Free Positive Quotations
Compiled by myron@tdstelme.net
Enrichment Quotations
Good Things To Learn
Learn to laugh. A good laugh
is better than medicine.
Learn how to tell a story.
A well-told story is as welcome as a sunbeam in a sick room.
Learn to keep your own troubles
to yourself. The world is too busy to care for your ills and sorrows.
Learn to stop croaking.
If you cannot see any good in this world, keep the bad to yourself.
Learn to hide your aches
and pains under a pleasant smile.
Learn to attend strictly
to your own business—very important point.
Learn to greet your friends
with a smile. They carry too many frowns in their own hearts, to be bothered
with yours. (The Christian Herald, December 23, 1903)
Live for something. Do good,
and leave behind you a monument of virtue that the storm of time can never
destroy. Write your name, in kindness, love, and mercy on the hearts of
thousands you come in contact with year by year; you will never be forgotten.
No, your name, your deeds, will be as legible on the hearts you leave behind
as the stars on the brow of evening. Good deeds will shine as the stars
of heaven. Thomas Chalmers.
If the sun is going down,
look up at the stars; if the earth is dark, keep your eyes on Heaven. With
God's presence and God's promises, a man or a child may be cheerful. Aids
to Endeavor.
Do all the good you can
to all the people you can as long as ever you can, in every place that
you can. Gertrude E. McVenn.
Make a rule, and pray God
to help you keep it, never, if possible, to lie down at night, without
being able to say, "I have made one human being, at least, a little wiser,
a little happier, or a little better this day." You will find it easier
than you think, and pleasanter. Charles Kingsley.
Ah! be quick to love, make
haste to be kind! Henri Amiel.
Give what you have. To some
one it may be better than you dare to think. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Never lose an opportunity
of seeing anything beautiful. Beauty is God's hand-writing,—a wayside sacrament;
welcome it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower, and thank
Him for it, the Fountain of loveliness; and drink it in, simply and earnestly,
with your eyes; it is a charmed draught, a cup of blessing. Jeanie A. Bates
Greenough.
Perform a good deed, speak
a kind word, bestow a pleasant smile, and you will receive the same in
return. The happiness you bestow upon other is reflected back to you own
bosom. Tryon Edwards.
Be thou the rainbow to the
storms of life! the evening beam that smiles the clouds away and tints
to-morrow with prophetic ray! Byron.
Hold fast by the present!
Every situation, nay, every moment, is of infinite value, for it is the
representative of a whole eternity. Goethe.
When happy thoughts come
into your mind, let the thought of God come with them; and when you go
into beautiful and attractive scenes, let the reconciled Presence go with
you; till at last earth is suffused with Heaven, and with the immortal
morning spread upon the mountains, death is done away, and the dark valley
superseded. Jeanie A. Bates Greenough.
Heal the sick, feed the
hungry, clothe the naked, teach the ignorant, reclaim the erring, help
the weak, pity the poor. No diviner life, no life more like God's is know
to the angels who surround most closely the glory of the central throne.
James Baldwin Brown.
Spend yourself,—spending
will enrich you. Pour out your life,—the emptying will fit it higher. C.
C. Hall.
See that the feelings, thoughts,
actions, of each hour are pure and true; then will you life be such. The
wide pasture is but separate spires of grass; the sheet bloom of the prairies
but isolated flowers. Jeanie A. Bates Greenough.
Engrave upon your hearts,
"Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord;" and then take up,
piece by piece, the work He lays before you, and do it thoroughly. It may
look little and insignificant all the way, but at the end the golden grains
shall have made a shining mountain. Jeanie A. Bates Greenough.
Live not for selfish aims.
Live to shed joy on others. Thus best shall your own happiness be secured;
for no joy is ever given freely forth that does not have quick echo in
the giver's own heart. Henry Ward Beecher.
Open your heart; open it
without measure, that God and His love may enter without measure. François
Fénelon.
If you wish to be loved,
love. Seneca.
To be loved, be lovable.
Ovid.
Be careful of your health;
be cheerful. Look aloft. The stars display their beauty to us only when
we look at them; and if we look down at the earth, our hearts are never
charmed. Be resolved to be happy to-day,—to be joyful now,—and out of every
fleeting moment draw all possible pure and lasting pleasure. Bishop Simpson
to his wife.
Be like the sun, that pours its ray
To glad and glorify the day.
Be like the moon, that sheds the light
To bless and beautify the night.
Be like the stars, that sparkle on,
Although the sun and moon are gone.
Be like the skies, that steadfast are,
Though absent sun and moon and star.
Caroline A. Mason.
Ask God to show you your
duty, and then do that duty well, and from that point you mount to the
very peak of vision. Edward Everett Hale.
After you have been kind,
after Love has stolen forth into the world and done its beautiful work,
go back into the shade again and say nothing about it. Love hides even
from itself. Love waives even self-satisfaction. "Love vaunteth not itself,
is not puffed up." Henry Drummond.
Write on you hearts that
every day is the best day of the year. Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Cultivate the thankful spirit!
It will be to thee a perpetual feast. There is, or ought to be, with us,
no such thing as small mercies; all are great, because the least are undeserved.
Indeed, a really thankful heart will extract motive for gratitude from
everything, making the most even of scanty blessing. J. R. MacDuff.
Look upon the bright side
of all things. Believe that the best offering you can make to God is to
enjoy to the full what he sends of good and bear what he allows of evil,
like a child who believes in all its father's dealings with it, whether
it understands them or not.
. . .
Make the best of everything;
Think the best of everybody;
Hope the best for yourself.
—George Stephenson.
If your cup is small, fill
it to the brim. Let it be multum in parvo. Make the most of your
opportunities of honest work and pure pleasure. Henry van Dyke.
There is only one way to
be happy and that is to make somebody else so.
. . .
When you rise in the morning
form a resolution to make the day a happy one to a fellow-creature. Sidney
Smith.
Never lose an opportunity
of seeing anything beautiful. Welcome it in every fair face, every fair
sky, every fair flower, and thank Him for it who is the fountain of all
loveliness, and drink it simply and earnestly with all your eyes; it is
a charmed draught, a cup of blessing. Charles Kingsley.
Every day look at a beautiful
picture, read a beautiful poem, listen to beautiful music and, if possible,
say some reasonable thing. Goethe.
Homely Hints for Happy Hours
1. If possible, have good health.
2. Have on hand some good
and worthy work, and be at it diligently but not too strenuously.
3. Expect nothing from that
on which no love or service is bestowed, and but little even where much
is bestowed. The highest reward for you best work is the ability to do
better work. Let anything more than this which may come bring with it the
added pleasure of a surprise.
4. Courageously resolve
to be happy at any rate, and if this resolve is steadily adhered to there
will be gradually formed, as an essential part of your character, the happy
habit.
. . .
Try to regard present vexations
as you will regard them a month hence.
Since we cannot get what
we like, let us like what we can get.
. . .
Don't go around with a chip
on your shoulder, looking for slights, suspicious of neglect where none
was intended. Take it for granted people intend to treat you well, and
meet them half-way, if not more. P.
Charity
Be good-natured, benevolent,
keep up a cheerful expression of countenance, even when alone.
Try to please, to console,
to amuse, to bestow, to thank, to help. That is all in itself so good!
Try to do some good to the
souls of others! An earnest word, some encouragement, a prayer breathed
softly.
Be courteous even to the
troublesome individual who is always in your way. God sends him to you.
Forgive at once.
Do not refuse your alms,
only let your motives be pure; and in giving, give as to God.
Do not judge the guilty
harshly; pity, and pray for them.
Lend yourself to all. God
will not suffer you to be taken advantage of if you are prompted by the
spirit of Charity. [Abridged] E. L. E. B., Gold Dust, 1897.
Never scorn anything that
seems wanting in brilliancy, and remember to be really happy we must have—
More virtue than knowledge,
More love than tenderness,
More guidance than cleverness,
More health than riches,
More repose than profit. E. L. E. B.
Wait patiently, trust humbly,
depend only upon, seek solely to a God of Light and Love, of Mercy and
Goodness, of Glory and Majesty, ever dwelling in the inmost dept and spirit
of your soul. There you have all the secret, hidden, invisible Upholder
of all the creation, whose blessed operation will always be found by a
humble, faithful, loving, calm, patient introversion of your heart to Him,
who has His hidden heaven within you, and which will open itself to you,
as soon as your heart is left wholly to His eternal, ever-speaking word,
and ever-sanctifying spirit within you. Beware of all eagerness and activity
of your own natural spirit and temper. Run not in any hasty ways of your
own. Be patient under the sense of your own vanity and weakness; and patiently
wait for God to do His own work, and in His own way. William Law.
Strive to realize a state
of inward happiness, independent of circumstances. J. P. Greaves.
Let every creature have
your love. Love, with its fruits of meekness, patience, and humility, is
all that we can wish for ourselves, and our fellow-creatures; for this
is to live in God, united to Him, both for time and eternity. To desire
to communicate good to every creature, in the degree we can, and it is
capable of receiving from us, is a divine temper; for thus God stands unchangeably
disposed towards the whole creation. William Law.
You who have no longer a
mother to love you, and yet crave for love, God will be as a mother.
You who have no brother
to help you, and have so much need of support, God will be your brother.
You who have no friends to comfort you, and stand so much in need of consolation,
God will be your friend.
Preserve always the childlike
simplicity which goes direct to God, and speak to Him as you would
speak to your mother.
Keep that open confidence
that tells Him your projects, troubles, joys, as you tell them to a brother.
Cherish those loving
words that speak of all the happiness you feel, living in dependence
upon Him, and trusting His Love, just as you would tell it to the friend
of your childhood.
Keep the generous heart
of childhood which gives all you have to God. Let Him freely take whatever
He pleases, all within and around you. Will only what He wills, desiring
only what is in accordance with His Will, and finding nothing impossible
that He commands.
Do you not feel something
soothing and consoling in these thoughts? The longer you live, the better
you will understand that true happiness is only to be found in a life devoted
to God, and given up entirely to His Guidance.
... Be patient and humble...but
love always, and wait...the trial will pass away, but God will remain yours
forever. E. L. E. B.
Be what thou seemest; live thy creed;
Hold up to earth the torch divine;
Be what thou prayest to be made;
Let the great Master's steps be thine.
Sow love, and taste its fruitage pure;
Sow peace, and reap its harvest bright;
Sow sunbeams on the rock and moor,
And find a harvest-home of light.
—Bonar
Set about doing good to somebody.
Put on your hat, and go and visit the sick and poor of your neighborhood;
inquire into their circumstances and minister to their wants. Seek out
the desolate, and afflicted, and oppressed, and tell them of the consolations
of religion. I have often tried this method, says Howard, and have always
found it the best medicine for a heavy heart. Tryon Edwards.
THE COUNTRY.
Would you be strong? go follow the plough;
Would you be thoughtful? study fields and flowers;
Would you be wise? take on yourself a vow,
To go to school in Nature's sunny bowers.
Fly from the city; nothing there can charm—
Seek wisdom, strength, and virtue on a farm. Tryon Edwards.
A SWARM OF BEES WORTH HAVING.
B patient, B prayerful, B humble,
B mild,
B wise as a Solon, B meek as a
child;
B studious, B thoughtful, B loving,
B kind,
B sure you make matter subservient
to mind.
B cautious, B prudent, B trustful,
B true,
B courteous to all men, B friendly
with few.
B temperate in argument, pleasure,
and wine,
B careful of conduct, of money,
of time.
B cheerful, B grateful, B hopeful,
B firm,
B peaceful, benevolent, willing
to learn;
B courageous, B gentle, B liberal,
B just,
B aspiring, B humble, BECAUSE
thou are dust;
B penitent, circumspect, sound
in the faith,
B active, devoted, B faithful
till death;
B honest, B holy, transparent,
and pure,
B dependent, B Christlike, and
you'll be secure.
(No Author Given)
Let us rise as the sun rose
and help to make the world glad. If we could but cultivate the habit of
a cheerful welcome to each new day, and rise with a determined purpose
to look for good and pursue it with all the vigor of our renewed strength,
it would make not only our own but our neighbors' lives far better worth
living. The waking mood is the ruling mood. Let us summon courage and put
an armor upon heart and mind and literally go forth from our chamber gladly
determined to bear cheerfully if we cannot conquer our fate. C., in New
York Evening Post.
The Duty of Happiness
Unfailing thoughtfulness of others in all those trifles that make up daily
contact in daily life, sweetness of spirit, the exhilaration of gladness
and of joy, and that exaltation of feeling which is the inevitable result
of mental peace and loving thought,—these make up the World Beautiful,
in which each one may live as in an atmosphere always attending his presence.
Like the kingdom of heaven, the World Beautiful is within; and it is
not only a privilege, but an absolute duty, so to live that we are always
in its atmosphere. Happiness, like health, is the normal state....
Live in the sweet, sunny atmosphere of serenity and light and exaltation,—in
that love and loveliness that creates the World Beautiful. Lilian Whiting.
The Law of Overcoming
The real consideration is how shall it [the spirit] grow in sympathy and
tenderness and consideration for others; how shall it feed itself on great
thoughts and noble aims; how shall it be swift to recognize and avail itself
of those opportunities of usefulness which are its best channels for growth;
how shall it hold its clear, direct, and intimate relation with the Divine?
The answer is in serene and cheerful obedience and in all-believing
and all-confident love. Believe and love,—all the duties of the world and
all the privileges of heaven are condensed in those three words. Believe
and love. Not only trust, but know, believe. Hold fast to the conviction
that the forces of life are divine. Come into harmony with them, and...thus
overcome the world. Lilian Whiting.
