virtues.--BISHOP HALL.
The superior man wishes to be slow in his words and earnest in his
conduct.--CONFUCIUS.
Moderation resembles temperance. We are not unwilling to eat more, but
are afraid of doing ourselves harm.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
To go beyond the bounds of moderation is to outrage humanity. The
greatness of the human soul is shown by knowing how to keep within
proper bounds. So far from greatness consisting in going beyond its
limits, it really consists in keeping within it.--PASCAL.
MODESTY.--A modest person seldom fails to gain the goodwill of those
he converses with, because nobody envies a man who does not appear to
be pleased with himself.--STEELE.
Modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with nobler
virtues.--GOLDSMITH.
True modesty avoids everything that is criminal; false modesty
everything that is unfashionable.--ADDISON.
You little know what you have done, when you have first broke the
bounds of modesty; you have set open the door of your fancy to the
devil, so that he can, almost at his pleasure ever after, represent
the same sinful pleasure to you anew.--BAXTER.
Modesty once extinguished knows not how to return.--SENECA.
Modesty never rages, never murmurs, never pouts when it is ill-treated.
--STEELE.
A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but
sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of; it
heightens all the virtues which it accompanies; like the shades in
paintings, it raises and rounds every figure, and makes the colors
more beautiful, though not so glaring as they would be without.
--ADDISON.
The first of all virtues is innocence; the next is modesty. If we
banish modesty out of the world, she carries away with her half the
virtue that is in it.--ADDISON.
The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does
not make a speech; he takes a low business tone, avoids all brag, is
nobody, dresses plainly, promises not at all, performs much, speaks in
monosyllables, hugs his fact. He calls his employment by its lowest
name, and so takes from evil tongues their sharpest weapon.--EMERSON.
God intended for women two preventatives against sin, modesty and
remorse; in confession to a mortal priest the former is removed by his
absolution, the latter is taken away.--MIRANDA OF PIEDMONT.
MONEY.--The love of money is the root of all evil.--1 TIMOTHY 6:10.
But for money and the need of it, there would not be half the
friendship in the world. It is powerful for good if divinely used.
Give it plenty of air, and it is sweet as the hawthorn; shut it up,
and it cankers and breeds worms.--GEORGE MACDONALD.
Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.--WESLEY.
What a dignity it gives an old lady, that balance at the bankers! How
tenderly we look at her faults if she is a relative; what a kind,
good-natured old creature we find her!--THACKERAY.
Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its
nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants.
Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. If it satisfies one
want, it doubles and trebles that want another way. That was a true
proverb of the wise man, rely upon it: "Better is little with the fear
of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith."--FRANKLIN.
A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.--SWIFT.
We must learn that competence is better than extravagance, that worth
is better than wealth, that the golden calf we have worshiped has no
more brains than that one of old which the Hebrews worshiped. So
beware of money and of money's worth as the supreme passion of the
mind. Beware of the craving for enormous acquisition.--BARTOL.
Money is a good servant, but a dangerous master.--BOUHOURS.
By doing good with his money, a man as it were stamps the image of God
upon it, and makes it pass current for the merchandise of heaven.
--RUTLEDGE.
To cure us of our immoderate love of gain, we should seriously
consider how many goods there are that money will not purchase, and
these the best; and how many evils there are that money will not
remedy, and these the worst.--COLTON.
The deepest depth of vulgarism is that of setting up money as the ark
of the covenant.--CARLYLE.
MORALITY.--In cases of doubtful morality, it is usual to say, Is there
any harm in doing this? This question may sometimes be best answered
by asking ourselves another: Is there any harm in letting it alone?
--COLTON.
To give a man a full knowledge of true morality, I would send him to
no other book than the New Testament.--LOCKE.
Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be
maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to
expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious
principle.--WASHINGTON.
Ten men have failed from defect in morals where one has failed from
defect in intellect.--HORACE MANN.
Socrates taught that true felicity is not to be derived from external
possessions, but from wisdom, which consists in the knowledge and
practice of virtue; that the cultivation of virtuous manners is
necessarily attended with pleasure as well as profit; that the honest
man alone is happy; and that it is absurd to attempt to separate
things which are in nature so closely united as virtue and interest.
