I know not where His islands liftTheir fronded palms in air;I only know I cannot driftBeyond His love and care.—Whittier.
I know not where His islands liftTheir fronded palms in air;I only know I cannot driftBeyond His love and care.—Whittier.
The decrees of Providence are inscrutable. In spite of man's short-sighted endeavors to dispose of events according to his own wishes and his own purposes, there is an Intelligence beyond his reason, which holds the scales of justice, and promotes his well-being, in spite of his puny efforts.—Morier.
Divine Providence tempers his blessings to secure their better effect. He keeps our joys and our fears on an even balance, that we may neither presume nor despair. By such compositions God is pleased to make both our crosses more tolerable and our enjoyments more wholesome and safe.—W. Wogan.
He who ruleth the raging of the sea, knows also how to check the designs of the ungodly. I submit myself with reverence to His Holy Will. O Abner, I fear my God, and I fear none but Him.—Racine.
Duties are ours; events are God's. This removes an infinite burden from the shoulders of a miserable, tempted, dying creature. On this consideration only can he securely lay down his head and close his eyes.—Cecil.
Yes, thou art ever present, power supreme!Not circumscribed by time, nor fixt to space,Confined to altars, nor to temples bound.In wealth, in want, in freedom or in chains,In dungeons or on thrones, the faithful find thee!—Hannah More.
Yes, thou art ever present, power supreme!Not circumscribed by time, nor fixt to space,Confined to altars, nor to temples bound.In wealth, in want, in freedom or in chains,In dungeons or on thrones, the faithful find thee!—Hannah More.
We must follow, not force Providence.—Shakespeare.
Go, mark the matchless working of the powerThat shuts within the seed the future flower;Bids these in elegance of form excel.In color these, and those delight the smell;Sends nature forth, the daughter of the skies,To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes.—Cowper.
Go, mark the matchless working of the powerThat shuts within the seed the future flower;Bids these in elegance of form excel.In color these, and those delight the smell;Sends nature forth, the daughter of the skies,To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes.—Cowper.
A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.—Proverbs 16:9.
Prudence.—Men are born with two eyes, but with one tongue, in order that they should see twice as much as they say.—Colton.
Prudence is that virtue by which we discern what is proper to be done under the various circumstances of time and place.—Milton.
When any great design thou dost intend,Think on the means, the manner, and the end.—Sir J. Denham.
When any great design thou dost intend,Think on the means, the manner, and the end.—Sir J. Denham.
The prudence of the best heads is often defeated by the tenderness of the best of hearts.—Fielding.
Prudence is a necessary ingredient in all the virtues, without which they degenerate into folly and excess.—Jeremy Collier.
No other protection is wanting, provided you are under the guidance of prudence.—Juvenal.
Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues political and moral, but she is the director and regulator, the standard of them all.—Burke.
The rules of prudence, like the laws of the stone tables, are for the most part prohibitive. "Thou shalt not" is their characteristic formula.—Coleridge.
Punctuality.—I give it as my deliberate and solemn conviction that the individual who is habitually tardy in meeting an appointment, will never be respected or successful in life.—Rev. W. Fisk.
I have always been a quarter of an hour before my time, and it has made a man of me.—Lord Nelson.
Unfaithfulness in the keeping of an appointment is an act of clear dishonesty. You may as well borrow a person's money as his time.—Horace Mann.
It is no use running; to set out betimes is the main point.—La Fontaine.
I could never think well of a man's intellectual or moral character if he was habitually unfaithful to his appointments.—Emmons.
Purity.—Purity in person and in morals is true godliness.—Hosea Ballou.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.—Matthew 5:8.
God be thanked that there are some in the world to whose hearts the barnacles will not cling.—J.G. Holland.
While our hearts are pure,Our lives are happy and our peace is sure.—William Winter.
While our hearts are pure,Our lives are happy and our peace is sure.—William Winter.
Purity lives and derives its life solely from the Spirit of God.—Colton.
I pray thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within.—Socrates.
Quarrels.—Quarrels would never last long if the fault was only on one side.—La Rochefoucauld.
The quarrels of lovers are like summer storms; everything is more beautiful when they have passed.—Madame Necker.
I will rather suffer a thousand wrongs than offer one. I have always found that to strive with a superior is injurious; with an equal, doubtful; with an inferior, sordid and base; with any, full of unquietness.—Bishop Hall.
