background the consolation that he will go on in this course only this
time, or only so long, but that at such a time he will amend. We may
be assured that we do not stand clear with our own consciences so long
as we determine or project, or even hold it possible, at some future
time to alter our course of action.--FICHTE.
There is one court whose "findings" are incontrovertible, and whose
sessions are held in the chambers of our own breast.--HOSEA BALLOU.
Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience in everything.
--STERNE.
He that hath a blind conscience which sees nothing, a dead conscience
which feels nothing, and a dumb conscience which says nothing, is in
as miserable a condition as a man can be on this side of hell.
--PATRICK HENRY.
Conscience is its own readiest accuser.--CHAPIN.
If thou wouldst be informed what God has written concerning thee in
Heaven look into thine own bosom, and see what graces He hath there
wrought in thee.--FULLER.
Yet still there whispers the small voice within,
Heard thro' gain's silence, and o'er glory's din;
Whatever creed be taught or land be trod,
Man's conscience is the oracle of God!
--BYRON.
The world will never be in any manner of order or tranquillity until
men are firmly convinced that conscience, honor and credit are all in
one interest; and that without the concurrence of the former the
latter are but impositions upon ourselves and others.--STEELE.
CONTENTMENT.--To secure a contented spirit, measure your desires by
your fortune, and not your fortune by your desires.--JEREMY TAYLOR.
I press to bear no haughty sway;
I wish no more than may suffice:
I do no more than well I may,
Look what I lack, my mind supplies;
Lo, thus I triumph like a king,
My mind's content with anything.
--BYRD.
Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of
another.--CONDORCET.
To be content with little is difficult; to be content with much,
impossible.--MARIE EBNER-ESCHENBACH.
My God, give me neither poverty nor riches; but whatsoever it may be
Thy will to give, give me with it a heart which knows humbly to
acquiesce in what is Thy will.--GOTTHOLD.
One who is contented with what he has done will never become famous
for what he will do. He has lain down to die. The grass is already
growing over him.--BOVEE.
Contentment is a pearl of great price, and whoever procures it at the
expense of ten thousand desires makes a wise and a happy
purchase.--BALGUY.
If men knew what felicity dwells in the cottage of a godly man, how
sound he sleeps, how quiet his rest, how composed his mind, how free
from care, how easy his position, how moist his mouth, how joyful his
heart, they would never admire the noises, the diseases, the throngs
of passions, and the violence of unnatural appetites that fill the
house of the luxurious and the heart of the ambitious.--JEREMY TAYLOR.
He is richest who is content with the least; for content is the wealth
of nature.--SOCRATES.
Poor and content, is rich and rich enough;
But riches, fineless, is as poor as winter,
To him that ever fears he shall be poor.
--SHAKESPEARE.
Learn to be pleased with everything, with wealth so far as it makes us
beneficial to others; with poverty, for not having much to care for;
and with obscurity, for being unenvied.--PLUTARCH.
It is right to be contented with what we have, but never with what we
are.--SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.
Without content, we shall find it almost as difficult to please
others as ourselves.--GREVILLE.
True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough
for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.--COLTON.
Content with poverty my soul I arm;
And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.
--DRYDEN.
Unless we find repose within ourselves, it is vain to seek it
elsewhere.--HOSEA BALLOU.
The noblest mind the best contentment has.--SPENSER.
I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
--PHILIPPIANS 4:11.
CONVERSATION.--The pith of conversation does not consist in exhibiting
your own superior knowledge on matters of small consequence, but in
enlarging, improving and correcting the information you possess by the
authority of others.--SIR WALTER SCOTT.
There are three things in speech that ought to be considered before
some things are spoken--the manner, the place and the time.--SOUTHEY.
The secret of tiring is to say everything that can be said on the
subject.--VOLTAIRE.
Speak little and well if you wish to be considered as possessing
merit.--FROM THE FRENCH.
The less men think, the more they talk.--MONTESQUIEU.
He who sedulously attends, pointedly asks, calmly speaks, coolly
answers, and ceases when he has no more to say, is in possession of
some of the best requisites of man.--LAVATER.
Amongst such as out of cunning hear all and talk little, be sure to
talk less; or if you must talk, say little.--LA BRUYÈRE.