--ENFIELD.
The moral law is written on the tablets of eternity. For every false
word or unrighteous deed, for cruelty and oppression, for lust or
vanity, the price has to be paid at last.--FROUDE.
Morality without religion, is only a kind of dead reckoning,--an
endeavor to find our place on a cloudy sea by measuring the distance
we have to run, but without any observation of the heavenly bodies.
--LONGFELLOW.
The system of morality which Socrates made it the business of his life
to teach was raised upon the firm basis of religion. The first
principles of virtuous conduct which are common to all mankind are,
according to this excellent moralist, laws of God; and the conclusive
argument by which he supports this opinion is, that no man departs
from these principles with impunity.--ENFIELD.
All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is
everywhere the same, because it comes from God.--VOLTAIRE.
MOTHER.--The mother in her office holds the key of the soul.--OLD PLAY.
There is a sight all hearts beguiling--
A youthful mother to her infant smiling,
Who with spread arms and dancing feet,
A cooing voice, returns its answer sweet.
--BAILLIE.
"What is wanting," said Napoleon one day to Madame Campan, "in order
that the youth of France be well educated?" "Good mothers," was the
reply. The emperor was most forcibly struck with this answer. "Here,"
said he, "is a system in one word."--ABBOTT.
A mother is a mother still,
The holiest thing alive.
--COLERIDGE.
A father may turn his back on his child, brothers and sisters may
become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, wives
their husbands. But a mother's love endures through all; in good
repute, in bad repute, in the face of the world's condemnation, a
mother still loves on, and still hopes that her child may turn from
his evil ways, and repent; still she remembers the infant smiles that
once filled her bosom with rapture, the merry laugh, the joyful shout
of his childhood, the opening promise of his youth; and she can never
be brought to think him all unworthy.--WASHINGTON IRVING.
If there be aught surpassing human deed or word or thought, it is a
mother's love!--MARCHIONESS DE SPADARA.
I think it must somewhere be written, that the virtues of mothers
shall, occasionally, be visited on their children, as well as the sins
of fathers.--DICKENS.
Unhappy is the man for whom his own mother has not made all other
mothers venerable.--RICHTER.
The instruction received at the mother's knee, and the paternal
lessons, together with the pious and sweet souvenirs of the fireside,
are never effaced entirely from the soul.--LAMENNAIS.
One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters.--GEORGE HERBERT.
"An ounce of mother," says the Spanish proverb, "is worth a pound of
clergy."--T.W. HIGGINSON.
Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall;
A mother's secret hope outlives them all.
--HOLMES.
A mother's love is indeed the golden link that binds youth to age; and
he is still but a child, however time may have furrowed his cheek, or
silvered his brow, who can yet recall, with a softened heart, the fond
devotion or the gentle chidings of the best friend that God ever gives
us.--BOVEE.
All that I am, my mother made me.--J.Q. ADAMS.
MOURNING.--He mourns the dead who lives as they desire.--YOUNG.
Of permanent mourning there is none; no cloud remains fixed. The sun
will shine to-morrow.--RICHTER.
Excess of grief for the deceased is madness; for it is an injury to
the living, and the dead know it not.--XENOPHON.
The true way to mourn the dead is to take care of the living who
belong to them.--BURKE.
No longer mourn for me when I am dead,
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled.
--SHAKESPEARE.
MUSIC.--Music is the medicine of an afflicted mind, a sweet sad
measure is the balm of a wounded spirit; and joy is heightened by
exultant strains.--HENRY GILES.
Sweet music! sacred tongue of God.--CHARLES G. LELAND.
Music is the fourth great material want of our natures,--first food,
then raiment, then shelter, then music.--BOVEE.
When griping grief the heart doth wound,
And doleful dumps the mind oppress,
Then music, with her silver sound,
With speedy help doth lend redress.
--SHAKESPEARE.
Some of the fathers went so far as to esteem the love of music a sign
of predestination; as a thing divine, and reserved for the felicities
of heaven itself.--SIR W. TEMPLE.
