Genesis! To be sure if ever man
could, without impropriety, be called, or supposed to be, "the friend
of God," Abraham was that man. We are not surprised that Abimelech and
Ephron seem to reverence him so profoundly. He was peaceful, because
of his conscious relation to God.--S.T. COLERIDGE.
The great hope of society is individual character.--CHANNING.
A man is known to his dog by the smell, to his tailor by the coat, to
his friend by the smile; each of these know him, but how little or how
much depends on the dignity of the intelligence. That which is truly
and indeed characteristic of the man is known only to God.--RUSKIN.
Never does a man portray his own character more vividly than in his
manner of portraying another.--RICHTER.
There are beauties of character which, like the night-blooming cereus,
are closed against the glare and turbulence of every-day life, and
bloom only in shade and solitude, and beneath the quiet
stars.--TUCKERMAN.