Advice To A Young Man
Remember, my son, you have to work. Whether you handle a pick or a pen,
a wheelbarrow or a set of books, digging ditches or editing a paper, ringing
an auction bell or writing funny things, you must work. If you look around,
you will see the men who are the most able to live the rest of their days
without work are the men who work the hardest. Don't be afraid of killing
yourself with overwork. It is beyond your power to do that on the sunny
side of thirty. They die sometimes, but it is because they quit work at
6 P. M., and don't get home until 2 A.M. It's the interval that kills,
my son. The work give you an appetite for your meals; it lends solidity
to your slumbers; it gives you a perfect and grateful appreciation of a
holiday.
There are young men who
do not work, but the world is not proud of them. It does not know their
names even; it simply speaks of them as "old So-and-so's boys." Nobody
likes them; the great busy world doesn't know that they are there. So find
out what you want to be and do, and take off your coat and make a dust
in the world. The busier you are, the less harm you will be apt to get
into, the sweeter will be your sleep, the brighter and happier your holidays,
and the better satisfied will the world be with you. R. J. Burdette.
Some Advice To Young Men
Young men, you are the architects of your own fortunes. Rely upon your
own strength of body and soul. Take as your star self-reliance, faith,
honesty and industry. Keep at your helm and steer your own ship, and remember
the great art of commanding is to take a fair share of the work. Think
well of yourself. Assume your own position. Rise above the envious and
jealous. Fire above the mark you intend to hit. Energy, invincible determination,
with a right motive, are the levers that move the world. Don't drink. Don't
chew. Don't smoke. Don't swear. Don't deceive. Don't read novels. Don't
marry until you can support a wife. Be in earnest. Be self-reliant. Be
generous. Be civil. Make money and do good with it. Love your God and fellowmen.
Love truth and virtue. Love your country and obey its laws. If this advice
be implicitly followed by the young men of the country, the millennium
is at hand. Noah Porter.
Mental Sunshine
The prime force of our being, however, rests in our minds. We are the governors
of our minds. Nothing lives there but we put it there. It is ours to train
and to control. Make your mind a bring and joyous place, and you will be
vigorous and healthy. ... The world is full of brightness and light. It
is there for us to see, and to take for our own use.... The mental sunshine
of undaunted optimism is one of life's best gifts, and it is our duty to
cultivate the habit of seeing and using it.... Keith J. Thomas.
Master Your Work
Master your work. when you know you are competent you will be confident.
Industry will make you competent and ambition will keep you industrious.
You will then begin to find out what your brains are worth, and you will
cultivate them carefully and be jealous of your time, so that you shall
not waste any of your mental effort unprofitably. Work hard all day and
every day, and try to do your work a little better each day. Keith J. Thomas.
If you would have a faith,
put under it a solid earth, and overarch it with an infinite heaven; stand
firm on one, and look steadfastly into the other. Theodore T. Munger.
Let your rest be perfect
in its season, like the rest of waters that are still. If you will have
a model for your living, take neither the stars, for they fly without ceasing,
nor the ocean that ebbs and flows, nor the river that cannot stay, but
rather let your life be like that of the summer air, which has times of
noble energy and times of perfect peace. Philip Gilbert Hamerton.
Let this and every dawn
of morning be to you as the beginning of life, and let every setting sun
be to you as its close; let every one of these short lives leave its sure
record of some kindly thing done to others,—some goodly strength or knowledge
gained for yourselves; so, from day to day and strength to strength, you
shall build up, by art, by thought, and by just will, an Ecclesia of which
it shall not be said, "See what manner of stones are here!" but, "See what
manner of men!" John Ruskin.
Never lose a chance of saying
a kind word. As Collingwood never saw a vacant place in his estate but
he took an acorn out of his pocket and popped it in, so deal with your
compliments through life. An acorn costs nothing, but it may sprout into
a prodigious bit of timber. Thackeray.
Do daily and hourly your
duty; do it patiently and thoroughly. Do it as it presents itself; do it
at the moment, and let it be its own reward. Never mind whether it is known
and acknowledged or not, but do not fail to do it. Aughey.
Reverence the highest, have
patience with the lowest. Let this day's performance of the meanest duty
be thy religion. Are the stars too distant, pick up the pebble that lies
at thy feet and from it learn the all. Margaret Fuller.
Take your duty, and be strong
in it, as God will make you strong. The harder it is, the stronger in fact
you will be. Understand, also, that the great question here is, not what
you will get, but what you will become. The greatest wealth you can ever
get will be in yourself. Take your burdens and troubles and losses and
wrongs, if come they must and will, as your opportunity, knowing that God
has girded you for greater things than these. Horace Bushnell.
Be more prudent for your
children than perhaps you have been for yourself. When they, too, are parents
they will imitate you, and each of you will have prepared happy generations,
who will transmit, together with your memory, the worship of your wisdom.
La Beaume.
We are most of us very lonely
in this world; you who have any who love you, cling to them and thank God.
Thackeray.
If you would fall into any
extreme, let it be on the side of gentleness. The human mind is so constructed
that it resists rigor, and yields to softness. St. Francis de Sales.
What is good-looking, as
Horace Smith remarks, but looking good? Be good, be womanly, be gentle,
generous in your sympathies, heedful of the well-being of all around you;
and, my word for it, you will not lack kind words of admiration. Whittier.
Let grace and goodness be
the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love, which hath ends, will
have an end; whereas that which is founded on true virtue will always continue.
Dryden.
Believe in God, believe
in nature, and do your duty; and the farm life, with its regular round
of duties, its simple loves, its high thoughts, its wise economies, its
immediate touch of earth, its charming gossip, its pleasant human interests,
and its many windows through which we may catch sight of the face of God,
will yield us all we need for a simple, manly, godly life. John Clifford,
D. D.
Be persuaded that your only
treasures are those which you carry in your heart. Demophilus.
If thou wouldst find much
favor and peace with God and man, be very low in thine own eyes; forgive
thyself little, and others much. Leighton.
Always say a kind word if
you can, if only that it may come in, perhaps, with singular opportuneness,
entering some mournful man's darkened room, like a beautiful firefly, whose
happy circumvolutions he cannot but watch, forgetting his many troubles.
Helps.
Love labor; for if thou
dost not want it for food, thou mayst for physic. William Penn.
Do you wish to be free?
Then above all things, love God, love your neighbor, love one another,
love the commonweal; then you will have true liberty. Savonarola.
Never marry but for love;
but see that thou lovest what is lovely. William Penn.
Guard well thy thoughts;
our thoughts are heard in heaven. Young.
Fortify yourself with moderation;
for this is an impregnable fortress. Epictetus.
Be simple and modest in
your deportment, and treat with indifference whatever lies between virtue
and vice. Love the human race; obey God. Marcus Antoninus.
Aim above morality. Be not
simply good; be good for something. Thoreau.
Behold the morning! Rise
up, O youth, and quickly fill thyself with this rosy wine, sparkling from
the crystal cup of the dawn! Omar Khayam.
Go forth under the open
sky, and list to nature's teachings. Bryant.
Come forth into the light
of things; let nature be your teacher. Wordsworth.
Keep your eyes and ears
open, if you desire to get on in the world. Douglas Jerrold.
Do not wait for extraordinary
circumstances to do good actions; try to use ordinary situations. Richter.
Do thy duty, and be at peace
with God and thine own conscience. There can be no true peace for thee
apart from the honest and daily discharge of those obligations, great and
small, which come into thy life from the Creator, and which, rightly viewed,
are angels of divine discipline. Thou hast too much to say about thy rights,
and thinkest too little about thy duties. Thou has but one inalienable
right, and this is the sublime one of doing thy duty at all times, under
all circumstances, and in all places. Frederic R. Marvin.
Improve time in the present;
for opportunity is precious, and time is a sword. Saadi.
Children, honor your parents
in your hearts; bear them not only awe and respect, but kindness and affection:
love their persons, fear to do anything that may justly provoke them; highly
esteem them as the instruments under God of your being: for "Ye shall fear
every man his mother and his father." Jeremy Taylor.
Never think that God's delays
are God's denials. Hold on! hold fast! hold out! Patience is genius. Count
de Buffon.
Adopt the pace of nature:
her secret is patience. Emerson.
Aim at perfection in everything,
though in most things it is unattainable; however, they who aim at it,
and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and
despondency make them give it up as unattainable. Chesterfield.
Hope against hope, and ask
till ye receive. Montgomery.
Reverence the highest; have
patience with the lowest. Let this day's performance of the meanest duty
be thy religion. Margaret Fuller Ossoli.
Choose such pleasures as
recreate much and cost little. Fuller.
Pleasure has its time; so
too has wisdom. Make love in thy youth, and in old age attend to thy salvation.
Voltaire.
Accustom yourself gradually
to carry prayer into all your daily occupations. Speak, move, work, in
peace, as if you were in prayer, as indeed you ought to be. Do everything
without excitement, by the spirit of grace. Fenelon.
Tell men that God is love;
that right is right, and wrong, wrong; let them cease to admire philanthropy,
and begin to love men; cease to pant for heaven, and begin to love God;
then the spirit of liberty begins. F. W. Robertson.
Devote each day to the object
then in time, and every evening will find something done. Goethe.
Enjoy the blessings of this
day if God sends them; and the evils bear patiently and sweetly. For this
day only is ours; we are dead to yesterday, and we are not born to to-morrow.
Jeremy Taylor.
Make use of time, if thou
lovest eternity; know yesterday cannot be recalled, to-morrow cannot be
assured: to-day is only thine; which if thou procrastinate, thou loseth;
which lost, is lost forever: one to-day is worth two to-morrows. Quarles.
A fresh mind keeps the body
fresh. Take in the ideas of the day, drain off those of yesterday. Bulwer-Lytton.
Know the true value of time;
snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. Lord Chesterfield.
Be circumspect in your dealings,
and let the seed you plant be the offspring of prudence and care; thus
fruit follows the fair blossom, as honor follows a good life. Hosea Ballou.
Let thy mind's sweetness
have its operation upon thy body, clothes, and habitation. George Herbert.
Be not dazzled by beauty,
but look for those inward qualities which are lasting. Seneca.
Help thyself, and God will
help thee. George Herbert.
Do thine own work, and know
thyself. Plato.
Look well into thyself;
there is a source which will always spring up if thou wilt always search
there. Marcus Antoninus.
Above all things, reverence
yourself. Pythagoras.
Be true to your own mind
and conscience, your heart and your soul; so only can you be true to God.
Theodore Parker.
Be gentle, genteel, genuine
and generous. (No Author Given)
Do you want true peace with
men? Make your peace with God. (No Author Given)
If you are going to do a
good thing, do it now. (No Author Given)
If you wish to be like a
little child, study what a little child could understand,—Nature; and do
what a little child could do,—love. Charles Kingsley.
Keep thyself, then, simple,
good, pure, serious, free from affectation, a friend of justice, a worshipper
of the gods, kind, affectionate, strenuous in all proper acts. Short is
life. There is only one fruit of this terrene life,—a pious disposition
and social acts. Marcus Aurelius.
Look upon the rainbow, and
praise Him that made it; very beautiful it is in the brightness thereof;
it compasseth the heaven about with a glorious circle, and the hands of
the Mos High have bended it. Ecclesiasticus.
Sleep in peace, and wake
in joy. Scott.
In success be moderate.
Franklin.
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.
Let us learn upon earth
those thing which can call us to heaven. St. Jerome.
Make your best thoughts
into action. Mme. Necker.
Teach the art of living
well. Seneca.
If you would be pungent,
be brief, for it is with words as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed,
the deeper they burn. Saxe.
Tread cheerfully every day
the path in which Providence leads; seek nothing, be discouraged by nothing,
see duty in the present moment, trust all without reserve to the will and
power of God. Fénelon.
Trust in God for great things.
With your five loaves and two fishes, He will show you a way to feed thousands.
Horace Bushnell.
Trust men, and they will
be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.
Emerson.
Attach thyself to truth;
defend justice; rejoice in the beautiful. That which comes to thee with
time, time will take away; that which is eternal will remain in thy heart.
Esaias Tegner.
Recommend to your children
virtue; that alone can make them happy, not gold. Beethoven.
Dare to be wise. Horace.
Honor women! They strew
celestial roses on the pathway of our terrestrial life. Boiste.
Honor women! they entwine
and weave heavenly roses in our earthly life. Schiller.
Work first, and then rest.
Ruskin.
Get work! Be sure it is
better than what you work to get. Mrs. E. B. Browning.
Keep true to the dreams
of thy youth. Schiller.
Have charity; have patience;
have mercy. Charles Kingsley.
Some Advice To Parents
Let me say to parents: Make
the home-life beautiful, without and within, and they will sow the seeds
of gentleness, true kindness, honesty and fidelity, in the hearts of their
children, from which the children reap a harvest of happiness and virtue.
The memory of the beautiful and happy home of childhood is the richest
legacy any man can leave to his children. The heart will never forget its
hallowed influences. It will be an evening enjoyment, to which the lapse
of years will only add new sweetness. Such a home is a constant inspiration
for good....
We may...live in a world...full
of sunlight and beauty and joy; for the world without only reflects the
world within. Also the tasteful improvement of grounds and home exerts
a good influence not only upon the inmates but upon the community. An elegant
dwelling, surrounded by sylvan attractions, is a contribution to the refinement,
the good order, the taste and prosperity of every community, improving
the public taste and ministering to every enjoyment. B. G. Northrup.