He that blows the coals in quarrels he has nothing to do with has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face.—Franklin.
Those who in quarrel interpose,Must often wipe a bloody nose.—Gay.
Those who in quarrel interpose,Must often wipe a bloody nose.—Gay.
Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just;And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel,Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.—Shakespeare.
Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just;And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel,Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.—Shakespeare.
Reading.—Resolve to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence. If you gain fifteen minutes a day, it will make itself felt at the end of the year.—Horace Mann.
We never read without profit if with the pen or pencil in our hand we mark such ideas as strike us by their novelty, or correct those we already possess.—Zimmermann.
When what you read elevates your mind and fills you with noble aspirations, look for no other rule by which to judge a book; it is good, and is the work of a master-hand.—La Bruyère.
When in reading we meet with any maxim that may be of use, we should take it for our own, and make an immediate application of it, as we would of the advice of a friend whom we have purposely consulted.—Colton.
We should accustom the mind to keep the best company by introducing it only to the best books.—Sydney Smith.
If I were to pray for a taste which should stand me in stead under every variety of circumstances, and be a source of happiness and cheerfulness to me through life, and a shield against its ills, however things might go amiss, and the world frown upon me, it would be a taste for reading.—Sir John Herschel.
Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.... Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.—Bacon.
Nothing, in truth, has such a tendency to weaken not only the powers of invention, but the intellectual powers in general, as a habit of extensive and various reading without reflection.—Dugald Stewart.
Mr. Johnson had never, by his own account, been a close student, and used to advise young people never to be without a book in their pocket, to be read at bye-times, when they had nothing else to do. "It has been by that means," said he to a boy at our house one day, "that all my knowledge has been gained, except what I have picked up by running about the world with my wits ready to observe, and my tongue ready to talk."—Mrs. Piozzi.
Reading without purpose is sauntering, not exercise. More is got from one book on which the thought settles for a definite end in knowledge, than from libraries skimmed over by a wandering eye. A cottage flower gives honey to the bee, a king's garden none to the butterfly.—Lytton.
Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.—Collect.
Much reading is like much eating,—wholly useless without digestion.—South.
Reason.—Reason is the glory of human nature, and one of the chief eminences whereby we are raised above the beasts, in this lower world.—Dr. Watts.
Let our reason, and not our senses, be the rule of our conduct; for reason will teach us to think wisely, to speak prudently, and to behave worthily.—Confucius.
Though reason is not to be relied upon as universally sufficient to direct us what to do, yet it is generally to be relied upon and obeyed where it tells us what we are not to do.—South.
He that will not reason is a bigot, he that cannot reason is a fool, and he that dares not reason is a slave.—Sir W. Drummond.
Wise men are instructed by reason; men of less understanding, by experience; the most ignorant, by necessity; and beasts, by nature.—Cicero.
When a man has not a good reason for doing a thing, he has one good reason for letting it alone.—Walter Scott.
One can never repeat too often, that reason, as it exists in man, is only our intellectual eye, and that, like the eye, to see, it needs light,—to see clearly and far, it needs the light of Heaven.
The language of reason, unaccompanied by kindness, will often fail of making an impression; it has no effect on the understanding, because it touches not the heart. The language of kindness, unassociated with reason, will frequently be unable to persuade; because, though it may gain upon the affections, it wants that which is necessary to convince the judgment. But let reason and kindness be united in a discourse, and seldom will even pride or prejudice find it easy to resist.—Gisborne.
Good reasons must, of force, give place to better.—Shakespeare.
There is a just Latin axiom, that he who seeks a reason for everything subverts reason.—Epes Sargent.
Rebuke.—In all reprehensions, observe to express rather thy love than thy anger; and strive rather to convince than exasperate: but if the matter do require any special indignation, let it appear to be the zeal of a displeased friend, rather than the passion of a provoked enemy.—Fuller.
Reconciliation.—Wherein is it possible for us, wicked and impious creatures, to be justified, except in the only Son of God? O sweet reconciliation! O untraceable ministry! O unlooked-for blessing! that the wickedness of many should be hidden in one godly and righteous man, and the righteousness of one justify a host of sinners!—Justin Martyr.
God pardons like a mother who kisses the offence into everlasting forgetfulness.—Beecher.
As thro' the land at eve we went,And pluck'd the ripen'd ears,We fell out, my wife and I,We fell out I know not why,And kiss'd again with tears.And blessings on the falling outThat all the more endears,When we fall out with those we loveAnd kiss again with tears!For when we came where lies the childWe lost in other years,There above the little grave,Oh, there above the little grave,We kiss'd again with tears.—Tennyson.