I think sometimes could I only have music on my own terms; could I
live in a great city, and know where I could go whenever I wished the
ablution and inundation of musical waves, that were a bath and a
medicine.--EMERSON.
Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.
--CONGREVE.
There's music in the sighing of a reed;
There's music in the gushing of a rill;
There's music in all things, if men had ears.
--BYRON.
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.
--SHAKESPEARE.
O, pleasant is the welcome kiss
When day's dull round is o'er;
And sweet the music of the step
That meets us at the door.
--J.R. DRAKE.
Not the rich viol, trump, cymbal, nor horn,
Guitar, nor cittern, nor the pining flute,
Are half so sweet as tender human words.
--BARRY CORNWALL.
Is there a heart that music cannot melt?
Alas! how is that rugged heart forlorn.
--BEATTIE.
Music cleanses the understanding, inspires it, and lifts it into a
realm which it would not reach if it were left to itself.--HENRY WARD
BEECHER.
Music is a discipline, and a mistress of order and good manners; she
makes the people milder and gentler, more moral and more reasonable.
--LUTHER.
Amongst the instrumentalities of love and peace, surely there can be
no sweeter, softer, more effective voice than that of gentle,
peace-breathing music.--ELIHU BURRITT.
Explain it as we may, a martial strain will urge a man into the front
rank of battle sooner than an argument, and a fine anthem excite his
devotion more certainly than a logical discourse.--TUCKERMAN.
Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from
the eyes of woman.--BEETHOVEN.
Music is the child of prayer, the companion of religion.--CHATEAUBRIAND.
Had I children, my utmost endeavors would be to make them musicians.
--HORACE WALPOLE.
Next to theology I give to music the highest place and honor. And we
see how David and all the saints have wrought their godly thoughts
into verse, rhyme, and song.--LUTHER.
NATURE.--Nature does not capriciously scatter her secrets as golden
gifts to lazy pets and luxurious darlings, but imposes tasks when she
presents opportunities, and uplifts him whom she would inform. The
apple that she drops at the feet of Newton is but a coy invitation to
follow her to the stars.--WHIPPLE.
Everything made by man may be destroyed by man; there are no
ineffaceable characters except those engraved by nature; and nature
makes neither princes nor rich men nor great lords.--ROUSSEAU.
It were happy if we studied nature more in natural things; and acted
according to nature, whose rules are few, plain, and most reasonable.
Let us begin where she begins, go her pace, and close always where she
ends, and we cannot miss of being good naturalists.--WILLIAM PENN.
O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all:
the earth is full of Thy riches.--PSALM 104:24.
The laws of nature are just, but terrible. There is no weak mercy in
them. Cause and consequence are inseparable and inevitable. The
elements have no forbearance. The fire burns, the water drowns, the
air consumes, the earth buries. And perhaps it would be well for our
race if the punishment of crimes against the laws of man were as
inevitable as the punishment of crimes against the laws of
nature,--were man as unerring in his judgments as nature.--LONGFELLOW.
Surely there is something in the unruffled calm of nature that
overawes our little anxieties and doubts; the sight of the deep-blue
sky and the clustering stars above seems to impart a quiet to the
mind.--T. EDWARDS.
Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her.
--WORDSWORTH.
The works of nature and the works of revelation display religion to
mankind in characters so large and visible, that those who are not
quite blind may in them see and read the first principles and most
necessary parts of it, and from thence penetrate into those infinite
depths filled with the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.--LOCKE.
All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body nature is, and God the soul.
--POPE.
It is a great mortification to the vanity of man that his utmost art
and industry can never equal the meanest of nature's productions,
either for beauty or value.--HUME.
Read nature; nature is a friend to truth;
Nature is Christian, preaches to mankind;
And bids dead matter aid us in our creed.
--YOUNG.
Lavish thousands of dollars on your baby clothes, and after all the
child is prettiest when every garment is laid aside. That becoming
nakedness, at least, may adorn the chubby darling of the poorest
home.--T.W. HIGGINSON.
Our old mother nature has pleasant and cheery tones enough for us when
she comes in her dress of blue and gold over the eastern hill-tops;
but when she follows us upstairs to our beds in her suit of black
velvet and diamonds, every creak of her sandals and every whisper of
her lips is full of mystery and fear.--HOLMES.