Descriptive Quotations
A kind heart is a fountain
of gladness, making everything in its vicinity to freshen into smiles.
Irving.
Wondrous is the strength
of cheerfulness; altogether past calculation, its powers of endurance;
efforts to be permanently useful must be uniformly joyous; the spirit all
sunshine, graceful from very gladness, beautiful because bright. Carlyle.
How beautiful it is to be
alive! To read in some good book, until we feel Love for the one who wrote
it.... Henry Septimus Sutton.
Beauty is an all-pervading
presence. It unfolds to the numberless flowers of the spring; it waves
in the branches of the trees and the green blades of grass; it haunts the
depths of the earth and the sea, and gleams out in the hues of the shell
and the precious stone. And not only these minute objects, but the ocean,
the mountains, the clouds, the heavens, the stars, the rising and setting
sun, all overflow with beauty. Channing.
Have you ever had your day
suddenly turn sunshiny because of a cheerful word? Have you ever wondered
if this could be the same world, because someone had been unexpectedly
kind to you? You can make to-day the same for somebody. It is only a question
of a little imagination, a little time and trouble. Think now, "What can
I do to-day to make someone happy?" Maltbie D. Babcock.
The grand essentials of
happiness are something to do, something to love, and something to hope
for. Chalmers.
The best thing to give your
enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart;
to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother,
conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men,
charity. Mrs. Balfour.
A cheerful spirit is one
of the most valuable gifts ever bestowed upon humanity by a kind Creator.
It is the sweetest and most fragrant flower of the Spirit, that constantly
sends out its beauty and fragrance, and blesses everything within its reach.
It will sustain the soul in the darkest and most dreary places of this
world. It will hold in check the demons of despair, and stifle the power
of discouragement and hopelessness. It is the brightest star that ever
cast its radiance over the darkened soul, and one that seldom sets in the
gloom of morbid fancies and forboding imaginations. Aughey.
The greatest pleasure of
life is love. Sir W. Temple.
Heaven's harmony is universal
love. Cowper.
Love is the wine of existence.
Henry Ward Beecher.
Love conquers all things;
let us yield to love. Virgil.
Love is the life of the
soul. It is the harmony of the universe. William Ellery Channing.
Love is the road to God;
for love, endless love, is Himself. Sonnenberg.
Words of love are works
of love. W. R. Alger.
The soul of woman lives
in love. Mrs. Sigourney.
Love's like virtue, its
own reward. Vanbrugh.
Love sacrifices all things
to bless the thing it loves. Bulwer-Lytton.
There is nothing half so
sweet in life as love's young dream. Moore.
There is in the heart of
woman such a deep well of love that no age can freeze it. Bulwer-Lytton.
If fun is good, truth is
still better, and love best of all. Thackeray.
Love is precisely to the
moral nature what the sun is to the earth. Balzac.
The fountain of love is
the rose and the lily, the sun and the dove. Heinrich Heine.
The pleasure of love is
in loving. We are happier in the passion we feel than in that we inspire.
La Rochefoucauld.
To love for the sake of
being loved is human, but to love for the sake of loving is angelic. Lamartine.
Love is always wonderful,
a new creation, fair and fresh to every loving need. It is the miracle
of spring to the cold dull earth. Hugh Black.
The most precious possession
that ever comes to a man in this world is a woman's heart. J. G. Holland.
Love is the beginning, the
middle, and the end of everything. Lacordaire.
A flower cannot blossom
without sunshine, and a man cannot live without love. George P. Upton.
Only those who love with
the heart can animate the love of others. Abel Stevens.
Let those love now who never loved before,
Let those that always loved now love the more. Parnell.
The happiness of love is
in action; its test is what one is willing to do for others. Lew Wallace.
Of the book of books most
wondrous is the tender book of love. Goethe.
Love yields to all things.
Jane Porter.
Love and desire are the
spirit's wings of great deeds. Goethe.
It is one of heaven's best
gifts to hold such a dear creature in one's arms. Goethe.
There is nothing holier
in this life of ours than the first consciousness of love, the first fluttering
of its silken wings. Longfellow.
Love is the only possession
which we can carry with us beyond the grave. Madame Necker.
Nothing more excites to
everything noble and generous than virtuous love. Henry Home.
It is love that asks, that
seeks, that knocks, that finds, and that is faithful to what it finds.
St. Augustine.
Love is the master-key that
opens ever ward of the heart of man. J. H. Evans.
Life is a sleep, love is
a dream; and you have lived if you have loved. Alfred de Musset.
The motto of chivalry is
also the motto of wisdom; to serve all and love but one. Balzac.
Love has no age, as it is
always renewing itself. Pascal.
Humble love, and not proud
silence, keeps the door of heaven. Young.
Only love understands after
all. It gives insight. We cannot truly know anything without sympathy,
without getting out of self and entering into others. A man cannot be a
true naturalist, and observe the ways of birds and insects accurately,
unless he can watch long and lovingly. We can never know children, unless
we love them. Many of the chambers of the house of life are forever locked
to us, until love gives us the key. Hugh Black.
To learn to love all kinds
of nobleness gives insight into the true significance of things, and gives
a standard to settle their relative importance. Hugh Black.
To the faith which sees
love in all creation, all life becomes harmony, and all sorts of loving
relationships among men seem to be part of the natural order of the world.
Indeed, such miracles are only to be looked for, and if absent from the
life of man would make it hard to believe in the love of God. Hugh Black.
But the glory of life is
to love, not to be loved; to give, not to get; to serve, not to be served.
... The miracle is the love, and to the lover comes the wonder of it, and
the joy. Hugh Black.
To seek the good of men
is to seek the glory of God. Hugh Black.
Our hearts demand love,
as truly as our bodies demand food. Hugh Black.
Joy also demands that its
joy should be shared. ... But joy finds its counterpart in the sunshine
and the flowers and the birds and the little children, and enters easily
into all the movements of life. Hugh Black.
The true insight after all
is love. It clarifies the intellect, and opens the eyes to much that was
obscure. Hugh Black.
Influence is the greatest
of all human gifts, and we all have it in some measure. Hugh Black.
It is love, not logic, which
can unite men. Love is the one solvent to break down all barriers, and
love has other grounds for its existence than merely intellectual ones.
Hugh Black.
The world is bathed in the
love of God, as it is flooded by the blessed sun. If we are in the light
and walk in love, our walk will be with God, and His gentleness will make
us great. There is intended an ever fuller education in the meaning, and
in the life of love, until the assurance reaches us that nothing can separate
us from love. Hugh Black.
Life is an education in
love. There are grades and steps in it, occasions of varying opportunity
for the discipline of love. Hugh Black.
Life is an education in
love, but the education is not complete till we learn the love of the eternal.
Hugh Black.
There is a love which passeth
the love of women, passeth the love of comrades, passeth all earthly love,
the love of God to the weary, starved heart of man. To believe in this
great fact does not detract from human friendship, but really gives it
worth and glory. It is because of this, that all love has a place in the
life of man. All our worships, and friendships, and loves, come from God,
and are but reflections of the divine tenderness. All that is beautiful,
and lovely and pure, and of good repute, finds its appropriate setting
in God; for it was made by God. Hugh Black.
But the love of God is the
end and design of all other loves. If the flowers and leaves fade, it is
that the time of ripe fruit is at hand. If these adornments are taken from
the tree of life, it is to make room for the supreme fruitage. Hugh Black.
To feel the touch of God
on our lives changes the world. Its fruits are joy, and peace, and confidence
that all the events of life are suffused, not only with meaning, but with
a meaning of love. The higher friendship brings a satisfaction to the heart,
and a joy commensurate to the love. Its reward is itself, the sweet, enthralling
relationship, not any adventitious gain it promises, either in the present,
or in the future. Hugh Black.
To know the love of God
does not mean the impoverishing of our lives, by robbing them of their
other sweet relations. Rather, it means the enriching of these, by revealing
their true beauty and purpose. Hugh Black.
We find in God all the excellences
of light, truth, wisdom, greatness, goodness and life. Light gives joy
and gladness; truth gives satisfaction; wisdom gives learning and instruction;
greatness excites admiration; goodness produces love and gratitude; life
gives immortality and insures enjoyment. Jones of Nayland.
The whole world is beautiful.
Its very beauty proves that it could not have come by chance. From the
crystal to the flower, there is plan and order. The sea beating against
the shores; the wide stretches of the field; the azure of the skies; the
rugged storm clouds, built up against the evening sky; the gold of a perfect
sunset; the beauty of a dawning day; the stars that sweep overhead at night;
the moon, on summer seas; the mountains thrown against a dazzling sky;
the sweep of storm thru city streets with eaves groaning and night winds
sobbing; the brooks that sing along the forest paths; the birds in brilliant
colors—what is all this prodigal display of perfect loveliness, but the
work of some Divine influence make this the abode of loveliness, as the
vestibule to glories yet to be? Arthur G. Staples.
He only is great of heart
who floods the world with a great affection. He only is great of mind who
stirs the world with great thoughts. He only is great of will who does
something to shape the world to a great career. And he is greatest who
does the most of all these things, and does them best. Roswell D. Hitchcock.
Ah, this is a beautiful
world! I know not what to think of it. Sometimes it is all sunshine and
gladness, and Heaven itself lies not far off.... Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
"Man's life is a gift of
God," said the eminent Persian poet,—Jelâl-ed-Deen-Roomee. Take,
use wisely, and enjoy each day, but forget not the Giver. Jeanie A. Bates
Greenough.
Love is the law of man's
existence and of God's existence no less. The human soul, in whatever state
or place, is God's child. God is the universal Father; and the whole physical
world, the entire circumstances of the race, the whole course of human
events, are but the appliances of a Father's love. George S. Merriam.
Faith is the key that unlocks
the cabinet of the promises, and empties out their treasures into the soul.
Watson, 1696.
Every breeze that stirs,
every bird that sings, every flower that blooms, every moment with its
utmost perfect possibility, is my minister,—a portion of the universal
joy of life. Jeanie A. Bates Greenough.
I love the world the more,
because I know it is God's world; even as a dry leaf, given by a love,
is dearer than all pearls from whoso loves us not. Theodore Parker.
It is not any theory about
God, even the best, that makes life worth living. It is God Himself; the
order of His universe; His mornings and evenings; His sunshine and His
stars; His Springtime resurrection; His human love; His little children.
Because God is, life is worth living. John W. Chadwick.
The delight in nature is
the purest, sweetest, freshest of our pleasures. It has no after-taste
of pain. And this, God's infinite bounty has brought within the touch of
every hand. James Baldwin Brown.
The measure of the love
of God is to love without measure! Saint Francis de Sales.
Speaking of flowers, Wilberforce
said that they seemed to him "like the smile on the Father's countenance."
So all the beauty of the sky and the earth is like the smile of God; and
a smile shows us the disposition of the person just as certainly as any
words he can use. This accounts for the expression spoken of. One cannot
sit down in the midst of this liveliness without being conscious that it
is a Divine Presence that makes it lovely. Henry Ware, Jr.
Of all mortal joys, the
joy of action is the most intense; indeed, there is no other joy. And the
higher the action, the intenser the joy. Life is blessedness. The life
of the lower nature we call pleasure,—the blessedness of the bird and the
butterfly. The life of the social nature we call happiness,—the blessedness
of the fortunate and successful. The life of the spiritual nature,—activity
in usefulness, care, duty,—we call joy. O. B. Frothingham.
Knowledge, prophecies, gifts
of all kinds, pass away, but the love of God and the love of man never
fail. Dean Stanley.
As there comes a warm sunbeam
into every cottage window, so comes a love-beam of God's care and pity
for every separate need. Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Whoso liveth in love liveth
in Heaven. James Baldwin Brown.
The law imprinted on the
hearts of all men is to love the members of society as themselves. The
eternal, universal, unchangeable law of all beings is to seek the good
of one another, like children of the same Father. Cicero.
Not a single faithful word
is ever uttered that does not repeat itself in echoes till it reaches the
throne of God. Not a noble deed is ever done, however obscurely, that is
not chronicled in Heaven. Jeanie A. Bates Greenough.
There would be no need for
any other law, if we all obeyed perfectly the law of love. William Walsingham.
A heart enriched with the
love of God does more than occasionally advert to God, or draw to Him at
times as a duty or as a necessity. God is its atmosphere, its abode. Thomas
Collins.
God always has an angel
to help those who are willing to do their duty. Theodore L. Cuyler.
A generous mind never enjoys
its possessions so much as when others are made partakers of them. Sir
William Jones.
Little self-denials, little
honesties, little passing words of sympathy, little nameless acts of kindness,
little silent victories over favorite temptations,—these are the silent
threads of gold, which, when woven together, gleam out so brightly in the
pattern of life that God approves. Canon Frederick W. Farrar.
It is not life to live for
one's self alone. Let us help one another. Menander.
It is our duty to be happy,
because happiness lies in contentment with all the divine Will concerning
us. George W. Bethune.
The flowers are God's undertones
of encouragement to the children of earth. Jeanie A. Bates Greenough.
Happy the parents who have
made home such a fitting-place for Heaven that they can hope to find all
the children again in the Heavenly Home! Jeanie A. Bates Greenough.
How many happy months are
swept beneath the silent wing of Time, and leave no name or record in our
hearts! Sweet moments of quietness and affection, glad hours of joy and
hope, days—yea, many days—begun and ended in health and happiness, times
and seasons of Heaven's gracious beneficence, stand before us yet again
in the light of memory, and command us to be thankful, and to prize as
we ought the gift of life. Jeanie A. Bates Greenough.