As thro' the land at eve we went,And pluck'd the ripen'd ears,We fell out, my wife and I,We fell out I know not why,And kiss'd again with tears.
And blessings on the falling outThat all the more endears,When we fall out with those we loveAnd kiss again with tears!
For when we came where lies the childWe lost in other years,There above the little grave,Oh, there above the little grave,We kiss'd again with tears.—Tennyson.
Oh, my dear friends,—you who are letting miserable misunderstandings run on from year to year, meaning to clear them up some day,—if you only could know and see and feel that the time is short, how it would break the spell! How you would go instantly and do the thing which you might never have another chance to do!—Phillips Brooks.
Refinement.—Refinement is the delicate aroma of Christianity.—Charlotte M. Yonge.
That alone can be called true refinement which elevates the soul of man, purifying the manners by improving the intellect.—Hosea Ballou.
Refinement that carries us away from our fellow-men is not God's refinement.—Beecher.
If refined sense, and exalted sense, be not so useful as common sense, their rarity, their novelty, and the nobleness of their objects, make some compensation, and render them the admiration of mankind.—Hume.
Far better, and more cheerfully, I could dispense with some part of the downright necessaries of life, than with certain circumstances of elegance and propriety in the daily habits of using them.—De Quincey.
Reform.—He who reforms himself, has done more toward reforming the public, than a crowd of noisy, impotent patriots.—Lavater.
He that has energy enough in his constitution to root out a vice should go a little further, and try to plant a virtue in its place; otherwise he will have his labor to renew. A strong soil that has produced weeds may be made to produce wheat with far less difficulty than it would cost to make it produce nothing.—Colton.
Time yet serves, wherein you may redeem your tarnished honors, and restore yourselves into the good thoughts of the world again.—Shakespeare.
Each year one vicious habit rooted out, in time might make the worst man good.—Franklin.
Reform, like charity, must begin at home.—Carlyle.
Whatever you dislike in another person take care to correct in yourself.—Sprat.
He who reforms, God assists.—Cervantes.
Regeneration.—Content not thyself with a bare forbearance of sin, so long as thy heart is not changed, nor thy will changed, nor thy affections changed; but strive to become a new man, to be transformed by the renewing of thy mind, to hate sin, to love God, to wrestle against thy secret corruptions, to take delight in holy duties, to subdue thine understanding, and will, and affections, to the obedience of faith and godliness.—Bp. Sanderson.
He that is once "born of God shall overcome the world," and the prince of this world too, by the power of God in him. Holiness is no solitary, neglected thing; it hath stronger confederacies, greater alliances, than sin and wickedness. It is in league with God and the universe; the whole creation smiles upon it; there is something of God in it, and therefore it must needs be a victorious and triumphant thing.—Cudworth.
Regeneration is the ransacking of the soul, the turning of a man out of himself, the crumbling to pieces of the old man, and the new moulding of it into another shape; it is the turning of stones into children, and a drawing of the lively portraiture of Jesus Christ upon that very table that before represented only the very image of the devil.... Art thou thus changed? Are all old things done away, and all things in thee become new? Hast thou a new heart and renewed affections? And dost thou serve God in newness of life and conversation? If not,—what hast thou to do with hopes of heaven? Thou art yet without Christ, and so consequently without hope.—Bishop Hopkins.
Regret.—A wrong act followed by just regret and thoughtful caution to avoid like errors, makes a man better than he would have been if he had never fallen.—Horatio Seymour.
The business of life is to go forward; he who sees evil in prospect meets it in his way, but he who catches it by retrospection turns back to find it. That which is feared may sometimes be avoided, but that which is regretted to-day may be regretted again to-morrow.—Dr. Johnson.
A feeling of sadness and longingThat is not akin to pain,And resembles sorrow onlyAs the mist resembles the rain.—Longfellow.
A feeling of sadness and longingThat is not akin to pain,And resembles sorrow onlyAs the mist resembles the rain.—Longfellow.
The present only is a man's possession; the past is gone out of his hand wholly, irrevocably. He may suffer from it, learn from it,—in degree, perhaps, expiate it; but to brood over it is utter madness.—Miss Mulock.
Of all sad words of tongue or pen,The saddest are these: "It might have been!"—Whittier.
