perform and make good what we promise, and really to be what we would
seem and appear to be.--TILLOTSON.
Let us then be what we are, and speak what we think, and in all things
keep ourselves loyal to truth, and the sacred professions of
friendship.--LONGFELLOW.
SLANDER.--When will talkers refrain from evil-speaking? When listeners
refrain from evil-hearing.--HARE.
Never throw mud. You may miss your mark, but you must have dirty
hands.--JOSEPH PARKER.
Remember, when incited to slander, that it is only he among you who is
without sin that may cast the first stone.--HOSEA BALLOU.
Slander,
Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue
Out-venoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath
Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie
All corners of the world: kings, queens, and states,
Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave
This viperous slander enters.
--SHAKESPEARE.
Nor do they trust their tongues alone,
But speak a language of their own;
Can read a nod, a shrug, a look,
Far better than a printed book;
Convey a libel in a frown,
And wink a reputation down;
Or, by the tossing of the fan,
describe the lady and the man.
--SWIFT.
Those men who carry about and who listen to accusations, should all be
hanged, if so it could be at my decision--the carriers by their
tongues, the listeners by their ears.--PLAUTUS.
Oh! many a shaft, at random sent,
Finds mark the archer little meant;
And many a word, at random spoken,
May soothe or wound a heart that's broken.
--WALTER SCOTT.
SLEEP.--One hour's sleep before midnight is worth two after.--FIELDING.
God gives sleep to the bad, in order that the good may be undisturbed.
--SAADI.
Put off thy cares with thy clothes; so shall thy rest strengthen thy
labor; and so shall thy labor sweeten thy rest.--QUARLES.
We sleep, but the loom of life never stops; and the pattern which was
weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up to-morrow.
--BEECHER.
Heaven trims our lamps while we sleep.--ALCOTT.
There are many ways of inducing sleep,--the thinking of purling rills,
or waving woods; reckoning of numbers; droppings from a wet sponge
fixed over a brass pan, etc. But temperance and exercise answer much
better than any of these succedaneums.--STERNE.
Sleep is a generous thief; he gives to vigor what he takes from time.
--ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF ROUMANIA.
O sleep! it is a gentle thing,
Beloved from pole to pole.
--COLERIDGE.
SOCIETY.--Society is ever ready to worship success, but rarely
forgives failure.--MME. ROLAND.
Society is a troop of thinkers, and the best heads among them take the
best places.--EMERSON.
Society is like a lawn, where every roughness is smoothed, every
bramble eradicated, and where the eye is delighted by the smiling
verdure of a velvet surface.--WASHINGTON IRVING.
Heaven forming each on other to depend,
A master, or a servant, or a friend,
Bids each on other for assistance call,
Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all.
Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally
The common interest, or endear the tie.
To these we owe true friendship, love sincere,
Each home-felt joy that life inherits here.
--POPE.
Every man depends on the quantity of sense, wit, or good manners he
brings into society for the reception he meets with in it.--HAZLITT.
A man's reception depends upon his coat; his dismissal upon the wit he
shows.--BERANGER.
Man in society is like a flow'r,
Blown in its native bed. 'Tis there alone
His faculties expanded in full bloom
Shine out, there only reach their proper use.
--COWPER.
There is a sort of economy in Providence that one shall excel where
another is defective, in order to make men more useful to each other,
and mix them in society.--ADDISON.
Society is composed of two great classes,--those who have more dinners
than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners.--CHAMFORT.
SUCCESS.--Nothing is impossible to the man that can will. Is that
necessary? That shall be. This is the only law of success.--MIRABEAU.
Nothing succeeds so well as success.--TALLEYRAND.
To know how to wait is the great secret of success.--DE MAISTRE.
The path of success in business is invariably the path of
common-sense. Nothwithstanding all that is said about "lucky hits,"
the best kind of success in every man's life is not that which comes
by accident. The only "good time coming" we are justified in hoping
for is that which we are capable of making for ourselves.--SAMUEL
SMILES.
The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well,
and doing well whatever you do without a thought of fame. If it comes
at all it will come because it is deserved, not because it is sought
after.--LONGFELLOW.
The surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed.--SHERIDAN.