Nature ever faithful is
To such as trust her faithfulness.
--EMERSON.
What profusion is there in His work! When trees blossom there is not a
single breastpin, but a whole bosom full of gems; and of leaves they
have so many suits that they can throw them away to the winds all
summer long. What unnumbered cathedrals has He reared in the forest
shades, vast and grand, full of curious carvings, and haunted evermore
by tremulous music; and in the heavens above, how do stars seem to
have flown out of His hand faster than sparks out of a mighty forge!
--BEECHER.
Nature is God's Old Testament.--THEODORE PARKER.
To him who in the love of nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language; for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
And eloquence of beauty, and she glides
Into his darker musings, with a mild
And healing sympathy, that steals away
Their sharpness, ere he is aware.
--BRYANT.
Nature and wisdom never are at strife.--JUVENAL.
Those who devote themselves to the peaceful study of nature have but
little temptation to launch out upon the tempestuous sea of ambition;
they will scarcely be hurried away by the more violent or cruel
passions, the ordinary failings of those ardent persons who do not
control their conduct; but, pure as the objects of their researches,
they will feel for everything about them the same benevolence which
they see nature display toward all her productions.--CUVIER.
"Behold the lilies of the field; they toil not, neither do they spin,
yet your heavenly Father careth for them." He expatiates on a single
flower, and draws from it the delightful argument of confidence in
God. He gives us to see that taste may be combined with piety, and
that the same heart may be occupied with all that is serious in the
contemplations of religion, and be at the same time alive to the
charms and the loveliness of nature.--DR. CHALMERS.
Who loves not the shady trees,
The smell of flowers, the sound of brooks,
The song of birds, and the hum of bees,
Murmuring in green and fragrant nooks,
The voice of children in the spring,
Along the field-paths wandering?
--T. MILLAR.
You will find something far greater in the woods than you will find
in books. Stones and trees will teach you that which you will never
learn from masters.--ST. BERNARD.
NOBILITY.--He who is lord of himself, and exists upon his own
resources, is a noble but a rare being.--SIR E. BRYDGES.
If a man be endued with a generous mind, this is the best kind of
nobility.--PLATO.
A noble life crowned with heroic death, rises above and outlives the
pride and pomp and glory of the mightiest empire of the earth.--JAMES
A. GARFIELD.
Nature makes all the noblemen; wealth, education, or pedigree never
made one yet.--H.W. SHAW.
Be noble! and the nobleness that lives
In other men, sleeping, but never dead,
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.
--LOWELL.
Howe'er it be, it seems to me,
'Tis only noble to be good.
--TENNYSON.
OBEDIENCE.--The virtue of paganism was strength; the virtue of
Christianity is obedience.--HARE.
To obey is better than sacrifice.--1 SAMUEL 15:22.
Look carefully that love to God and obedience to His commands be the
principle and spring from whence thy actions flow; and that the glory
of God and the salvation of thy soul be the end to which all thy
actions tend; and that the word of God be thy rule and guide in every
enterprise and undertaking. "As many as walk by this rule, peace be
unto them, and mercy."--BURKITT.
Obedience is not truly performed by the body of him whose heart is
dissatisfied. The shell without a kernel is not fit for store.--SAADI.
He praiseth God best that serveth and obeyeth Him most: the life of
thankfulness consists in the thankfulness of the life.--BURKITT.
No principle is more noble, as there is none more holy, than that of a
true obedience.--HENRY GILES.
"His kingdom come!" For this we pray in vain,
Unless He does in our affections reign.
How fond it were to wish for such a King,
And no obedience to his sceptre bring,
Whose yoke is easy, and His burthen light;
His service freedom, and His judgments right.
--WALLER.
Obedience, we may remember, is a part of religion, and therefore an
element of peace; but love which includes obedience is the
whole.--GEORGE SEWELL.
The virtue of Christianity is obedience.--J.C. HARE.
Prepare thy soul calmly to obey; such offering will be more acceptable
to God than every other sacrifice.--METASTASIO.