Of all sad words of tongue or pen,The saddest are these: "It might have been!"—Whittier.
Religion.—A religion that never suffices to govern a man will never suffice to save him; that which does not sufficiently distinguish one from a wicked world will never distinguish him from a perishing world.—Howe.
Religion crowns the statesman and the man,Sole source of public and of private peace.—Young.
Religion crowns the statesman and the man,Sole source of public and of private peace.—Young.
A true religious instinct never deprived man of one single joy; mournful faces and a sombre aspect are the conventional affectations of the weak-minded.—Hosea Ballou.
The source of all good and of all comfort.—Burke.
You may depend upon it, religion is, in its essence, the most gentlemanly thing in the world. It willalonegentilize, if unmixed with cant; and I know nothing else that willalone.—S.T. Coleridge.
If we traverse the world, it is possible to find cities without walls, without letters, without kings, without wealth, without coin, without schools and theatres; but a city without a temple, or that practiseth not worship, prayer, and the like, no one ever saw.—Plutarch.
Religion, if in heavenly truths attired,Needs only to be seen to be admired.—Cowper.
Religion, if in heavenly truths attired,Needs only to be seen to be admired.—Cowper.
Ah! what a divine religion might be found out if charity were really made the principle of it instead of faith.—Shelley.
Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contributions; keep the Church and the State forever apart.—U.S. Grant.
Religion is the mortar that binds society together; the granite pedestal of liberty; the strong backbone of the social system.—Guthrie.
All belief which does not render more happy, more free, more loving, more active, more calm, is, I fear, an erroneous and superstitious belief.—Lavater.
Never trust anybody not of sound religion, for he that is false to God can never be true to man.—Lord Burleigh.
A man devoid of religion, is like a horse without a bridle.—From the Latin.
It is a great disgrace to religion, to imagine that it is an enemy to mirth and cheerfulness, and a severe exacter of pensive looks and solemn faces.—Walter Scott.
Nowhere would there be consolation, if religion were not.—Jacobi.
A man with no sense of religious duty is he whom the Scriptures describe in such terse but terrific language, as living "without God in the world." Such a man is out of his proper being, out of the circle of all his duties, out of the circle of all his happiness, and away, far, far away, from the purposes of his creation.—Webster.
All who have been great and good without Christianity, would have been much greater and better with it.—Colton.
There are a good many pious people who are as careful of their religion as of their best service of china, only using it on holy occasions, for fear it should get chipped or flawed in working-day wear.—Douglas Jerrold.
Wonderful! that the Christian religion, which seems to have no other object than the felicity of another life, should also constitute the happiness of this.—Montesquieu.
Pour the balm of the Gospel into the wounds of bleeding nations. Plant the tree of life in every soil, that suffering kingdoms may repose beneath its shade and feel the virtue of its healing leaves, till all the kindred of the human family shall be bound together in one common bond of amity and love, and the warrior shall be a character unknown but in the page of history.—Thomas Raffles.
There are three modes of bearing the ills of life; by indifference, which is the most common; by philosophy, which is the most ostentatious; and by religion, which is the most effectual.—Colton.
A house without family worship has neither foundation nor covering.—Mason.
Religion is the best armor in the world, but the worst cloak.—Bunyan.
A good name is better than precious ointment.—Ecclesiastes 7:1.
I have lived long enough to know what I did not at one time believe—that no society can be upheld in happiness and honor without the sentiment of religion.—La Place.
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.—Washington.
"When I was young, I was sure of many things; there are only two things of which I am sure now; one is, that I am a miserable sinner; and the other, that Jesus Christ is an all sufficient Saviour." He is well taught who gets these two lessons.—John Newton.
If we make religion our business, God will make it our blessedness.—H.G.J. Adam.
The call to religion is not a call to be better than your fellows, but to be better than yourself. Religion is relative to the individual.—Beecher.
Remembrance.—Remembrance is the only paradise out of which we cannot be driven away.—Richter.
You can't order remembrance out of the mind; and a wrong that was a wrong yesterday must be a wrong to-morrow.—Thackeray.
I cannot but remember such things wereThat were most precious to me.—Shakespeare.
I cannot but remember such things wereThat were most precious to me.—Shakespeare.
Remorse.—Remorse is the punishment of crime; repentance, its expiation. The former appertains to a tormented conscience; the latter to a soul changed for the better.—Joubert.