Not only to say the right thing in the right place, but, far more
difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting
moment.--G.A. SALA.
When we are in the company of sensible men, we ought to be doubly
cautious of talking too much, lest we lose two good things, their good
opinion and our own improvement; for what we have to say we know, but
what they have to say we know not.--COLTON.
Never hold any one by the button or the hand in order to be heard out;
for if people are unwilling to hear you, you had better hold your
tongue than them.--CHESTERFIELD.
There is speaking well, speaking easily, speaking justly and speaking
seasonably: It is offending against the last, to speak of
entertainments before the indigent; of sound limbs and health before
the infirm; of houses and lands before one who has not so much as a
dwelling; in a word, to speak of your prosperity before the miserable;
this conversation is cruel, and the comparison which naturally arises
in them betwixt their condition and yours is excruciating.
--LA BRUYÈRE.
Egotists cannot converse, they talk to themselves only.--A. BRONSON
ALCOTT.
The extreme pleasure we take in talking of ourselves should make
us fear that we give very little to those who listen to us.
--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
Many can argue, not many converse.--A. BRONSON ALCOTT.
One thing which makes us find so few people who appear reasonable and
agreeable in conversation is, that there is scarcely any one who does
not think more of what he is about to say than of answering precisely
what is said to him.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next good sense,
the third good humor, and the fourth wit.
It is a secret known but to few, yet of no small use in the conduct of
life, that when you fall into a man's conversation, the first thing
you should consider is, whether he has a greater inclination to hear
you, or that you should hear him.--STEELE.
In my whole life I have only known ten or twelve persons with whom it
was pleasant to speak--_i.e._, who keep to the subject, do not repeat
themselves, and do not talk of themselves; men who do not listen to
their own voice, who are cultivated enough not to lose themselves in
commonplaces, and, lastly, who possess tact and good taste enough not
to elevate their own persons above their subjects.--METTERNICH.
COUNSEL.--I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be
one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching.--SHAKESPEARE.
The best receipt--best to work and best to take--is the admonition of
a friend.--BACON.
Consult your friend on all things, especially on those which respect
yourself. His counsel may then be useful, where your own self-love
might impair your judgment.--SENECA.
Let no man value at little price a virtuous woman's counsel.--GEORGE
CHAPMAN.
COURAGE.--The conscience of every man recognizes courage as the
foundation of manliness, and manliness as the perfection of human
character.--THOMAS HUGHES.
To struggle when hope is banished!
To live when life's salt is gone!
To dwell in a dream that's vanished!
To endure, and go calmly on!
The brave man is not he who feels no fear,
For that were stupid and irrational;
But he, whose noble soul its fear subdues,
And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from.
--JOANNA BAILLIE.
A valiant man
Ought not to undergo or tempt a danger,
But worthily, and by selected ways;
He undertakes by reason, not by chance.
--BEN JONSON.
True courage is cool and calm. The bravest of men have the least of a
brutal bullying insolence, and in the very time of danger are found
the most serene and free. Rage, we know, can make a coward forget
himself and fight. But what is done in fury or anger can never be
placed to the account of courage.--SHAFTESBURY.
Much danger makes great hearts most resolute.--MARSTON.
Courage consists not in blindly overlooking danger, but in seeing it
and conquering it.--RICHTER.
The truest courage is always mixed with circumspection; this being the
quality which distinguishes the courage of the wise from the hardiness
of the rash and foolish.--JONES OF NAYLAND.
Physical courage, which despises all danger, will make a man brave in
one way; and moral courage, which despises all opinion, will make a
man brave in another. The former would seem most necessary for the
camp, the latter for council; but to constitute a great man, both are
necessary.--COLTON.
He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but
he that loses his courage loses all.--CERVANTES.
COURTSHIP.--Every man ought to be in love a few times in his life,
and to have a smart attack of the fever. You are better for it when it
is over: the better for your misfortune, if you endure it with a manly
heart; how much the better for success, if you win it and a good wife
into the bargain!--THACKERAY.
Men dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake!--POPE.
With women worth the being won,
The softest lover ever best succeeds.
--HILL.