Christian graces are like
perfume, the more they are pressed, the sweeter they smell; like stars
that shine brightest in the dark; like trees, the more they are shaken,
the deeper root they take, and the more fruit they bear. Tryon Edwards.
That man who reads that
he may know, and labors to know that he may do, will have two heavens;
a heaven of joy, peace, and comfort on earth, and a heaven of glory and
happiness after death. Tryon Edwards.
The Three Guides
A sound head, an honest heart, and an humble spirit,—these are the three
best guides. They will ever suffice to conduct us in safety in every variety
of circumstances. Tryon Edwards.
Great Results from Small Beginnings
From acorns springing, oaks arrest our eyes;
From little streamlets, mighty rivers rise.
Tryon Edwards.
Wit and Kindness
Witty sayings are as easily
lost as the pearls slipping off a broken string; but a word of kindness
is seldom spoken in vain. It is a seed, which, even when dropped
by chance, springs up a flower. Tryon Edwards.
Good temper is like a sunny
day, it sheds a brightness on every thing. Tryon Edwards.
Where Is God?
In the sun, the moon, the sky;
On the mountains, wild and high;
In the thunder, in the rain,
In the grove, the wood, the plain;
In the little birds that sing:
God is seen in every thing.
Tryon Edwards
Cultivation of Taste for Beauty
... Beauty is an all-pervading presence. It unfolds in the numberless flowers
of the spring. It waves in the branches of the trees and green blades of
grass. It haunts the depths of the earth and sea, and gleams out of the
hues of the shell and the precious stone.
And not only these
minute objects, but the ocean, the mountains, the clouds, the heavens,
the stars, the rising and setting sun, all overflow with beauty. The universe
is its temple; and those men who are alive to it cannot lift their eyes
without feeling themselves encompassed with it on every side. William Ellery
Channing.
Heavenly Love
Every saint in Heaven is as a flower in the garden of God, and holy love
is the fragrance and sweet odor that they all send forth, and with which
they fill the bowers of that paradise above. Every soul there is as a note
in some concert of delightful music, that sweetly harmonizes with every
other note, and all together blend in the most rapturous strains in praising
God and the Lamb for ever. Edwards.
Hope
A propensity to Hope and Joy is real riches.... Hume.
Living Well
It is the bounty of Nature that
we live, but of Philosophy that we live well; which is, in truth, a greater
benefit than Life itself. Lucius Annaeus Seneca.
Happiness
Happiness is that single and
glorious thing, which is the very Light and Sun of the whole animated universe,
and where she is not, it were better that nothing should be. Without her,
Wisdom is but a shadow, and Virtue a name; she is their sovereign mistress.
Caleb C. Colton.
Go Forth...
It is only the pure fountain
that brings forth pure water. The good tree only will produce the good
fruit. If the center from which all proceeds is pure and holy, the radii
of influence from it will be pure and holy also. Go forth, then, into the
spheres you occupy, the employments, the trades, the professions of social
life; go forth into the high places or into the lowly places of the land;
mix with the roaring cataracts of social convulsions, or mingle amid the
eddies and streamlets of quiet and domestic life; whatever sphere you fill,
carrying into it a holy heart, you will radiate around you life and power,
and leave behind you holy and beneficent influences. John Cummings, D.
D.
Midsummer
John Townsend Trowbridge
Around this lovely valley rise
The purple hills of Paradise.
O, softly on you banks of haze
Her rosy face the Summer lays!
Becalmed along the azure sky,
The argosies of cloudland lie,
Whose shores, with many a shining rift,
Far off their pearl-white peaks uplift.
Through all the long midsummer day
The meadow sides are sweet with hay.
I seek the coolest sheltered seat,
Just where the field and forest meet,—
Where grow the pine-trees tall and bland,
The ancient oaks austere and grand,
And fringy roots and pebbles fret
The ripples of the rivulet.
I watch the mowers as they go
Through the tall grass, a white-sleeved row;
With every stroke their scythes they swing,
In tune their merry whetstones ring.
Behind the nimble youngsters run,
And toss the thick swaths in the sun.
The cattle graze, while warm and still
Slopes the broad pasture, basks the hill,
And bright, where summer breezes bread,
The green wheat crinkles like a lake.
The butterfly and humblebee
Come to the pleasant woods with me;
Quickly before me runs the quail,
Her chickens skulk behind the rail;
High up the lone wood-pigeon sits,
And the woodpecker pecks and flits.
Sweet woodland music sinks and swells,
The brooklet rings its tinkling bells,
The swarming insects drone and hum,
The partridge beats his throbbing drum,
The squirrel leaps among the boughs,
And chatters from his leafy house.
The oriole flashes by; and look!
Into the mirror of the brook,
Where the vain bluebird trims his coat,
Two tiny feathers fall and float.
As silently, as tenderly,
The down of peace descends on me.
Oh, this is peace! I have no need
Of friend to talk, of book to read:
A dear Companion here abides;
Close to my thrilling heart He hides;
The holy silence is His voice;
I lie and listen and rejoice.
Things Worth While
—H. G. Williamson.
To look and see the beautiful,
This world holds to the view;
To listen and to hear the songs
Which Nature sings for you;
To taste the sweet of all you eat,
To smell each fragrant flower,
To know, to feel that God is real,
To live within the hour;
To love one who deserves your love,
To face all with a smile,
To reach a goal by trying hard,
These are the things worth while.
Service
I live for those who love me,
For those who know me true,
For the heavens that bend above me
And the good that I can do;
For the cause that needs assistance,
For the wrongs that lack resistance,
For the future in the distance
And the good that I can do.
—G. Linnæus Banks.
Riches
"Has not God given every man
a capital to start with? Are we not born rich? He is rich who has good
health, a sound body, good muscles; he is rich who has a good head, a good
disposition, a good heart; he is rich who has two good hands, with five
chances on each." Gertrude E. McVenn.
He that would be happy, let
him remember that there is but one way—it is more blessed, it is more happy,
to give than to receive. Henry Drummond.
Love begets love. Henry
Drummond.
To love abundantly is to
live abundantly, and to love for ever is to live for ever. Hence, eternal
life is inextricably bound up with love. Henry Drummond.
Love must be eternal. It
is what God is. On the last analysis, then, love is life. Love never faileth,
and life never faileth, so long as there is love. Henry Drummond.
The people of heaven are
continually advancing toward the spring-time of life; and the more thousands
of years they live, the more delightful and happy is the spring to which
they attain. Women who have died old and worn out with age, and have lived
in faith in the Lord and in charity to the neighbor, come, with the succession
of years, more and more into the flower of youth and early womanhood, and
into a beauty exceeding every idea of beauty ever formed through the sight.
In a word, to grow old in heaven is to grow young. Emanuel Swedenborg.
Peace in the heavens is
like spring in the world, gladdening all things. Emanuel Swedenborg.
Consider that all which
appears beautiful outwardly, is solely derived from the invisible Spirit
which is the source of that external beauty, and say joyfully, "Behold,
these are streamlets from the uncreated Fountain; behold, these are drops
from the infinite Ocean of all good! Oh! how does my inmost heart rejoice
at the thought of that eternal, infinite Beauty, which is the source and
origin of all created beauty!" L. Scupoli.
The only way to make our
life continuously beautiful, and to keep it ever sweet with love, is to
insist on judging ourselves day by day. J. R. Miller, D.D.
God looks up at us from
every sweet flower that blooms. The beauty that fills our earth is a pledge
to us of God's thought and love for us. We all know the familiar story
of the great traveller who was saved from perishing on the desert where
he had fallen, faint and famishing for water, by seeing a little speck
of green moss peeping up out of the hot sand. This gleam of life assured
him that God must be near, thus putting new hope into his heart, and giving
him strength to rise and struggle on until he found water. Every plant
or flower should remind us of God, make us reverent. J. R. Miller, D.D.
He who plants a tree
He plants love;
Tents of coolness spreading out above
Wayfarers he may not live to see.
Gifts that grow are best;
Hands that bless are blest.
Plant; life does the rest.
Heaven and earth help him who plants a tree,
And his work its own reward shall be.
—Lucy Larcom
The sum of all practical
religion is love. "Love is the fulfilling of the law." All Christian growth
is to be toward the likeness of Christ, and all his character is summed
up in love. J. R. Miller, D.D.
Loving itself blesses us.
It opens our heart and enriches our life. It teaches us the true meaning
of life; for to live truly is to love. J. R. Miller, D. D.
Cheeriness is a thing to
be more profoundly grateful for than all that genius ever inspired or talent
ever accomplished. Next best to natural, spontaneous cheeriness is deliberate,
intended and persistent cheeriness, which we can create, can cultivate,
and can so foster and cherish that after a few years the world will never
suspect that it was not a hereditary gift. Helen Hunt Jackson.
Blessed are the happiness
makers! Blessed are they that take away attritions, that remove friction,
that make the course of life smooth, and the intercourse of men gentle!
Henry Ward Beecher.
The best way to secure a
happy home is to be happy yourself. One really happy person is enough to
create a delightful, pervasive atmosphere of happiness. To have a happy
home, set the example of self-sacrifice, love, service, of ministering
rather than expecting to be ministered unto—and see what comes of it! The
Congregationalist.
There are persons so radiant,
so genial, so kind, so pleasure-bearing, that you instinctively feel in
their presence that they do you good, whose coming into a room is like
bringing a lamp there. Henry Ward Beecher.
Mirth is God's medicine.
Everybody ought to bathe in it. ... Blessed is he who has a sense of the
humorous. He has that which is worth more than money. Henry Ward Beecher.
Why She Had A Happy Old Age
She knew how to forget disagreeable
things.
She kept her nerves well
in hand and inflicted them on no one.
She believed in the goodness
of her neighbors.
She cultivated a good digestion.
She mastered the art of
saying pleasant words.
She did not expect too much
from her friends.
She made whatever work came
to her congenial.
She retained her illusions
and did not believe that all the world was wicked and unkind.
She relieved the miserable
and sympathized with the sorrowful.
She retained an even disposition
and made the best of everything.
She did whatever came to
her cheerfully and well.
She never forgot that kind
words and a smile cost nothing, but are countless treasures to the discouraged.
She did not others as she
would be done by, and now that old age has come to her, she is loved and
considered. —The Congregationalist
A wise rule of life is to
get all the good, aye, and all the happiness, we can out of life as it
passes. Take the days as they come, and get as much work and as much happiness
out of them as we can. The happier men are, the better He [God] is pleased.
And happiness arises chiefly by catching its opportunities as they arise,
not by forming ideal conditions under which alone we fancy that we can
be happy. W. Garrett Horder.
Pleasure comes of its own
accord in the right way of life, and the simplest, the cheapest, and the
most inevitable pleasures are the best. Carl Hilty.
If we look out for our duties,
pleasures like flowers will grow up around our feet. Thomas K. Beecher.
Exactness in little duties
is a wonderful source of cheerfulness. Frederick W. Faber.
Is not making others happy
the best happiness? Amiel.
If each one of us can say:
"I am going to make at least part of my purpose in living to make this
world a little better and happier place for others, to bring all the joy
I can into others' lives who need it much, to sympathize with some one
outside my own social circle, and try and enter into his life a little,
and try to see if I cannot, by friendly interest, help this man I have
shunned"; if each one of us can say that, he has got the exact point of
this beautiful story [of Jesus and Zaccheus]. Frederick Lynch.
A season for simple living
with the kindly sun and the blue sky; days of keen delight in little things,
of joyous questing after beauty; days for the making of friends by being
a true friend to others; days when we may enlarge our little lives by excursions
to strange places, by friendly association, by the companionship of great
thoughts; days that may teach us to live nobly, to work joyously, to play
harder, to do all our labor better; so should each June bring us indeed
a golden summer. Edwin Osgood Grover, in The Congregationalist.
Serene will be our days and bright
And happy will our nature be
When love is an unerring light
And joy its own security.
—William Wordsworth.
In many a home a world of
happiness would be saved, if only each were content to love without asking
or wondering just how much love he gets in return. To love is our business;
as to how much we are loved is not our concern. The thought, but not verbatim,
from an address by Rev. Artemas J. Haynes.
God bless the good-natured,
for they bless everybody else.
. . .
He whose disposition is cheerful,
imaginative and humorous has a summer of the soul, and in that summer atmosphere
reason will act more clearly, conscience will be sounder, fidelity will
act better than if they are exercised in a frigid zone or in the chills
and peltings of a morose disposition. Wherever you go, if God gave you
gayety and cheer of spirits, shine and sing. Henry Ward Beecher.
How to Be Happy
1. The first and most essential
condition of true happiness is a firm faith in the moral order of the world.
If one begins simply to live as in a moral world, his path to happiness
lies plainly before him. Within his heart there is a certain stability,
rest and assurance, which endure and even gather strength amid all outward
storms.
2. His desire must be to
live resolutely in one even mood, and to look for his daily share of conscious
happiness not in his emotions, but in his activity. Happy work is the healthiest
of human conditions. Carl Hilty.
How to Be Happy
Love in the heart for all about
you; leisure enough to express it; a ready sympathy; a sunny smile; an
outgoing disposition; a patient performance of duties, with restfulness
in each as if it were the ultimatum; thorough effort as "unto the Lord."
Mrs. C. H. Daniels, in The Congregationalist.