The great highroad of human welfare lies along the old highway of
steadfast well-doing; and they who are the most persistent, and work
in the truest spirit, will invariably be the most successful; success
treads on the heels of every right effort.--SAMUEL SMILES.
It is possible to indulge too great contempt for mere success, which
is frequently attended with all the practical advantages of merit
itself, and with several advantages that merit alone can never
command.--W.B. CLULOW.
'Tis not in mortals to command success,
But we'll do more, Sempronius; we'll deserve it.
--ADDISON.
If fortune wishes to make a man estimable, she gives him virtues; if
she wishes to make him esteemed, she gives him success.--JOUBERT.
Successful minds work like a gimlet,--to a single point.--BOVEE.
If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend,
experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope
your guardian genius.--ADDISON.
Success does not consist in never making blunders, but in never making
the same one the second time.--H.W. SHAW.
SUICIDE.--Bid abhorrence hiss it round the world.--YOUNG.
God has appointed us captains of this our bodily fort, which, without
treason to that majesty, are never to be delivered over till they are
demanded.--SIR P. SIDNEY.
To die in order to avoid the pains of poverty, love, or anything that
is disagreeable, is not the part of a brave man, but of a coward.
--ARISTOTLE.
Our time is fix'd; and all our days are number'd;
How long, how short, we know not: this we know,
Duty requires we calmly wait the summons,
Nor dare to stir till Heaven shall give permission.
Like sentries that must keep their destined stand,
And wait th' appointed hour, till they're relieved,
Those only are the brave who keep their ground,
And keep it to the last.
--BLAIR.
Suicide is not a remedy.--JAMES A. GARFIELD.
Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day,
Live till to-morrow, will have pass'd away.
--COWPER.
The coward sneaks to death; the brave live on.--DR. GEORGE SEWELL.
SUPERSTITION.--I think we cannot too strongly attack superstition,
which is the disturber of society; nor too highly respect genuine
religion, which is the support of it.--ROUSSEAU.
There is but one thing that can free a man from superstition, and that
is belief. All history proves it. The most sceptical have ever been
the most credulous.--GEORGE MACDONALD.
Superstition! that horrid incubus which dwelt in darkness, shunning
the light, with all its racks, and poison chalices, and foul sleeping
draughts, is passing away without return. Religion cannot pass away.
The burning of a little straw may hide the stars of the sky; but the
stars are there and will reappear.--CARLYLE.
Religion worships God, while superstition profanes that worship.--SENECA.
Superstition is the only religion of which base souls are capable.
--JOUBERT.
Superstition always inspires littleness, religion grandeur of mind;
the superstitious raises beings inferior to himself to deities.--LAVATER.
The child taught to believe any occurrence a good or evil omen, or any
day of the week lucky, hath a wide inroad made upon the soundness of
his understanding.--DR. WATTS.
Superstition is a senseless fear of God; religion, the pious worship
of God.--CICERO.
Superstition renders a man a fool, and scepticism makes him mad.
--FIELDING.
I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and
detesting superstition.--VOLTAIRE.
SYMPATHY.--Sympathy is the first great lesson which man should learn.
It will be ill for him if he proceeds no farther; if his emotions are
but excited to roll back on his heart, and to be fostered in luxurious
quiet. But unless he learns to feel for things in which he has no
personal interest, he can achieve nothing generous or noble.--TALFOURD.
To commiserate is sometimes more than to give; for money is external
to a man's self, but he who bestows compassion communicates his own
soul.--MOUNTFORD.
A helping word to one in trouble is often like a switch on a railroad
track,--but one inch between wreck and smooth-rolling prosperity.
--BEECHER.
The greatest pleasures of which the human mind is susceptible are the
pleasures of consciousness and sympathy.--PARKE GODWIN.
What gem hath dropp'd and sparkles o'er his chain?
The tear most sacred, shed for other's pain,
That starts at once--bright--pure--from pity's mine,
Already polish'd by the Hand Divine.
--BYRON.
Sympathy is especially a Christian duty.--SPURGEON.
TACT.--Grant graciously what you cannot refuse safely, and conciliate
those you cannot conquer.--COLTON.
A little management may often evade resistance, which a vast force
might vainly strive to overcome.