The pleasantest part of a man's life is generally that which passes in
courtship, provided his passion be sincere, and the party beloved kind
with discretion. Love, desire, hope, all the pleasing emotions of the
soul, rise in the pursuit.--ADDISON.
How would that excellent mystery, wedded life, irradiate the world
with its blessed influences, were the generous impulses and sentiments
of courtship but perpetuated in all their exuberant fullness during
the sequel of marriage!--FREDERIC SAUNDERS.
Rejected lovers need never despair! There are four-and-twenty hours in
a day, and not a moment in the twenty-four in which a woman may not
change her mind.--DE FINOD.
Courtship consists in a number of quiet attentions, not so pointed as
to alarm, nor so vague as not to be understood.--STERNE.
COVETOUSNESS.--Covetousness, like a candle ill made, smothers the
splendor of a happy fortune in its own grease.--F. OSBORN.
The only instance of a despairing sinner left upon record in the New
Testament is that of a treacherous and greedy Judas.
He deservedly loses his own property who covets that of another.
--PHAEDRUS.
Covetousness, which is idolatry.--COLOSSIANS 3:5.
There is not a vice which more effectually contracts and deadens the
feelings, which more completely makes a man's affections centre in
himself, and excludes all others from partaking in them, than the
desire of accumulating possessions. When the desire has once gotten
hold on the heart, it shuts out all other considerations, but such as
may promote its views. In its zeal for the attainment of its end, it
is not delicate in the choice of means. As it closes the heart, so
also it clouds the understanding. It cannot discern between right and
wrong; it takes evil for good, and good for evil; it calls darkness
light, and light darkness. Beware, then, of the beginning of
covetousness, for you know not where it will end.--BISHOP MANT.
The covetous person lives as if the world were made altogether for
him, and not he for the world; to take in everything, and part with
nothing.--SOUTH.
Covetous men are fools, miserable wretches, buzzards, madmen, who live
by themselves, in perpetual slavery, fear, suspicion, sorrow,
discontent, with more of gall than honey in their enjoyments; who are
rather possessed by their money than possessors of it.--BURTON.
Why are we so blind? That which we improve, we have, that which we
hoard is not for ourselves.--MADAME DELUZY.
If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man
cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that it may be said
to possess him.--BACON.
Those who give not till they die show that they would not then if
they could keep it any longer.--BISHOP HALL.
CRITICISM.--He whose first emotion, on the view of an excellent
production, is to undervalue it, will never have one of his own to
show.--AIKEN.
Neither praise nor blame is the object of true criticism. Justly to
discriminate, firmly to establish, wisely to prescribe and honestly to
award--these are the true aims and duties of criticism.--SIMMS.
Censure and criticism never hurt anybody. If false, they can't hurt
you unless you are wanting in manly character; and if true, they show
a man his weak points, and forewarn him against failure and
trouble.--GLADSTONE.
It is easy to criticise an author, but it is difficult to appreciate
him.--VAUVENARGUES.
It is much easier to be critical than to be correct.--BEACONSFIELD.
There is a certain meddlesome spirit, which, in the garb of learned
research, goes prying about the traces of history, casting down its
monuments, and marring and mutilating its fairest trophies. Care
should be taken to vindicate great names from such pernicious
erudition.--WASHINGTON IRVING.
He who would reproach an author for obscurity should look into his own
mind to see whether it is quite clear there. In the dusk the plainest
writing is illegible.--GOETHE.
A man must serve his time to ev'ry trade,
Save censure; critics all are ready-made.
CUNNING.--In a great business there is nothing so fatal as cunning
management.--JUNIUS.
Cunning leads to knavery; it is but a step from one to the other, and
that very slippery; lying only makes the difference; add that to
cunning, and it is knavery.--LA BRUYÈRE.
Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering
other people's weaknesses.--HAZLITT.
A cunning man overreaches no one half as much as himself.--BEECHER.
The animals to whom nature has given the faculty we call cunning know
always when to use it, and use it wisely; but when man descends to
cunning, he blunders and betrays.--THOMAS PAINE.
The most sure method of subjecting yourself to be deceived, is to
consider yourself more cunning than others.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
DEATH.--God's finger touch'd him, and he slept.--TENNYSON.