Remorse, the fatal egg by pleasure laid,In every bosom where her nest is made,Hatched by the beams of truth, denies him rest,And proves a raging scorpion in his breast.—Cowper.
Remorse, the fatal egg by pleasure laid,In every bosom where her nest is made,Hatched by the beams of truth, denies him rest,And proves a raging scorpion in his breast.—Cowper.
We can prostrate ourselves in the dust when we have committed a fault, but it is not best to remain there.—Chateaubriand.
There is no man that is knowingly wicked but is guilty to himself; and there is no man that carries guilt about him but he receives a sting in his soul.—Tillotson.
Repentance.—Repentance, without amendment, is like continually pumping without mending the leak.—Dilwyn.
Repentance is but another name for aspiration.—Beecher.
If you would be good, first believe that you are bad.—Epictetus.
Repentance is a goddess and the preserver of those who have erred.—Julian.
Some well-meaning Christians tremble for their salvation, because they have never gone through that valley of tears and of sorrow, which they have been taught to consider as an ordeal that must be passed through before they can arrive at regeneration. To satisfy such minds, it may be observed, that the slightest sorrow for sin is sufficient, if it produce amendment, and that the greatest is insufficient, if it do not.—Colton.
Let us be quick to repent of injuries while repentance may not be a barren anguish.—Dr. Johnson.
Our hearts must not only be broken with sorrow, but be broken from sin, to constitute repentance.—Dewey.
Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.—Goldsmith.
I will to-morrow, that I will,I will be sure to do it;To-morrow comes, to-morrow goes,And still thou art to do it.Thus still repentance is deferred.From one day to another:Until the day of death is come,And judgment is the other.—Drexelius.
I will to-morrow, that I will,I will be sure to do it;To-morrow comes, to-morrow goes,And still thou art to do it.Thus still repentance is deferred.From one day to another:Until the day of death is come,And judgment is the other.—Drexelius.
As it is never too soon to be good, so it is never too late to amend: I will, therefore, neither neglect the time present, nor despair of the time past. If I had been sooner good, I might perhaps have been better; if I am longer bad, I shall, I am sure, be worse.—Arthur Warwick.
Repentance is heart's sorrow, and a clear life ensuing.—Shakespeare.
Repose.—Power rests in tranquillity.—Cecil.
Have you known how to compose your manners? You have done a great deal more than he who has composed books. Have you known how to take repose? You have done more than he who has taken cities and empires.—Montaigne.
Repose without stagnation is the state most favorable to happiness. "The great felicity of life," says Seneca, "is to be without perturbations."—Bovee.
There is no mortal truly wise and restless at once; wisdom is the repose of minds.—Lavater.
Reproof.—If you have a thrust to make at your friend's expense, do it gracefully, it is all the more effective. Some one says the reproach that is delivered with hat in hand is the most telling.—Haliburton.
The severest punishment suffered by a sensitive mind, for injury inflicted upon another, is the consciousness of having done it.—Hosea Ballou.
No reproach is like that we clothe in a smile, and present with a bow.—Lytton.
Reproof is a medicine like mercury or opium; if it be improperly administered, it will do harm instead of good.—Horace Mann.
He had such a gentle method of reproving their faults that they were not so much afraid as ashamed to repeat them.—Atterbury.
Reprove thy friend privately; commend him publicly.—Solon.
Reputation.—The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.—Socrates.
How many people live on the reputation of the reputation they might have made!—Holmes.
O, reputation! dearer far than life,Thou precious balsam, lovely, sweet of smell,Whose cordial drops once spilt by some rash hand,Not all the owner's care, nor the repenting toilOf the rude spiller, ever can collectTo its first purity and native sweetness.—Sewell.
O, reputation! dearer far than life,Thou precious balsam, lovely, sweet of smell,Whose cordial drops once spilt by some rash hand,Not all the owner's care, nor the repenting toilOf the rude spiller, ever can collectTo its first purity and native sweetness.—Sewell.
One may be better than his reputation or his conduct, but never better than his principles.—Laténa.
Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.—Thomas Paine.
If a man were only to deal in the world for a day, and should never have occasion to converse more with mankind, never more need their good opinion or good word, it were then no great matter (speaking as to the concernments of this world), if a man spent his reputation all at once, and ventured it at one throw; but if he be to continue in the world, and would have the advantage of conversation while he is in it, let him make use of truth and sincerity in all his words and actions; for nothing but this will last and hold out to the end.—Tillotson.