TALENT.--Talent of the highest order, and such as is calculated to
command admiration, may exist apart from wisdom.--ROBERT HALL.
Whatever you are from nature, keep to it; never desert your own line
of talent. Be what Nature intended you for, and you will succeed; be
anything else, and you will be ten thousand times worse than nothing.
--SYDNEY SMITH.
Talent without tact is only half talent.--HORACE GREELEY.
TALKING.--Though we have two eyes, we are supplied with but one
tongue. Draw your own moral.--ALPHONSE KARR.
No great talker ever did any great thing yet, in this world.--OUIDA.
If you light upon an impertinent talker, that sticks to you like a
bur, to the disappointment of your important occasions, deal freely
with him, break off the discourse, and pursue your business.--PLUTARCH.
What you keep by you, you may change and mend;
But words once spoken can never be recalled.
--ROSCOMMON.
Such as thy words are, such will thy affections be esteemed; and such
will thy deeds as thy affections, and such thy life as thy deeds.
--SOCRATES.
But far more numerous was the herd of such,
Who think too little, and who talk too much.
--DRYDEN.
He who indulges in liberty of speech, will hear things in return which
he will not like.--TERENCE.
The tongue is the instrument of the greatest good and the greatest
evil that is done in the world.--SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
He who seldom speaks, and with one calm well-timed word can strike
dumb the loquacious, is a genius or a hero.--LAVATER.
A wise man reflects before he speaks; a fool speaks, and then reflects
on what he has uttered.--FROM THE FRENCH.
Those who have few affairs to attend to are great speakers. The less
men think, the more they talk.--MONTESQUIEU.
Speaking much is a sign of vanity; for he that is lavish in words, is
a niggard in deed.--SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
TEARS.--Tears of joy are the dew in which the sun of righteousness is
mirrored.--RICHTER.
There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but
of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They
are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of
unspeakable love.--WASHINGTON IRVING.
The tear down childhood's cheek that flows,
Is like the dewdrop on the rose;
When next the summer breeze comes by,
And waves the bush, the flower is dry.
--WALTER SCOTT.
Shame on those breasts of stone that cannot melt in soft adoption of
another's sorrow.--AARON HILL.
Tears may soothe the wounds they cannot heal.--THOMAS PAINE.
Hide not thy tears; weep boldly, and be proud to give the flowing
virtue manly way; it is nature's mark to know an honest heart
by.--AARON HILL.
Tears are a good alterative, but a poor diet.--H.W. SHAW.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.--PSALM 126:5.
Every tear is a verse, and every heart is a poem.--MARC ANDRÉ.
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
--PSALM 30:5.
TEMPER.--The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than
fortune.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
In vain he seeketh others to suppress,
Who hath not learn'd himself first to subdue.
--SPENSER.
With "gentleness" in his own character, "comfort" in his house, and
"good temper" in his wife, the earthly felicity of man is complete.
--FROM THE GERMAN.
Nothing leads more directly to the breach of charity, and to the
injury and molestation of our fellow-creatures, than the indulgence of
an ill temper.--BLAIR.
Too many have no idea of the subjection of their temper to the
influence of religion, and yet what is changed, if the temper is not?
If a man is as passionate, malicious, resentful, sullen, moody, or
morose after his conversion as before it, what is he converted from or
to?--JOHN ANGELL JAMES.
If we desire to live securely, comfortably, and quietly, that by all
honest means we should endeavor to purchase the good will of all men,
and provoke no man's enmity needlessly; since any man's love may be
useful, and every man's hatred is dangerous.--ISAAC BARROW.
A sunny temper gilds the edges of life's blackest cloud.--GUTHRIE.
TEMPERANCE.--Temperance puts wood on the fire, meal in the barrel,
flour in the tub, money in the purse, credit in the country,
contentment in the house, clothes on the back, and vigor in the
body.--FRANKLIN.
Fools! not to know how far an humble lot
Exceeds abundance by injustice got;
How health and temperance bless the rustic swain,
While luxury destroys her pamper'd train.
--HESIOD.
Men live best on moderate means: Nature has dispensed to all men
wherewithal to be happy, if mankind did but understand how to use her
gifts.--CLAUDIAN.