Nothing is so contagious
as enthusiasm; it is the real allegory of the tale of Orpheus; it moves
stones, it charms brutes. Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity, and truth
accomplishes no victories without it. Bulwer.
The great lesson to be learned
is that happiness is within us. No passing amusement, no companionship,
no material possession can permanently satisfy. We must hoard up our own
strength. We must depend upon our own resources for amusement and pleasure.
We must make or mar our own tranquility. To teach them this is the preparation
for life which we can give our children. Philadelphia Ledger.
Happiness comes not from
the power of possession, but from the power of appreciation. Above most
other things it is wise to cultivate the powers of appreciation. The greater
the number of stops in an organ the greater its possibilities as an instrument
of music. H. W. Sylvester.
We ought daily or weekly
to dedicate a little time to the reckoning up of the virtues of our belongings—wife,
children, friends—and contemplating them there in a beautiful collection.
Jean Paul Richter.
To be happy and make others
happy is the highest duty and privilege in life. ... "Sunshine from all
and for all" is our home motto, and instant quarantine is the penalty for
a failure to live up to it. I believe a happy disposition contributes more
to success in a life career than any other single element. Dorothy Storrs.
As jewels are treasured
in the casket, to be brought forth on great occasions, so should we preserve
the remembrance of our joys, and keep them for seasons when special consolations
are wanted to cheer the soul. James Kirkpatrick.
The daily record of
happiness has helped to create in us a happy temper, a spirit of joy; for
happiness as it deepens into joy is found to be a thing not of happenings
but of character. Joy comes not with observation; it is not to be found
here or there, for it is within. But though first within, the kingdom of
joy is yet to come without. If it is within us as character, it is no incoming
possession, but an outgoing energy. If it is now in some fuller measure
within us, we shall seek during the coming year to extend its rule within
and over other human lives. Frank C. Porter.
Alms given in secret; that
is the charity which brings a blessing.
What sweet enjoyment to
be able to shed a little happiness around us!
What an easy and agreeable
task is that of trying to render others happy. E. L. E. B.
As long as we can love and
pray, life has charms for us.
Love produces devotion,
and devotion brings happiness, even though we may not understand it. E.
L. E. B.
Into all our lives, in many
simple, familiar, homely ways, God infuses this element of homely joy from
the surprises of life, which unexpectedly brighten our days, and fill our
eyes with light. He drops this added sweetness into his children's cup,
and makes it to run over. The success we were not counting on, the blessing
we were not trying after, the strain of music in the midst of drudgery,
the beautiful morning picture or sunset glory thrown in as we pass to or
from our daily business, the unsought word of encouragement or expression
of sympathy, the sentence that meant for us more than the writer or speaker
thought,—these and a hundred others that ever one's experience can supply
are instances of what I mean. You may call it accident or chance—it often
is; you may call it human goodness—it often is; but always, always call
it God's love, and that is always in it. These are the overflowing riches
of His grace, these are His free gifts. S. Longfellow.
The healthiest people in
the world are well-to-do working people, who earn their bread by honest
toil—the healthiest and the happiest too. J. R. Miller.
Love is first a shield and
then an uplifting, and in shielding you I should be uplifted myself. There
is no degree of loving; you must give all or none, and I have given all.
Myrtle Reed.
There is no recollection
like that of loving, for love itself is recollection, and in loving one
loves all the thousand memories that store themselves away. Myrtle
Reed.
Every good thought, word,
or deed is a movement heavenward.... Rev. Everett S. Stackpole, D.D.
My Books
Golden volumes! richest treasures!
Objects of delicious pleasures!
You my eyes rejoicing please,
You my hands in rapture seize,
Brilliant wits and musing sages,
Lights who beamed through many ages!
Left to your conscious leaves their story,
And dared to trust you with their glory;
And now their how of fame achieved,
Dear volumes!—you have not deceived!
N. L. Ferguson.
Beauty Every Where
Anonymous.
Is it not strange how beauty springs
From germs where men no beauty trace?
How rugged shapes, chaotic things,
Grow into forms of grace?
One would not think there were concealed
Such beauty in the lily's root,
As blossoms forth upon the field
When time the lilies shoot.
And when the clouds collect on high,
Like battle chariots of the storm,
See how the darkness of that sky
Gives forth a rainbow form.
Then think that when the rainbow fades,
Its beauty liveth in the shower;
First strewing pearls amongst the blades,
Then blending with the flower.
Thus every where, on earth or sea,
Wherever wandering man may go,
Doth beauty so mysteriously
Around his pathway grow.
It blossoms upward from the earth,
It plays amongst the heights of air;
The wide old ocean gives it birth
Amongst the waters there.
N. L. Ferguson.
Heaven
. . .
Heaven! the perfection of all that can
Be said or thought, riches, delight, or harmony,
Health, beauty; and ill these not subject to
The waste of time; but in their height eternal;
. . .
N. L. Ferguson.
May Morning
Mrs. J. Thayer
The bright May morning's come again
With balmy air and showers,
And through the wood and in the glen
Is borne the breath of flowers.
And music floats upon the air,
And sighs along the plain;
The feathered songsters ever where
Pour forth their gladsome strain.
Maidens and youths, come, hair the morn,
The birth of winsome May;
Come, twine ye garlands to adorn
Your brows this bright spring day.
Blue violets are over all the plain,
And cowslips by the brook—
Come, gather for love's fairy chain
From every dell and nook.
And as ye twine your fragrant wreath
And sing your merry lay,
Let each young, thrilling bosom breathe
A welcome to sweet May.
What A World This Might Be
C. Swain
O, what a world this might be,
If hearts were always kind;
If, friendship, none would slight thee,
And fortune proved less blind!—
With love's own voice to guide us—
Unchanging e'er and fond—
With all we wish beside us,
And not a care beyond.
O, what at world this might be!
More blest than that of yore:
Come, learn, and 'twill requite ye,
To love each other more.
O, what a world of beauty
A loving heart might plan,
If man but did his duty,
And helped his brother man!
Then angel guests would brighten
The threshold with their wings,
And love divine enlighten
The old forgotten springs.
Poetry Every Where
Anonymous.
There's poetry among the rocks,
Upon the cloud-capt mountains;
There's music in each tiny rill
That flows from springing fountains.
And all is poetry divine,
And all is wondrous fair,
For He who built the heavenly dome
Is always present there.
There's poetry in the deep vale,
Where the mineral waster gushes,
And the crimson flowers in sunny bowers
Reflect the morning blushes.
And there, in silence and in shade,
Nature is passing fair;
For He who made the beauteous world
Is always present there.
The forest is all poetry,
Where the honey bees are singing,
And the golden spider his bower of love,
'Neath the green branch, is spinning.
And the rosy morn and purple eve
The umbrageous herbage share,
For He who lit the soft, pale moon,
Is always present there.
There's poetry on the deep sea,
Where the mountain waves are roaring;
And the young billows clap their hands,
Rejoicing and adoring.
And the phosph'rous sea and ocean's caves
Are in their nature fair;
For He who made the mighty winds
Is always present there.
There's poetry in the dark clouds,
Where the chain-lightning's flaming;
And the thunder's voce is heard aloud,
Its Maker's power proclaiming.
But o'er those clouds, and in that sky,
All shines divinely fair;
For He who forged the thundrous bolt
Is always present there.
There's poetry among the winds,
Where they kiss the spring's first flowers;
And sleep on beauty's breast divine
In love's young rosy bowers.
And all the bowers of love and spring
Are beautiful and fair;
For He who is the life of life
Is always present there.
There's poetry among the stars,
That gem the azure sky;
Although with borrowed light they shine,
Reflected from His eye.
There's poetry above the stars,
Poesy's heavenly throne;
Fountain of fountains—light of life,
Music and love's own home,
And all above and all below
Is poetry sublime!
Stamped with the eternal mystic seal—
The hand that is divine.
Let every minute, as it flies,
Record thee good as well as wise;...
N. L. Ferguson.
Smiles
H. S. C.
Were no bright smiles to shed their light
Upon life's clouded way,
Our path would lead through constant night,
Without one cheerful ray.
A smiling face is like the sun,
Whose rays encircle earth—
It sheds its beams on every one,
Without regard to birth.
Smiles well compare with fragrant flowers
Upon some desert spot—
They cheer the heart in those sad hours
Which mark affliction's lot.
Warm-hearted smiles wield magic power
O'er all the suns of grief—
They gild the clouds that darkly lower,
Imparting kind relief.
The angels smile who bed their fight
Towards our fallen sphere;
And all engage, with fond delight,
The sorrowful to cheer.
Were smiles to glow in every face
Now sternly fixed on me,
Our world would be a blissful place,
A paradise again.
The Prairie
Anonymous.
God formed the world for beauty,
And hung it in the air,
Then clothed it in its loveliness,
And called it "good" and fair.
His are the burnished heavens,
With all their orbs of light;
He gave the stars their lustre
They shed upon the night.
He made the mighty ocean,
Its grandeur and its grace,
And gave its mystic splendor
A mirror for His face.
No nobler emblem hath He,
No greater, none more free,
No symbol half so touching
As the bounding, mighty sea.
But O, the blooming prairie!
Her are God's floral bowers;
Of all that He hath made on earth,
The loveliest are the flowers.
This is the Almighty's garden,
And the mountains, stars, and sea
Are nought, compared in beauty
With God's garden prairie free.
The Beautiful
George E. Emery
There's beauty in the golden sheen
Diffusing from the sun,
And gorgeous beauty oft is seen
When summer days are done.
There's beauty in the rivulet
That sparkles bright and free,
And beauty spans the river broad
That courseth to the sea.
There's beauty in the torrent wild
That thunders down the vale;
There's beauty in the zephyr's sigh,
And in the tempest's wail.
There's beauty in the thunder storm,
And in an April shower;
So beauty touches ever leaf,
And kisses every flower.
Beauty doth dwell in every glen,
Haunts every shrub and tree;
It bathes in every crystal lake,
And floats on every sea.
There's beauty in a loving smile,
And beauty in a tear,
And also in the pleasant ways
Of those we hold most dear.
There's beauty in a dimpled cheek,
And in a laughing eye;
y their proverbs.Tevery glance,
And breathes in every sigh.
And beauty—how much beauty!—beams
O'er virtue's golden way,
And shines in deeds of kindness done
To those who go astray.
There's beauty stamped on every thing,
Above, around, below;
Its impress has by Good been fixed
On all we see and know.
Flowers are the alphabet
of angels, whereby they write on the hills and fields mysterious truths.
Benjamin Franklin.
If ever human love was tender,
and self-sacrificing, and devoted; if ever it could bear and forbear; if
ever it could suffer gladly for its loved ones; if ever it was willing
to pour itself out in a lavish abandonment for the comfort or pleasure
of its objects; then infinitely more is Divine love tender, and self-sacrificing,
and devoted, and glad to bear and forbear, and to suffer, and to lavish
its best of gifts and blessing upon the objects of its love. Put together
all the tenderest love you know of, the deepest you have ever felt, and
the strongest that has ever been poured out upon you, and heap upon it
all the love of all the loving human hearts in the world, and then multiply
it by infinity, and you will begin, perhaps, to have some faint glimpse
of what the love of God is. H. W. S.
Good nature, like a bee,
collects honey from every herb. Tryon Edwards.
"Mirth is like a flash of
lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment.
Cheerfulness keeps up a daylight in the mind, filling it with a steady
and perpetual serenity." Tryon Edwards.
A contented mind is the
greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world; and if, in the present
life, his happiness arise from the subduing of his desires, it will arise
in the next from the gratification of them. Tryon Edwards.
"Mahomet's definition of
charity," says Irving in his life of the prophet, "embraces the wide circle
of all possible kindness. Every good act, he would say, is charity. Your
smiling in your brother's face, is charity; an exhortation of your fellow-man
to virtuous deeds, is equal to alms-giving; your putting a wanderer in
the right road, is charity; your assisting the blind is charity; your removing
stones, and thorns, and other obstructions from the road, is charity; your
giving water to the thirsty, is charity. A man's true wealth hereafter,
is the good he does in this world to his fellow-man. When he dies, people
will say, 'What property has he left behind him?' But the angels will ask,
'What good deeds has he sent before him?'" Tryon Edwards.
Christian graces are like
perfume, the more they are pressed, the sweeter they smell; like stars
that shine brightest in the dark; like trees, the more they are shaken,
the deeper root they take, and the more fruit they bear. Tryon Edwards.
KIND WORDS DO NOT COST MUCH.
They never blister the tongue
or lips. And we have never heard of any mental trouble arising from this
quarter. Though they do not cost much, yet they accomplish much.
1. They
help one's own good nature and good will. Soft words soften our own soul.
Angry words are fuel to the flame of wrath, and make it blaze more fiercely.
2. Kind
words make other people good-natured. Cold words freeze people, and hot
words scorch them, and bitter words make them bitter, and wrathful words
make them wrathful.
3. There
is such a rush of all other kinds of words in our days, that it seems desirable
to give kind words a chance among them. There are vain words, and idle
words, and hasty words, and spiteful words, and silly words, and empty
words, and profane words, and boisterous words, and warlike words.
Kind words also produce
their own image on men's souls. And a beautiful image it is. They soothe,
and quiet, and comfort the hearer. They shame him out of his sour, morose,
unkindful feelings. We have not yet begun to use kind words in such abundance
as they ought to be used. Tryon Edwards.
A sound head, an honest heart,
and an humble spirit,—these are the three best guides. They will ever suffice
to conduct us in safety in every variety of circumstances. Tryon
Edwards.