Resignation.—Resignation is the courage of Christian sorrow.—Professor Vinet.
If God send thee a cross, take it up willingly and follow him. Use it wisely, lest it be unprofitable. Bear it patiently, lest it be intolerable. If it be light, slight it not. If it be heavy, murmur not. After the cross is the crown.—Quarles.
"My will, not thine, be done," turned Paradise into a desert. "Thy will, not mine, be done," turned the desert into a paradise, and made Gethsemane the gate of heaven.—Pressensé.
With a sigh for what we have not, we must be thankful for what we have, and leave to One wiser than ourselves the deeper problems of the human soul and of its discipline.—Gladstone.
The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.—Job 1:21.
Dare to look up to God and say: "Deal with me in the future as thou wilt. I am of the same mind as thou art; I am thine. I refuse nothing that pleases Thee. Lead me where Thou wilt; cloth me in any dress Thou choosest."—Epictetus.
No cloud can overshadow a true Christian but his faith will discern a rainbow in it.—Bishop Horne.
Let God do with me what He will, anything He will; and, whatever it be, it will be either heaven itself, or some beginning of it.—Mountford.
Is it reasonable to take it ill, that anybody desires of us that which is their own? All we have is the Almighty's; and shall not God have his own when he calls for it?—William Penn.
Resolution.—He only is a well-made man who has a good termination.—Emerson.
Do not, for one repulse, forego the purposeThat you resolved to effect.—Shakespeare.
Do not, for one repulse, forego the purposeThat you resolved to effect.—Shakespeare.
Rest.—Rest is a fine medicine. Let your stomachs rest, ye dyspeptics; let your brain rest, you wearied and worried men of business; let your limbs rest, ye children of toil!—Carlyle.
Absence of occupation is not rest.A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd.—Cowper.
Absence of occupation is not rest.A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd.—Cowper.
God giveth quietness at last.—Whittier.
Of all our loving Father's giftsI often wonder which is best,And cry: Dear God, the one that liftsOur soul from weariness to rest,The rest of silence—that is best.—Mary Clemmer.
Of all our loving Father's giftsI often wonder which is best,And cry: Dear God, the one that liftsOur soul from weariness to rest,The rest of silence—that is best.—Mary Clemmer.
The word "rest" is not in my vocabulary.—Horace Greeley.
Retirement.—How much they err who, to their interest blind, slight the calm peace which from retirement flows!—Mrs. Tighe.
Nature I'll court in her sequester'd haunts,By mountain, meadow, streamlet, grove or cell;Where the poised lark his evening ditty chaunts,And health, and peace, and contemplation dwell.—Smollett.
Nature I'll court in her sequester'd haunts,By mountain, meadow, streamlet, grove or cell;Where the poised lark his evening ditty chaunts,And health, and peace, and contemplation dwell.—Smollett.
O, blest retirement! friend to life's decline—How blest is he who crowns, in shades like these,A youth of labor with an age of ease!—Goldsmith.
O, blest retirement! friend to life's decline—How blest is he who crowns, in shades like these,A youth of labor with an age of ease!—Goldsmith.
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,And waste its sweetness on the desert air.—Gray.
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,And waste its sweetness on the desert air.—Gray.
Depart from the highway, and transplant thyself in some enclosed ground; for it is hard for a tree that stands by the wayside to keep her fruit till it be ripe.—St. Chrysostom.
Exert your talents and distinguish yourself, and don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.—Dr. Johnson.
The statesman, lawyer, merchant, man of tradePants for the refuge of some rural shade,Where all his long anxieties forgotAmid the charms of a sequester'd spot,Or recollected only to gild o'erAnd add a smile to what was sweet before,He may possess the joys he thinks he sees,Lay his old age upon the lap of ease,Improve the remnant of his wasted span.And having lived a trifler, die a man.—Cowper.
The statesman, lawyer, merchant, man of tradePants for the refuge of some rural shade,Where all his long anxieties forgotAmid the charms of a sequester'd spot,Or recollected only to gild o'erAnd add a smile to what was sweet before,He may possess the joys he thinks he sees,Lay his old age upon the lap of ease,Improve the remnant of his wasted span.And having lived a trifler, die a man.—Cowper.
But what, it may be asked, are the requisites for a life of retirement? A man may be weary of the toils and torments of business, and yet quite unfit for the tranquil retreat. Without literature, friendship, and religion, retirement is in most cases found to be a dead, flat level, a barren waste, and a blank. Neither the body nor the soul can enjoy health and life in a vacuum.—Rusticus.