But no! that look is not the last;
We yet may meet where seraphs dwell,
Where love no more deplores the past,
Nor breathes that withering word--Farewell!
--PEABODY.
How beautiful it is for a man to die on the walls of Zion! to be
called like a watch-worn and weary sentinel, to put his armor off, and
rest in heaven.--N.P. WILLIS.
I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that sat on him was
Death.--REVELATION 6:8.
When we see our enemies and friends gliding away before us, let us not
forget that we are subject to the general law of mortality, and shall
soon be where our doom will be fixed forever.--DR. JOHNSON.
I have seen those who have arrived at a fearless contemplation of the
future, from faith in the doctrine which our religion teaches. Such
men were not only calm and supported, but cheerful in the hour of
death; and I never quitted such a sick chamber without a hope that my
last end might be like theirs.--SIR HENRY HALFORD.
One may live as a conqueror, a king or a magistrate; but he must die
as a man. The bed of death brings every human being to his pure
individuality; to the intense contemplation of that deepest and most
solemn of all relations, the relation between the creature and his
Creator. Here it is that fame and renown cannot assist us; that all
external things must fail to aid us; that even friends, affection and
human love and devotedness cannot succor us.--WEBSTER.
There is no death. The thing that we call death
Is but another, sadder name for life.
--STODDARD.
To die,--to sleep,--
No more;--and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to.
--SHAKESPEARE.
All that nature has prescribed must be good; and as death is natural
to us, it is absurdity to fear it. Fear loses its purpose when we are
sure it cannot preserve us, and we should draw resolution to meet it,
from the impossibility to escape it.--STEELE.
There is nothing certain in man's life but this, that he must lose
it.--OWEN MEREDITH.
Death robs the rich and relieves the poor.--J.L. BASFORD.
Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, the
physician of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the comforter of him
whom time cannot console.--COLTON.
Death, so called, is a thing that makes men weep,
And yet a third of life is pass'd in sleep.
--BYRON.
The finest day of life is that on which one quits it.--FREDERICK THE
GREAT.
Death is delightful. Death is dawn--
The waking from a weary night
Of fevers unto truth and light.
--JOAQUIN MILLER.
The hour conceal'd and so remote the fear,
Death still draws nearer, never seeming near.
--POPE.
All that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.
--SHAKESPEARE.
Death gives us sleep, eternal youth, and immortality.--RICHTER.
You should not fear, nor yet should you wish for your last day.
--MARTIAL.
No man but knows that he must die; he knows that in whatever quarter
of the world he abides--whatever be his circumstances--however strong
his present hold of life--however unlike the prey of death he
looks--that it is his doom beyond reverse to die.--STEBBING.
It is by no means a fact that death is the worst of all evils; when it
comes, it is an alleviation to mortals who are worn out with
sufferings.--METASTASIO.
God giveth quietness at last.--WHITTIER.
Death hath ten thousand several doors
For men to take their exits.
--JOHN WEBSTER.
Death will have his day.--SHAKESPEARE.
Death comes but once.--BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.
It is not I who die, when I die, but my sin and misery.--GOTTHOLD.
Death is the crown of life.--YOUNG.
So live, that, when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, that moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon; but sustain'd and sooth'd
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one that draws the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
--BRYANT.
DEBT.--Who goes a-borrowing goeth a-sorrowing.--TUSSER.
Creditors have better memories than debtors; and creditors are a
superstitious sect, great observers of set days and times.--FRANKLIN.
Man hazards the condition and loses the virtues of freeman, in
proportion as he accustoms his thoughts to view without anguish or
shame his lapse into the bondage of debtor.--LYTTON.
Paying of debts is, next to the grace of God, the best means in the
world to deliver you from a thousand temptations to sin and vanity.
--DELANY.
Run not into debt, either for wares sold, or money borrowed; be
content to want things that are not of absolute necessity, rather than
to run up the score.--SIR M. HALE.
Debt is the worst poverty.--M.G. LICHTWER.
DELICACY.--Delicacy is the genuine tint of virtue.--MARGUERITE DE
VALOIS.
Many things are too delicate to be thought; many more, to be spoken.
--NOVALIS.
An appearance of delicacy is inseparable from sweetness and gentleness
of character.--MRS. SIGOURNEY.