OBSTINACY.--Obstinacy is ever most positive when it is most in the
wrong.--MADAME NECKER.
People first abandon reason, and then become obstinate; and the deeper
they are in error the more angry they are.--BLAIR.
An obstinate man does not hold opinions, but they hold him.--POPE.
Most other passions have their periods of fatigue and rest, their
suffering and their cure; but obstinacy has no resource, and the first
wound is mortal.--THOMAS PAINE.
Narrowness of mind is often the cause of obstinacy; we do not easily
believe beyond what we see.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
Obstinacy and vehemency in opinion are the surest proofs of
stupidity.--BARTON.
OCCUPATION.--Cheerfulness is the daughter of employment; and I have
known a man come home in high spirits from a funeral, merely because
he has had the management of it.--DR. HORNE.
Employment, which Galen calls "nature's physician," is so essential to
human happiness that indolence is justly considered as the mother of
misery.--BURTON.
Occupation alone is happiness.--DR. JOHNSON.
It is observed at sea that men are never so much disposed to grumble
and mutiny as when least employed. Hence an old captain, when there
was nothing else to do, would issue the order to "scour the anchor."
--SAMUEL SMILES.
The great happiness of life, I find, after all, to consist in the
regular discharge of some mechanical duty.--SCHILLER.
The crowning fortune of a man is to be born to some pursuit which
finds him employment and happiness, whether it be to make baskets, or
broadswords, or canals, or statues, or songs.--EMERSON.
Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other
blessedness. He has a work, a life purpose. Labor is life.--CARLYLE.
One only "right" we have to assert in common with mankind--and that is
as much in our hands as theirs--is the right of having something to
do.--MISS MULOCK.
OPINION.--Opinions should be formed with great caution, and changed
with greater.--H.W. SHAW.
Do not think of knocking out another person's brains because he
differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself
on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago.--HORACE
MANN.
He who has no opinion of his own, but depends upon the opinion and
taste of others, is a slave.--KLOPSTOCK.
To maintain an opinion because it is thine, and not because it is
true, is to prefer thyself above the truth.--VENNING.
We should always keep a corner of our heads open and free, that we may
make room for the opinions of our friends. Let us have heart and head
hospitality.--JOUBERT.
No liberal man would impute a charge of unsteadiness to another for
having changed his opinion.--CICERO.
Who observes not that the voice of the people, yea of that people that
voiced themselves the people of God, did prosecute the God of all
people, with one common voice, "He is worthy to die." I will not,
therefore, ambitiously beg their voices for my preferment; nor weigh
my worth in that uneven balance, in which a feather of opinion shall
be moment enough to turn the scales and make a light piece go current,
and a current piece seem light.--ARTHUR WARWICK.
It is not only arrogant, but it is profligate, for a man to disregard
the world's opinion of himself.--CICERO.
In the minds of most men, the kingdom of opinion is divided into three
territories,--the territory of yes, the territory of no, and a broad,
unexplored middle ground of doubt.--JAMES A. GARFIELD.
The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinion.--LOWELL.
Public opinion, though often formed upon a wrong basis, yet generally
has a strong underlying sense of justice.--ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
OPPORTUNITY.--Opportunity is rare, and a wise man will never let it go
by him.--BAYARD TAYLOR.
Many do with opportunities as children do at the seashore; they fill
their little hands with sand, and then let the grains fall through,
one by one, till all are gone.--REV. T. JONES.
Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good actions; try to
use ordinary situations.--RICHTER.
The best men are not those who have waited for chances, but who have
taken them,--besieged the chance, conquered the chance, and made the
chance their servitor.--CHAPIN.
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows, and in miseries:
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
--SHAKESPEARE.
The opportunity to do mischief is found a hundred times a day, and
that of doing good once a year.--VOLTAIRE.
There is an hour in each man's life appointed to make his happiness,
if then he seize it.--BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.
There is no man whom fortune does not visit once in his life; but when
she does not find him ready to receive her, she walks in at the door
and flies out at the window.--CARDINAL IMPERIALI.
Nothing is so often irrevocably neglected as an opportunity of daily
occurrence.--MARIE EBNER-ESCHENBACH.