Riches.—Riches exclude only one inconvenience,—that is, poverty.—Dr. Johnson.
Great abundance of riches cannot of any man be both gathered and kept without sin.—Erasmus.
Riches, honors, and pleasures are the sweets which destroy the mind's appetite for its heavenly food; poverty, disgrace, and pain are the bitters which restore it.—Bishop Horne.
A man's true wealth is the good he does in this world.—Mohammed.
Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer.—Shakespeare.
He is rich whose income is more than his expenses; and he is poor whose expenses exceed his income.—La Bruyère.
No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger. It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.—Beecher.
Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.—Franklin.
He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.—Proverbs 28:20.
Riches without charity are nothing worth. They are a blessing only to him who makes them a blessing to others.—Fielding.
Sabbath.—The Sunday is the core of our civilization, dedicated to thought and reverence. It invites to the noblest solitude and to the noblest society.—Emerson.
Students of every age and kind, beware of secular study on the Lord's day.—Professor Miller.
A world without a Sabbath would be like a man without a smile, like a summer without flowers, and like a homestead without a garden. It is the joyous day of the whole week.—Beecher.
He who ordained the Sabbath loved the poor.—O.W. Holmes.
Scandal.—If there is any person to whom you feel dislike, that is the person of whom you ought never to speak.—Cecil.
There is a lust in man no charm can tame,Of loudly publishing his neighbor's shame;—On eagle's wings immortal scandals fly,While virtuous actions are but born and die.—Ella Louisa Hervey.
There is a lust in man no charm can tame,Of loudly publishing his neighbor's shame;—On eagle's wings immortal scandals fly,While virtuous actions are but born and die.—Ella Louisa Hervey.
No one loves to tell of scandal except to him who loves to hear it. Learn, then, to rebuke and check the detracting tongue by showing that you do not listen to it with pleasure.—St. Jerome.
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.—Ephesians 4:31.
Scepticism.—Scepticism has never founded empires, established principles, or changed the world's heart. The great doers in history have always been men of faith.—Chapin.
Scepticism is a barren coast, without a harbor or lighthouse.—Beecher.
Freethinkers are generally those who never think at all.—Sterne.
I know not any crime so great that a man could contrive to commit as poisoning the sources of eternal truth.—Dr. Johnson.
Secrecy.—The secret known to two is no longer a secret.—Ninon de Lenclos.
Secrecy has been well termed the soul of all great designs. Perhaps more has been effected by concealing our own intentions, than by discovering those of our enemy. But great men succeed in both.
A woman can keep one secret,—the secret of her age.—Voltaire.
To tell your own secrets is generally folly, but that folly is without guilt; to communicate those with which we are intrusted is always treachery, and treachery for the most part combined with folly.—Dr. Johnson.
To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.—Holmes.
To whom you betray your secret you sell your liberty.—Franklin.
He who trusts a secret to his servant makes his own man his master.—Dryden.
Self-Control.—He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city.—Proverbs 16:32.
What is the best government? That which teaches us to govern ourselves.—Goethe.
He who reigns within himself, and rules passions, desires, and fears, is more than a king.—Milton.
Real glory springs from the silent conquest of ourselves.—Thomson.
He is a fool who cannot be angry: but he is a wise man who will not.—English Proverb.
Self-Denial.—Self-denial is the quality of which Jesus Christ set us the example.—Ary Scheffer.
Only the soul that with an overwhelming impulse and a perfect trust gives itself up forever to the life of other men, finds the delight and peace which such complete self-surrender has to give.—Phillips Brooks.
Self-denial is a virtue of the highest quality, and he who has it not, and does not strive to acquire it, will never excel in anything.—Conybeare.
The more a man denies himself the more he shall obtain from God.—Horace.
The worst education which teaches self-denial is better than the best which teaches everything else, and not that.—John Sterling.
Selfishness.—Selfishness is that detestable vice which no one will forgive in others, and no one is without in himself.—Beecher.
It is to be doubted whether he will ever find the way to heaven who desires to go thither alone.—Feltham.
Take the selfishness out of this world and there would be more happiness than we should know what to do with.—H.W. Shaw.
We erect the idol self, and not only wish others to worship, but worship ourselves.—Cecil.
Silence.—Be silent, or say something better than silence.—Pythagoras.