True delicacy, that most beautiful heart-leaf of humanity, exhibits
itself most significantly in little things.--MARY HOWITT.
Delicacy is to the affections what grace is to the beauty.--DEGERANDO.
Weak men often, from the very principle of their weakness, derive a
certain susceptibility, delicacy and taste which render them, in those
particulars, much superior to men of stronger and more consistent
minds, who laugh at them.--GREVILLE.
Delicacy is to the mind what fragrance is to the fruit.--ACHILLES
POINCELOT.
DELUSION.--Delusions, like dreams, are dispelled by our awaking to the
stern realities of life.--A.R.C. DALLAS.
No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as
necessary to our happiness as realities.--BOVEE.
We are always living under some delusion, and instead of taking things
as they are, and making the best of them, we follow an ignis fatuus,
and lose, in its pursuit, the joy we might attain.--JAMES ELLIS.
DESPAIR.--It is impossible for that man to despair who remembers that
his Helper is omnipotent.--JEREMY TAYLOR.
Despair is the conclusion of fools.--BEACONSFIELD.
He that despairs measures Providence by his own little contracted
model.--SOUTH.
Despair is infidelity and death.--WHITTIER.
Despair makes a despicable figure, and descends from a mean original.
'Tis the offspring of fear, of laziness and impatience; it argues a
defect of spirit and resolution, and oftentimes of honesty too. I
would not despair, unless I saw misfortune recorded in the book of
fate, and signed and sealed by necessity.--COLLIER.
Where Christ brings His cross, He brings His presence; and where He
is, none are desolate, and there is no room for despair.--MRS. BROWNING.
He is the truly courageous man who never desponds.--CONFUCIUS.
Religion converts despair, which destroys, into resignation, which
submits.--LADY BLESSINGTON.
Dreadful is their doom, whom doubt has driven
To censure fate, and pious hope forego.
--BEATTIE.
DIET.--Simple diet is best.--PLINY.
Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour.--SHAKESPEARE.
In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eat about twice
as much as nature requires.--FRANKLIN.
DIFFICULTIES.--Difficulties strengthen the mind, as well as labor does
the body.--SENECA.
There is no merit where there is no trial; and, till experience stamps
the mark of strength, cowards may pass for heroes, faith for
falsehood.--AARON HILL.
Difficulties are God's errands; and when we are sent upon them we
should esteem it a proof of God's confidence--as a compliment from
God.--BEECHER.
It is difficulties which give birth to miracles.--REV. DR. SHARPE.
What is difficulty? Only a word indicating the degree of strength
requisite for accomplishing particular objects; a mere notice of the
necessity for exertion; a bugbear to children and fools; only a mere
stimulus to men.--SAMUEL WARREN.
Difficulty is a severe instructor, set over us by the supreme
ordinance of a paternal guardian and legislator, who knows us better
than we know ourselves, as he loves us better too. He that wrestles
with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist
is our helper.--BURKE.
There are few difficulties that hold out against real attacks; they
fly, like the visible horizon, before those who advance.
DISCIPLINE.--No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no
glory; no cross, no crown.--WILLIAM PENN.
No evil propensity of the human heart is so powerful that it may not
be subdued by discipline.--SENECA.
DISCORD.--Our life is full of discord; but by forbearance and virtue
this same discord can be turned to harmony.--JAMES ELLIS.
The peacemakers shall be called the sons of God, who came to make
peace between God and man. What then shall the sowers of discord be
called, but the children of the devil? And what must they look for but
their father's portion?--ST. BERNARD.
DISCRETION.--Remember the divine saying, He that keepeth his mouth,
keepeth his life.--SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
There are many more shining qualities in the mind of man, but there is
none so useful as discretion.--ADDISON.
Discretion in speech is more than eloquence.--BACON.
Discretion and hard valor are the twins of honor.--BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.
The better part of valor is discretion.--SHAKESPEARE.
Discretion is more necessary to women than eloquence, because they
have less trouble to speak well than to speak little.--FATHER DU BOSC.
Let's teach ourselves that honorable stop
Not to outsport discretion.
--SHAKESPEARE.
Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to win all the
duties of life.--ADDISON.