Temperance is a virtue which casts the truest lustre upon the person
it is lodged in, and has the most general influence upon all other
particular virtues of any that the soul of man is capable of; indeed
so general, that there is hardly any noble quality or endowment of the
mind, but must own temperance either for its parent or its nurse; it
is the greatest strengthener and clearer of reason, and the best
preparer of it for religion, the sister of prudence, and the handmaid
to devotion.--DEAN SOUTH.
It is all nonsense about not being able to work without ale and cider
and fermented liquors. Do lions and cart-horses drink ale?--SYDNEY SMITH.
Temperance is a bridle of gold; he who uses it rightly, is more like a
god than a man.--BURTON.
Except thou desire to hasten thine end, take this for a general rule,
that thou never add any artificial heat to thy body by wine or spice.
--SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
Drinking water neither makes a man sick, nor in debt, nor his wife a
widow.--JOHN NEAL.
Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all
virtues.--FULLER.
If you wish to keep the mind clear and the body healthy, abstain from
all fermented liquors.--SYDNEY SMITH.
Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty, for in my youth I never
did apply hot and rebellious liquors in my blood.--SHAKESPEARE.
TEMPTATION.--'Tis one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.
--SHAKESPEARE.
Some temptations come to the industrious, but all temptations attack
the idle.--SPURGEON.
If men had only temptations to great sins, they would always be good;
but the daily fight with little ones accustoms them to defeat.--RICHTER.
Better shun the bait than struggle in the snare.--DRYDEN.
Every temptation is an opportunity of our getting nearer to God.
--J.Q. ADAMS.
When a man resists sin on human motives only, he will not hold out
long.--BISHOP WILSON.
We must not willfully thrust ourselves into the mouth of danger, or
draw temptations upon us. Such forwardness is not resolution, but
rashness; nor is it the fruit of a well-ordered faith, but an
overdaring presumption.--KING.
But Satan now is wiser than of yore,
And tempts by making rich, not making poor.
--POPE.
God is better served in resisting a temptation to evil than in many
formal prayers.--WILLIAM PENN.
Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.--MATTHEW 26:41.
THOUGHT.--Thought is the first faculty of man; to express it is one of
his first desires; to spread it, his dearest privilege.--ABBÉ RAYNAL.
Those who have finished by making all others think with them, have
usually been those who began by daring to think with themselves.--COLTON.
Our brains are seventy year clocks. The Angel of Life winds them up
once for all, then closes the case, and gives the key into the hands
of the Angel of the Resurrection.--HOLMES.
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears;
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.
--WORDSWORTH.
In matters of conscience first thoughts are best, in matters of
prudence last thoughts are best.--ROBERT HALL.
Man thinks, and at once becomes the master of the beings that do not
think.--BUFFON.
Nurture your mind with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes
heroes.--DISRAELI.
Thinking leads man to knowledge. He may see and hear, and read and
learn, as much as he please; he will never know any of it, except that
which he has thought over, that which by thinking he has made the
property of his mind. Is it then saying too much if I say, that man by
thinking only becomes truly man? Take away thought from man's life,
and what remains?--PESTALOZZI.
One thought cannot awake without awakening others.--MARIE
EBNER-ESCHENBACH.
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.--HARE.
A man would do well to carry a pencil in his pocket, and write down
the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly
the most valuable, and should be secured, because they seldom
return.--BACON.
Every pure thought is a glimpse of God.--C.A. BARTOL.
Speech is external thought, and thought internal speech.--RIVAROL.
Learning without thought is labor lost.--CONFUCIUS.
The three foundations of thought: Perspicuity, amplitude and justness.
The three ornaments of thought: Clearness, correctness and novelty.
--CATHERALL.
As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.--PROVERBS 23:7.
TIME.--Time is like money; the less we have of it to spare, the
further we make it go.--H.W. SHAW.
Youth is not rich in time, it may be poor;
Part with it as with money, sparing; pay
No moment but in purchase of its worth;
And what it's worth, ask death-beds; they can tell.
--YOUNG.
Redeem the misspent time that's past,
And live this day as 'twere thy last.
--KEN.
Time, the cradle of hope, but the grave of ambition, is the stern
corrector of fools, but the salutary counselor of the wise, bringing
all they dread to the one, and all they desire to the other.--COLTON.