THE BLESSINGS OF A GOOD TEMPER.
Good temper is like a sunny
day; it sheds a brightness over every thing. It is the sweetener of toil,
and the soother of disquietude. Every day brings its burden. The husband
goes forth in the morning to his business; he can not foresee what trial
he may encounter, what failure of hopes, of friendships, or of prospects
may meet him before he returns to his home; but if he can anticipate there
the beaming and hopeful smile, and the soothing attention, he feels that
his cross, whatever it may be, will be lightened, and that his domestic
happiness is still secure. Tryon Edwards.
THE HEART OF THE FAMILY.
... God is love. Love God and
every body, and every thing that is lovely. Teach your children to love;
to love the rose; to love the robin; to love their parents; to love their
God. Let it be the studied object of their domestic culture, to give them
warm hearts, ardent affections. Bind your whole family together by these
strong cords. You can not make them too strong. Religion is love—love of
God, love of man. Tryon Edwards.
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 children, vigor
in the body, intelligence in the brain, and spirit in the whole constitution.
Tryon Edwards.
Good temper is like a sunny
day, it sheds a brightness on every thing. Tryon Edwards.
KINDNESS IN CONVERSATION.
"There is no way in which good
can be done to others with so little expense and trouble as by kindness
in conversation. 'Words,' it is sometimes said, 'cost nothing;' but kind
words are often more highly valued than the most costly gifts, and they
are always regarded as among the best tokens of a desire to make others
happy." Tryon Edwards.
GOOD BOOKS.
The value of a good book is
not often appreciated. Saints are built up in their faith by good reading,
and an impenitent person is never more disposed to read then when he begins
to take an interest in the salvation of his soul. It is important, therefore,
for every family to keep on hand a supply of useful religious books. Such
books have a great deal to do with the destiny of families. Tryon Edwards.
WRITE IT IN GOLD.
"The greatest comprehensive
truth," says President Quincy, "written in letters of living light on every
page of our history, are these: Human happiness has no perfect security
but freedom; freedom, none but virtue; virtue, none but knowledge; and
neither freedom, nor virtue, has any vigor or immortal hope, except in
the principles of the Christian faith, and in the sanctions of the Christian
religion." Tryon Edwards.
My Symphony
To live content with small means;
to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion;
to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars
and birds, babes and sages with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly,
act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let
the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common—this
is my symphony. William Ellery Channing.
He who cultivates a love
of truth for its own sake, will soon have his attention riveted upon some
beautiful form of truth that will captivate his soul. Edward Thomson.
Love of truth promotes comfort.
Edward Thomson.
Truth is the mind's element;
bathing in it, it can grow freely, like the tree planted by the river's
side, whose leaf never withers, and whose fruit never fails. Edward Thomson.
Truth must eventually prevail.
Let a man take a truth against the world, and proceed to conflict; and
within a single lifetime he may bring the whole human race over to his
side. Edward Thomson.
Truth is glorifying. Look
over the scroll of fame, and you shall find none possessed of an enviable
immortality, but such as have been truth's consistent champions. Great
talents, great industry, great eloquence, have, in every age gone down
to the grave without honor; while, in numerous instances, inferior mind,
linked to a great truth, has secured an everlasting renown. Edward Thomson.
The work of beneficence
promotes our happiness. It is in accordance with our nature. The gratification
of any desire affords pleasure. Edward Thomson.
The Plan of GIVING. The
sun gives his rays constantly, generously, joyously; the ocean gives its
vapors to the skies; the skies give their rains to the earth; the earth
warms and waters each seed within her bosom, and sends it up in greenness
and richness, and nourishes and cherishes it, that it may give bread to
the eater. The animals give their strength and swiftness to man, or lay
down their lives for his sake. There is no chest for hoarding in all God's
works; no reservoir for saving sunbeams, or air, or rain-drops, or fountains.
If the sun, or old ocean, or mother earth, should turn miser, we should
soon have universal death. Edward Thomson.
Beauty
Beauty is an all-pervading presence.
It unfolds in the numberless flowers of the spring. It waves in the branches
of the trees and green blades of grass. It haunts the depths of the earth
and sea, and gleams out of the hues of the shell and the precious stone.
And not only these minute
objects, but the ocean, the mountains, the clouds, the heavens, the stars,
the rising and setting sun, all overflow with beauty. The universe is its
temple; and those men who are alive to it cannot lift their eyes without
feeling themselves encompassed with it on every side. William Ellery Channing
(1847)
Model Homes
Besides model schools, let us
have homes crowned with the clambering vine, amid the cooling shade of
trees, surrounded with the verdant lawn, with pendant berries, with golden
fruits, and clusters of crimson grapes. Homes graced with pictures, refined
by books, and gladdened with song. Homes in which there shall be no scorching
blasts of passion, nor polar storms of coldness and hate. Homes in which
the wife and mother shall not lose all her attractive charms by unremitting
drudgery and toil; nor the husband and father starve his brain and dwarf
his soul by hour of overwork. Homes in which happy children shall ever
see the beauty of love, and the beauty of holiness. Homes of plenty, homes
of sympathy, homes of self-sacrifice, homes of devotion, homes of culture,
homes of love. Angels from the fruits and flowers, and streams and fellowships
of the home in the upper Paradise would be lured to dwell in these earthly
Edens.
The people's poet truthfully
wrote—
"This world is full of beauty,
It might be full of love."
But out of the very heart of
truth he struck the divine song—
"This world is full of beauty,
When the heart is full of love."
Rt. Rev. Samuel Fallows
The Sunny Side of Home
Take the sunny side of home.
The home is the sunniest side of every great people. Without devotion to
home there can be no devotion to country. The home is the cradle of patriotism;
it is the fountain of happiness not only to individuals, but to nations
as well, and it is the one spot on earth that should be guarded from needless
shadows. Enough must come to each, even when most faithfully guarded by
all the multiple offices of love; but few there are who make their homes
what they could or should be. A. K. McClure.
Make Home-Life Beautiful
Let me say to parents: Make
the home-life beautiful, without and within, and they will sow the seeds
of gentleness, true kindness, honesty and fidelity, in the hearts of their
children, from which the children reap a harvest of happiness and virtue.
The memory of the beautiful and happy home of childhood is the richest
legacy any man can leave to his children. The heart will never forget its
hallowed influences. It will be an evening enjoyment, to which the lapse
of years will only add new sweetness. Such a home is a constant inspiration
for good, and as constant a restrain from evil.
If by taste and culture
we adorn our homes and grounds and add to their charms, our children will
find the quiet pleasures of rural homes become more attractive than the
whirl of city life. Such attractions and enjoyments will invest home-life,
school-life, the whole future of life with new interests and with new dignity
and joyousness, for life is just what we make it. We may by our blindness
live in a world of darkness and gloom, or in a world full of sunlight and
beauty and joy; for the world without only reflects the world within. Also
the tasteful improvement of grounds and home exerts a good influence not
only upon the inmates but upon the community. An elegant dwelling, surrounded
by sylvan attractions, is a contribution to the refinement, the good order,
the taste and prosperity of every community, improving the public taste
and ministering to every enjoyment. B. G. Northrup.
The Bright Home
There are many bright homes
even in this world. Love brings golden sunshine into them. There plenty
crowns the board, and laughter rings to the roof. The father is genial,
the mother happy, the young men and maidens are full of merry thought,
and fond of each other's company and confidence, and the baby is the delight
of all. Flowers, music, song, books, friends, plenty and pure religion—simple,
sweet and salutary—make their homes the abode of purity and peace.
And many of the poor have
happy homes. Poverty does not quench love, and where love reigns, contentment,
kind words, thrift, smiles, and songs are always present.
Charles Dickens well said:
"If ever household affections and loves are graceful things, they are graceful
in the poor. The ties that bind the wealthy and the proud may be forged
on earth, but those which link the poor man to his humble hearth are of
the true metal, and bear the stamp of Heaven. The man of high descent may
love the halls and lands of his inheritance as part of himself, as trophies
of his birth and power; the poor man's attachment to the tenement he holds,
which strangers have held before, and may tomorrow occupy again, has a
worthier root, struck deep into a purer soil. His household gods are of
flesh and blood, with no alloy or silver, gold, or precious stones; he
has no property, but in the affections of his own heart; and when they
endear bare floors and walls, despite of toil and scanty meals, that man
has his love of home from God, and his rude hut becomes a solemn place."
Dr. James Hamilton, in his
fine wisdom, asked: "Are you not surprised to find how independent of money
peace of conscience is, and how much happiness can be condensed in the
humblest home? A cottage will not hold the bulky furniture and sumptuous
accommodations of a mansion; but if God be there, a cottage will hold as
much happiness as might stock a palace." Sir Arthur Helps, writing to a
son of toil of his wish to lead a good life and have a happy home, said:
"Resolve—and tell your wife of your resolution. She will aid it all she
can. Her step will be lighter and her hand busier all day, expecting the
comfortable evening at home when you return. Household affairs will have
been well attended to. A place for everything, and everything in its place,
will, like some good genius, have made even an humble home the scene of
neatness, arrangement, and taste. The table will be ready at the fireside.
The loaf will be one of that order which says by its appearance, 'you may
come and cut again.' The cups and saucers will be waiting for supplies.
The kettle will be singing, and the children, happy with fresh air and
exercise, will be smiling in the glad anticipation of that evening meal
when father is at home, and of the pleasant reading afterward."
. . .
Home, home, sweet home! It is
there men and women find the wholesome meal, the needful rest, a shelter
from the storms of life, and an image of the Home in the celestial and
everlasting sphere. G. W. M.
Success As A Fine Art
No one has success until he has the abounding life. This is made up of
the many-fold activity of energy, enthusiasm, and gladness. It is to spring
to meet the day with a thrill at being alive. It is to go forth to meet
the morning in an ecstasy of joy. It is to realize the oneness of humanity
in true spiritual sympathy. It is, indeed, that which one is; not that
which he does or which he has. And so all our usual conceptions of success
fall infinitely short of the genuine thing. It is not necessarily success
to be rich, or famous, or even popular, in the general acceptation of that
term. These attributes and accidental things may or may not accompany success;
but their presence does not make it, their absence does not take it away.
Lilian Whiting.
The Supreme Luxury of Life
To receive happiness and to give it are equal in the just measure for measure.
... No one is living aright unless he so lives that whoever meets him goes
away more confident and joyous for the contact. Faith in all ultimate good
should be so vital that it can communicate itself, as with a vibratory
impulse, to others. There should be such gladness and joy in life that
all may partake of it. ... To attain this art of living is to attain happiness.
Be glad in the Lord; that is, so find your environment in aspiration and
generous out-giving that you may live and breathe and have your being in
this magnetic atmosphere of sweetness and joy. Experience it and radiate
it.
"I will expect everything: I will believe and be glad in the untold
richness of life,"—of that comes everything. Faith creates the conditions
in which the noble purpose may take root and grow....
It is love that is life,—so much love, so much vitality. It is measure
for measure. ... If one would be happy, let him forget himself and go about
making some one else happy. Lilian Whiting.
The Heavenly Vision
One's birthright is happiness. It is as freely offered as the sunshine
and the air. It is a spiritual state, and not conditioned by material limits.
Not only is it ever man's privilege to be happy; it is his duty, his manifest
obligation. Happiness is the condition of his higher achievements and his
higher usefulness. It is the exhilaration of the highest energy, and lends
wings. Lilian Whiting.
The Sunny Side Of Home
Take the sunny side of home. the home is the sunniest side of every great
people. Without devotion to home there can be no devotion to country. The
home is the cradle of patriotism; it is the fountain of happiness not only
to individuals, but to nations as well, and it is the one spot of earth
that should be guarded from needless shadows. Enough must come to each,
even when most faithfully guarded by all the multiplied offices of love;
but few there are who make their homes what they could or should be. A.
K. McClure.
A Solitary Flower
Take the case of a solitary flower. One man may look at it and see just
a flower and nothing more. He may see its marvelous beauty of form and
coloring without noticing them, because he does not see with the eye of
understanding. Another man will see these things because he looks with
the eyes of his mind, and he will see also valleys and hills carpeted with
a thousand hues of flowers and herbs, because he has trained himself to
see and look for these things, which are conjured up in his mental vision.
Keith J. Thomas.
Success Is A State Of Mind
Success is a state of mind like everything else. Each day of achievement
is a day of success, tho the work may not look profitable. Each task well
done is a help to success because it induces a sense of satisfaction, and
makes work easier and pleasanter. You can see, if you follow this line
of reasoning, that every material and moral success is bound up with the
quality of optimism, and that the more we cultivate this quality, the more
successful and the happier we shall be. Keith J. Thomas.
Good Nature
Good-nature—what a blessing! Without it a man is like a wagon without springs,
he has the full benefit of every stone and way-rut. Good-nature is the
prime-minister of a good conscience. It tells of the genial spirit within,
and good-nature never fails of a wholesome effect without.
Good-nature is not only
the government of one's own spirit, but it goes far in its effects upon
those of others. It manifests itself upon every street; it humanizes man;
it softens the friction of a business world. Good-nature is the harmonious
act of conscience. Good-nature in practical affairs is better than any
other; better than what men call justice; better than dignity; better than
standing on one's rights, which is so often the narrowest and worst place
to stand on one can find.
A man who knows how to hold
on to his temper is the man who is respected by the community. And one
who has a good nature, successfully travels about as does he who goes upon
the principle—little of baggage, but plenty of money! A man who is armed
with hopefulness, cheerfulness, and a genial spirit, is one who is going
to be of practical and beneficent usefulness to his fellow man. There are
no things by which the trouble and difficulties of this life can be resisted
better than with wit and humor. And let the happy person who possesses
these—if he be brought into the folds of the church—not allow conversion
to deprive him of them. God has constituted there in man, and especially
when they are so salient in meeting good-naturedly the trials of this world,
they should be used. Happiness, at last, is dependent upon a soul that
has holy communion with its Creator—"for in Him we have life eternal."
Men also fail in happiness because they refuse to read the great lessons
found in the great book of happiness. Happiness is to be sought in the
possession of true manhood rather than in its internal conditions. Henry
Ward Beecher.
There is nothing purer than
honesty; nothing sweeter than charity; nothing warmer than love; nothing
richer than wisdom; nothing brighter than virtue; nothing more steadfast
than faith. (No Author Given)
We cannot honor our country
with a reverence too deep; we cannot love her with an affection too fervent;
we cannot serve her with an energy of purpose too steadfast, nor a zeal
too enthusiastic. (No Author Given)
An honest man is the noblest
work of God. (No Author Given)
There is no day born but
comes like a stroke of music into the world and sings itself all the way
through. Henry Ward Beecher.
There are glimpses of heaven
granted us in every act or thought or word, which raises us above ourselves.
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley.
Faith at most but makes
a hero, but love makes a saint; faith can but put us above the world, but
love brings us under God's throne; faith can but make us sober, but love
makes us happy. John Henry Newman.
And wherever a true wife
comes, this home is always round her. The stars only may be over her head,
the glow-worm in the night-cold grass may be the only fire at her foot,
but home is yet wherever she is; and for a noble woman it stretches far
around her, better than if ceiled with cedar or painted with vermilion,
shedding its quiet light far for those who else were homeless. John Ruskin.
But bright thoughts, clear
deeds, constancy, fidelity, beauty, and generous honesty are the gems of
noble minds. Sir Thomas Browne.
When I open the Gospels
and read the words of Jesus, I find myself in sunshine. Light and warmth
are united in his teachings inseparably. He makes goodness lovely, natural,
simple, easy. He makes God seem near, and heaven close by, and life full
of good opportunity, and every soul capable of goodness. He is my friend,
my teacher, my brother; and his thought seems to become a part of mine.
James Freeman Clarke.
The joy of heaven is the
joy of love. The key to it is in Christ, who for the joy that was set before
Him endured all. Christ's was the joy of self-sacrifice, of loving, of
saving, of giving up his life to another. But this is no joy save to those
who love. James Hinton.
Love is not a thing of enthusiastic
emotion. It is a rich, strong, manly, vigorous expression of the whole
round Christian character,—the Christ-like nature in its fullest development.
To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love forever is to live
forever. Henry Drummond.
There is in man a higher
than love of happiness; he can do without happiness, and in place thereof
find blessedness. Thomas Carlyle.
Let our love be firm, constant,
and inseparable, not coming and returning like the tide, but descending
like a never-failing river, ever running into the ocean of Divine excellency,
passing on in the channels of duty and a constant obedience, and never
ceasing to be what it is till it comes to what it desires to be; still
being a river, till it be turned into sea and vastness, even the immensity
o a blessed eternity. Jeremy Taylor.
Every man's life, practically
speaking, is shaped by his love. It is a downward, earthly love, when his
actions will be tinged by it; all his life will be as his reigning love.
Horace Bushnell.
For the whole nature follows
love. Whithersoever it goes, all the faculties troop after it. It is the
magnet of human nature. Where the heart is, there are all the treasures
of mind and will and moral nature. Let this love be planted in Christ,—won
and fixed by our ever deepening sense of truth and goodness and all moral
beauty,—and we begin to go over to Him upon it as upon a bridge. Using
this love as it were some broad stream, the truth, the strength, the humility,
the sympathy, the very righteousness of Christ float down into us and become
our own. Theodore T. Munger.
Love, amid the other graces
in this world, is like a cathedral tower, which begins on the earth, and
at first is surrounded by other parts of the structure. But at length,
rising above buttressed wall and arch and parapet and pinnacle, it shoots
spire-like many a foot high into the air, so high that the huge cross on
its summit glows like a spark in the morning light, and shines like a star
in the evening sky, when the rest of the pile is enveloped in darkness.
Love here is surrounded by the other graces, and divides the honors with
them; but they will have felt the wrap of night and of darkness, when it
will shine, luminous, against the sky of eternity. Henry Ward Beecher.
The sun of the world, which
is pure fire, is that from which Nature exists and subsists. The sun of
heaven, which is pure love, is that from which life itself, which is love
together with wisdom, exists and subsists. Emanuel Swedenborg.
The good work of the world
is done either in pure and unvexed instinct of duty; or else, and better,
it is cheerful and helpful doing of what the hand finds to do, in surety
that at evening-time whatsoever is right the Master will give. John Ruskin.
Every Christian is a stone
in the vast temple. Some shine with dazzling brilliancy where every eye
can see them, some are hidden away in corners where none can behold them;
but each one has his place, and adds to the strength and compactness of
the vast and ever-increasing edifice. It rises higher and higher, it spreads
wider and wider, until its foundations are as broad as the habitable globe,
and its battlements pierce the stars, and heaven and earth, angels and
men, dwell close together within its all-embracing walls. James De Koven.
If you will but find God's
living gift within you and simply trust it when it presses into growth,
there is not a waste place in your nature that shall not become habitable
and even glorious with a wild beauty. James Martineau.
I go into the woods in the
fair October days; over a million flickering leaves the innocent fires
of autumn pour their flaming glories. Ever imperial tint appears,—of scarlet
and crimson, orange and yellow. The oak leaves run up through their long
gamut of browns. Little mosses cluster round the roots of the trees; a
soft bed of tender green and gray lichens variegates their trunks. Wh has
bathed the world with this ineffable, indescribable beauty? Shall we think
they come by accident, or by some cold, blind law? James Freeman Clarke.
The smallest seed of faith
is better than the largest fruit of happiness. Henry D. Thoreau.
The great highroad of human
welfare lies along the old highway of steadfast well-doing; and they who
are the most persistent, and the work in the truest spirit, will invariably
be the most successful; success treds on the heels of almost every right
effort. Samuel Smiles.
Ah, happy day, refuse to go!
Hang in the heavens forever so!
Forever in mid-afternoon,
Ah, happy day of happy June!
Pour out thy sunshine on the hill,
The piney wood with perfume fill,
And breathe across the singing sea
Land-scented breezes, that shall be
Sweet as the gardens that they pass,
Where children tumble in the grass!
. . .
Ah, happy day, refuse to go!
oil and the winens forever so!
Forever let thy tender mist
Lie like dissolving amethyst
Deep in the distant dales, and shed
Thy mellow glory overhead!
Yet wilt thou wander—call the thrush,
And have the wilds and waters rush
To hear his passion-broken tune,
Ah, happy day of happy June!
—Harriet Prescott Spoffard
Beneficence is a duty. He
who frequently practices it, and sees his benevolent intentions realized,
at length comes really to love him to whom he has done good. Kane.
The charities of life are
scattered everywhere, enameling the vales of human beings as the flowers
paint the meadows. They are not the fruit of study, nor the privilege of
refinement, but a natural instinct. Bancroft.
He is good that does good
for others. Bruyere.
Exquisite beauty resides
with God. Unity and simplicity, joined together in different organs, are
the principle sources of beauty. It resides in the good, the honest, and
in the useful to the highest physical and intellectual degree. Vinkelman.
On Raising Children
Train them to virtue; habituate
them to industry, activity, and spirit. Make them consider every vice as
shameful and unmanly. Fire them with ambition to be useful. Make them disdain
to be destitute of any useful knowledge. Fix their ambition upon great
and solid objects, and their contempt upon little, frivoulous, and useless
ones. John Adams.
That man lives happy and
in command of himself, who from day to day can say I have lived. Horace.
There ought to be a system
of manners in every nation which a well-informed mind would be disposed
to relish. To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.
Burke.
We require from buildings,
as from men, two kinds of goodness; first, the doing their practical duty
well: then that they be graceful and pleasing in doing it: which last is
itself another form of duty. Ruskin.
Education commences at the
mother's knee, and every word spoken within the hearing of little children
tends toward the formation of character. Let parents bear this ever in
mind. Hosea Ballou.
Enthusiasm imparts itself
magnetically and fuses all into one happy and harmonious unity of feeling
and sentiment. A. Bronson Alcott.
Nothing is so contagious
as enthusiasm; it moves stones, it charms brutes. Enthusiasm is the genius
of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no victories without it. Lytton.
Faith is the key that unlocks
the cabinet of God's treasures; the king's messenger from the celestial
world, to bring all the supplies we need out of the fullness that there
is in Christ. J. Stephens.
Nothing is more noble, nothing
more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred
excellences and endowments of the human mind. Cicero.
To cultivate a garden is
to walk with God, to go hand in hand with nature in some of her most beautiful
processes, to learn something of her choicest secrets, and to have a more
intelligent interest awakened in the beautiful order of her works elsewhere.
Bovee.
Flowers belong to Fairyland:
the flowers and the birds and the butterflies are all that the world has
kept of its golden age—the only perfectly beautiful things on earth—joyous,
innocent, half divine—useless, say they who are wiser than God. Ouida.
The only freedom worth possessing
is that which gives enlargement to a people's energy, intellect and virtues.
Channing.
A female friend, amiable,
clever, and devoted, is a possession more valuable than parks and palaces;
and without such a muse, few men can succeed in life, none be contented.
Beaconsfield.
A friend is he who sets
his heart upon us, is happy with us and delights in us; does for us what
we want, is willing and fully engaged to do all he can for us, on whom
we can rely in all cases. William Ellery Channing.
Other blessings may be taken
away, but if we have acquired a good friend by goodness, we have a blessing
which improves in value when others fail. William Ellery Channing.
The highest friendship must
always lead us to the highest pleasure. Fielding.
Friendship is the greatest
honesty and ingenuity in the world. Jeremy Taylor.
Such is friendship, that
through it we love places and seasons; for as bright bodies emit rays to
a distance, and flowers drop their sweet leaves on the ground around them,
so friends impart flavor even to the places where they dwell. With friends
even poverty is pleasant. Words cannot expres the joy which a friend imparts;
they only can know who have experienced. A friend is dearer than the light
of heaven, for it would be better for us that the sun were exhausted than
that we should be without friends. St. Chrysostom.
We are born for a higher
destiny than that of earth; there is a realm where the rainbow never fades,
where the stars will be spread before us like islands that slumber on the
ocean,—and where the beings that pass before us like shadows will stay
in our presence forever. Bulwer-Lytton.
The future is always like
a fairyland to the young. Life is like a beautiful and winding lane, on
either side bright flowers, and beautiful butterflies and tempting fruits,
which we scarcely pause to admire and to taste, so eager are we to hasten
to an opening which we imagine will be more beautiful still. G. A. Sala.
In giving, a man receives
more than he gives; and the more is in proportion to the worth of the thing
given. George MacDonald.
The greatest geniuses have
always attributed everything to God, as if conscious of being possessed
of a spark of His divinity. B. R. Haydon.
Genius never grows old—young
today, mature yesterday, vigorous tomorrow, always immortal. It is particular
to no sex or condition, and is the divine gift to woman no less than to
man. Juan Lewis.
The light of genius never
sets, but sheds itself upon other faces, in different hues of splendor.
Willmott.
The golden beams of truth
and the silken cords of love, twisted together, will draw men on with a
sweet violence, whether they will or not. Cudsworth.
Every gift which is given,
even though it be small, is in reality great, if it be given with affection.
Pindar.
Riches, understanding, beauty,
are fair gifts of God. Luther.
He who loves with purity
considers not the gift of the lover, but the love of the giver. Thomas
a Kempis.
God's love gives in such
a way that it flows from a Father's heart, the well-spring of all good.
The heart of the giver makes the gift dear and precious; as among ourselves
we say of even a trifling gift, "It comes from a hand we love," and look
not so much at the gift as at the heart. Luther.
Glory can be for a woman
but the brilliant morning of happiness. Mme. de Stael.
Glory fills the world with
virtue, and, like a beneficent sun, covers the whole earth with flowers
and with fruit. Vauvenargues.
True glory consists in doing
what deserves to be written, in writing what deserves to be read, and in
so living as to make the world happy and better for our living in it. Pliny.
The perfect love of God
knoweth no difference between the poor and the rich. Pacuvius.
God is absolutely good;
and so, assuredly, the cause of all that is good. Sir Walter Raleigh.
God's justice and love are
one. Infinite justice must be infinite love. Justice is but another sign
of love. F. W. Robertson.
God is all love: it is He
who made everything, and He loves everything that He has made. Henry Brooke.
If God be infinitely holy,
just, and good, He must take delight in those creatures that resemble Him
most in these perfections. Atterbury.
It is one of my favorite
thoughts that God manifests Himself to men in all the wise, good, humble,
generous, great, and magnanimous men. Lavater.
God is the light which,
never seen itself, makes all things visible, and clothes itself in colors.
Thine eye feels not its ray, but thine heart feels its warmth. Richter.
Good-nature is one of the
richest fruits of true Christianity. Henry Ward Beecher.
Good-nature is the very
air of a good mind, the sign of a large and generous soul, and the peculiar
soil in which virtue prospers. Goodman.
Good-nature is the beauty
of the mind, and like personal beauty, wins almost without anything else,—sometimes,
indeed, in spite of positive deficiencies. Hanway.