The time which passes over our heads so imperceptibly makes the same
gradual change in habits, manners and character, as in personal
appearance. At the revolution of every five years we find ourselves
another and yet the same;--there is a change of views, and no less of
the light in which we regard them; a change of motives as well as of
action.--WALTER SCOTT.
Let me therefore live as if every moment were to be my last.--SENECA.
The great rule of moral conduct is, next to God, to respect time.
--LAVATER.
Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden
hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for
they are gone forever!--HORACE MANN.
As every thread of gold is valuable, so is every minute of time.--MASON.
No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who
never loses any.--THOMAS JEFFERSON.
Make use of time, if thou valuest eternity. Yesterday cannot be
recalled; to-morrow cannot be assured; to-day only is thine, which, if
thou procrastinatest, thou losest; which loss is lost forever.--JEREMY
TAYLOR.
He is a good time-server that improves the present for God's glory and
his own salvation.--THOMAS FULLER.
Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing
nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We
are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though
there would be no end to them.--SENECA.
Time is given us that we may take care for eternity; and eternity will
not be too long to regret the loss of our time if we have misspent
it.--FÉNELON.
Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.--HAWTHORNE.
Dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that is the stuff
life is made of.--FRANKLIN.
TOLERATION.--Let us be very gentle with our neighbors' failings, and
forgive our friends their debts as we hope ourselves to be forgiven.
--THACKERAY.
There is nothing to do with men but to love them; to contemplate their
virtues with admiration, their faults with pity and forbearance, and
their injuries with forgiveness.--DEWEY.
Tolerance is the only real test of civilization.--ARTHUR HELPS.
It requires far more of constraining love of Christ to love our
cousins and neighbors as members of the heavenly family than to feel
the heart warm to our suffering brethren in Tuscany and Madeira.
--ELIZABETH CHARLES.
If thou canst not make thyself such an one as thou wouldst, how canst
thou expect to have another in all things to thy liking?--THOMAS À
KEMPIS.
The religion that fosters intolerance needs another Christ to die for
it.--BEECHER.
Let us often think of our own infirmities, and we shall become
indulgent toward those of others.--FÉNELON.
Has not God borne with you these many years? Be ye tolerant to
others.--HOSEA BALLOU.
TRAVEL.--A traveler without observation is a bird without wings.--SAADI.
He who never leaves his country is full of prejudices.--CARLO GOLDONI.
Railway traveling is not traveling at all; it is merely being sent to
a place, and very little different from becoming a parcel.--RUSKIN.
To roam giddily, and be everywhere but at home, such freedom doth a
banishment become.--DONNE.
The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead
of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.--DR. JOHNSON.
He travels safest in the dark who travels lightest.--CORTES.
Usually speaking, the worst-bred person in company is a young traveler
just returned from abroad.--SWIFT.
TRUST.--I think we may safely trust a good deal more than we do.
--THOREAU.
Trust with a child-like dependence upon God, and you shall fear no
evil, for be assured that even "if the enemy comes in like a flood"
the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. While at
that dread hour, when the world cannot help you, when all the powers
of nature are in vain, yea, when your heart and your flesh shall fail
you, you will be enabled still to rely with peace upon Him who has
said "I will be the strength of thy heart and thy portion for ever."
--H. BLUNT.
To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.--GEORGE
MACDONALD.
Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.--PROVERBS 16:20.
TRUTH.--There is no right faith in believing what is true, unless we
believe it because it is true.--WHATELY.
Truth crushed to earth shall rise again;
The eternal years of God are hers;
But error, wounded, writhes with pain,
And dies among his worshipers.
--BRYANT.
Truth is simple, requiring neither study nor art.--AMMIAN.
And all the people then shouted, and said, Great is truth, and mighty
above all things.--ESDRAS.
I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to
have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting
myself in now and then finding a smooth pebble, or a prettier shell
than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered
before me.--NEWTON.
For truth has such a face and such a mien,
As to be lov'd needs only to be seen.
--DRYDEN.
Without courage there cannot be truth, and without truth there can be
no other virtue.--WALTER SCOTT.
Truth is violated by falsehood, and it may be equally outraged by
silence.--AMMIAN.