Honest good-humor is the
oil and wine of a merry meeting, and there is no jovial companionship equal
to that where the jokes are rather small and the laughter abundant. Washington
Irving.
Good-nature is worth more
than knowledge, more than money, more than honor, to the person who possess
it, and certainly to everybody who dwells with them, in so far as mere
happiness is concerned. Henry Ward Beecher.
He who believes in goodness
has the essence of all faith. He is a man "of cheerful yesterdays and confident
to-morrows." J. F. Clarke.
Experience has convinced
me that there is a thousand times more goodness, wisdom, and love in the
world than men imagine. Gehler.
A good deed is never lost;
he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers
love. Basil.
Goodness and love mould
the form into their own image, and cause the joy and beauty of love to
shine forth from every part of the face. Swedenborg.
The scent of flowers does
not travel against the wind; but the odor of good people travels even against
the wind: a good man prevades every place. Max Muller.
To love the public, to study
universal good, and to promote the interest of the whole world, as far
as lies within our power, is the height of goodness, and makes that temper
which we call divine. Shaftesbury.
Thankfulness is the tune
of angels. Spenser.
A thankful heart is not
only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues. Cicero.
As flowers carry dewdrops,
trembling on the edges of the petals, and ready to fall at the first waft
of wind or brush of bird, so the heart should carry its beaded words of
thanksgiving; and at the first breath of heavenly flavor [sic], let down
the shower, perfumed with the heart's gratitude. Beecher.
As the stars are the glory
of the sky, so great men are the glory of their country, yea, of the whole
earth. The hears of great men are the stars of earth; and doubtless when
one looks down from above upon our planet, these hearts are seen to send
forth a silvery light just like the stars in heaven. Heine.
He who does the most good
is the greatest man. Bishop Jortin.
He alone is worthy of the
appellation who either does great things, or teaches how they may be done,
or describes them with suitable majesty when they have been done; but those
only are great things which tend to render life more happy, which increase
the innocent enjoyments and comforts of existence, or which pave the way
to a state of future bliss more permanent and more pure. Milton.
Happiness has no limits,
because God has neither bottom nor bounds, and because happiness is nothing
but the conquest of God through love. Amiel.
The sunshine of life is
made up of very little beams, that are bright all the time. Alkin.
Happiness is a sunbeam,
which may pass through a thousand bosoms without losing a particle of its
original ray. Sir P. Sidney.
The heart that has once
been bathed in love's pure fountain retains the pulse of youth forever.
Landor.
Many flowers open to the
sun, but only one follows him constantly. Heart, be thou the sunflower,
not only open to receive God's blessing, but constant in looking to Him.
Richter.
There are treasures laid
up in the heart—treasures of charity, piety, temperance, and soberness.
These treasures a man takes with him beyond death, when he leaves this
world. Buddhist Scriptures.
A loving heart carries with
it, under every parallel of latitude, the warmth and light of the tropics.
It plants its Eden in the wilderness and solitary place, and sows with
flowers the gray desolation of rock and mosses. Whittier.
Heaven will be inherited
by every man who has heaven in his soul. Henry Ward Beecher.
Heaven: Perfect purity,
fullness of joy, everlasting freedom, perfect rest, health and fruition,
complete security, substantial and eternal good. Hannah More.
The joy of heaven will begin
as soon as we attain the character of heaven, and do its duties. Theodore
Parker.
Our natural and happiest
life is when we lose ourselves in the exquisite absorption of home, the
delicious retirement of dependent love. Miss Mulock.
Hope is the best possession.
Hazlitt.
A loving heart encloses
within itself an unfading and eternal Eden. Richter.
Hope is the mainspring of
human action: faith seals our lease of immortality; and charity and love
give the passport to the soul's true and lasting happiness. Street.
The great duty of God's
children is to love one another. This duty on earth takes the name and
form of the law of humanity. We must recognize all men as brethren, no
matter where born, or under what sky, or institution or religion they may
live. Every man belongs to the race, and owes a duty to mankind. Every
nation belongs to the family of nations, and is to desire the good of all.
Nations are to love one another. William Ellery Channing.
Modest humility is beauty's
crown. Schiller.
Love's humility is love's
true pride. Bayard Taylor.
True love is the parent
of a noble humility. William Ellery Channing.
The fullest and best ears
of corn hang losest toward the ground. Bishop Reynolds.
Humility is the root, mother,
nurse, foundation, and bond of all virtue. Chrysostom.
Sense shines with a double
lustre when it is set in humility. An able and yet humble man is a jewel
worth a kingdom. William Penn.
Ideality consists of the
rainbow rays of intellect. Alfred Mercier.
A ray of imagination or
of wisdom may enlighten the universe, and glow into remotest centuries.
Bishop Berkeley.
Earnest, active industry
is a living humn of praise,—a never-failing source of happiness. Mme. de
Wald.
The great end of all human
industry is the attainment of happiness. Hume.
The great high-road of human
welfare lies along the old highway of steadfast well-doing; and they who
are the most persistent, and work in the true spirit, will invariably be
the most successful. Success treads on the heels of every right effort.
Samuel Smiles.
The work an unknown good
man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly
making the ground green. Carlyle.
Nothing more surely cultivates
and embellishes a man than association with refined and virtuous women.
Gladstone.
The heavens and the earth,
the woods and the wayside, teem with instruction and knowledge to the curious
and thoughtful. Hosea Ballou.
A man cannot leave a better
legacy to the world than a well-educated family. Rev. Thomas Scott.
Glorious indeed is the world
of God around us, but more glorious the world of God within us. There lies
the Land of Song; there lies the poet's native land. Longfellow.
The joy which is caused
by truth and noble thoughts shows itself in the words by which they are
expressed. Joubert.
When we love, it is the
heart that judges. Joubert.
Human judgment is finite,
and it ought always to be charitable. William Winter.
Above all other things is
justice: success is a good thing; wealth is good also; honor is better;
but justice excels them all. David Dudley Field.
Kind words are the music
of the world. F. W. Faber.
Kindness gives birth to
kindness. Sophocles.
Paradise is open to all
kind hearts. Beranger.
Kindness is the golden chain
by which society is bound together. Goethe.
Life is made up, not of
great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles and kindnesses
and small obligations, given habitually, are what win and preserve the
heart, and secure comfort. Sir Humphrey Davy.
The happiness of life may
be greatly increased by small courtesies in which there is no parade, whose
voice is too still to tease, and which manifest themselves by tender and
affectionate looks, and little kind acts of attention. Sterne.
An effort made for the happiness
of others lifts us above ourselves. Mrs. L. M. Child.
Kind words produce their
own image in men's souls, and a beautiful image it is. They soothe and
quiet and comfort the hearer. They shame him out of his sour, morose, unkind
feelings. We have not yet begun to use kind words in such abundance as
they ought to be used. Pascal.
Sweetest memorial, the first
kiss of love. Byron.
The fragrant infancy of
opening flowers flowed to my senses in that melting kiss. Southern.
Four sweet lips, two pure
souls, and one undying affection,—these are love's pretty ingredients for
a kiss. Bovee.
It [The kiss] is as old
as the creation, and yet as young and fresh as ever. It pre-existed, still
exists, and always will exist. Depend upon it, Eve learned it in Paradise,
and was taught its beauties, virtues, and varieties by an angel, there
is something so transcendent in it. Haliburton.
There is the kiss of welcome
and of parting; the long, lingering, loving, present one; the stolen, or
the mutual one; the kiss of love, of joy, and of sorrow; the seal of promise,
and the receipt of fulfulment. Is it strange, therefore, that a woman is
invincible, whose armory consists of kisses, smiles, sighs, and tears?
Haliburton.
The fruit derived from labor
is the sweetest of all pleasures. Vauvenargues.
It is good manners, not
rank, wealth, or beauty, that consititute a real lady. Annie E. Lancaster.
Perfect love holds the secret
of the world's perfect liberty. J. G. Holland.
Life is the gift of God,
and is divine. Longfellow.
Every man's life is a fairy-tale,
written by God's fingers. Hans Christian Andersen.
He most lives who thinks
most, feels the noblest, acts the best; and he whose heart bets the quickest
lives the longest. James Martineau.
Each thing lives according
to its kind; the heart by love, the intellect by truth, the higher nature
of man by intimate communion with God. Chapin.
Children always turn towards
the light. Oh, that grown-up people in this world became like little children!
J. C. Hare.
The very plants turn with
a joyful transport to the light. Schiller.
It is the beautiful necessity
of our nature to love something. Douglas Jerrold.
Love requires not so much
proofs, as expressions, of love. Love demands little else than the power
to feel and to requite love. Richter.
Her eyes, her lips, her
cheeks, her shape, her features, seem to be drawn by love's own hand, by
love himself in love. Dryden.
What is it that love does
to a woman? Without it she only sleeps; with it, alone, she lives. Ouida.
I say to you truly, the
heart of him who loves is a paradise on earth; he has God in himself, for
God is love. Lamennais.
A woman is more considerate
in affairs of love than a man; because love is more the study and business
of her life. Washington Irving.
If there is anything that
keeps the mind open to angel visits, and repels the ministry of ill, it
is human love. N. P. Willis.
The greatest happiness of
life is the conviction that we are loved, loved for ourselves—say rather,
loved in spite of ourselves. Victor Hugo.
Love ruses the court, the camp, the grove,
And men below, and saints above;
For love is heaven, and heaven is love. Scott.
Love and you shall be loved.
Emerson.
Divine love is a sacred
flower, which in its early bud is heaven, and in its full bloom is heaven.
Hervey.
Beauty may be the object
of liking—great qualities of admiration—good ones of esteem—but love only
is the object of love. Fielding.
The heart of a young woman
in love is a golden sanctuary which often enshrines an idol of clay. Paulin
Limayrac.
In love we never think of
moral qualities, and scarcely of intellectual ones. Temperament and manner
alone, with beauty, excite love. Hazlitt.
The heart needs not for
its heaven much space, nor many stars therein, if only the star of love
has arisen. Richter.
God gives us love. Something
to love He lends us; but when love is grown to ripeness, that on which
it throve falls off, and love is left alone. Tennyson.
Stimulate the heart with
love and the mind to be early accurate, and all other virtues will rise
of their own accord, and all vices will be thrown out. Coleridge.
Love of all stimulents is
the most powerful. A. B. Edwards.
Love is the purification
of the heart from self; it strengthens and ennobles the character, gives
higher motives and a nobler aim to ever action of life, and makes both
man and woman strong, noble, and courageous. Miss Jewsbury.
Love is the crowning grace
of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds
us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the
heart to life, and is prophetic of eternal good. Petrarch.
Days are like years in the
love of the young, when no bar, no obstcle, is between their hearts,—when
the sun shines, and the course runs smooth—when their love is prosperous
and confessed. Bulwer-Lytton.
Love is a flame which burns
in heaven and whose soft reflections radiate to us. Two worlds are opened,
two lives given to it. It is by love that we double our being; it is by
love that we approach God. Aime-Martin.
Love is represented as the
fulfilling of the law,—a creature's perfection. All other graces, all divine
dispensations, contribute to this, and are lost in it as in a heaven. It
expels the dross of our nature; it overcomes sorrow; it is the full joy
of our Lord. Hooker.
The cure for all the ills
and worngs, the cares, the sorrows, and the crimes of humanity, all lie
in that one word "love." It is the divine vitality that everywhere produces
and restores life. To each and every one of us, it gives the power of working
miracles if we will. Mrs. L. M. Child.
Love is indeed heaven upon
earth; since heaven above would not be heaven without it; for where there
is not love, there is fear; but, "Perfect love casteth out fear." And yet
we naturally fear most to offend what we most love. William Penn.
Love, it has been said,
flows downward. The love of parents for their children has always been
far more powerful than that of children for their parents; and who among
the sons of men ever loved God with a thousandth part of the love which
God has manifested to us? Hare.
Love cannot stay at home;
a man cannot keep it to himself. Like light it is constantly traveling.
A man must spend it, must give it away. Rev. Dr. Macleod.
Oh, how beautiful is love!
Longfellow.
Ask not of me, love, what
is love?
Ask what is good of God
above;
Ask of the great sun what
is light;
Ask what is darkness of
the night;
Ask sin of what may be forgiven;
Ask what is happiness in
heaven;
Ask what is folly of the
crowd;
Ask what is fashion of the
shroud;
Ask what is sweetness of
thy kiss;
Ask of thyself what beauty
is. Bailey.
Love is the river of life
in this world. Henry Ward Beecher.
There is certainly no beauty
on earth which exceeds the natural loveliness of woman. J. Petit-Senn.
The perfection of outward
loveliness is the soul shining through its crystalline covering. Jane Porter.
A good woman is the loveliest
flower that blooms under heaven; and we look with love and wonder upon
its silent grace, its pure fragrance, its delicate bloom of beauty. Thackeray.
What makes woman lovely?
Virtue, faith, and gentleness in suffering, an endurance through scorn
or trial; then has it the stamp celestial, and is admitted to sisterhood
with angels. John Brent.
Women are the poetry of
the world in the same sense as the stars are the poetry of heaven. Clear,
light-giving, harmonious, they are the terrestrial planets that rule the
destinies of mankind. Hargrave.
Loyalty to God is alone
fundamental. Feelings, words, deeds, must be beads strung on the string
of duty. Let the world tell you in a hundred ways what your life is for.
Say you ever and only, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O my God." Out of that
dutiful root grows the beautiful life, the life radically and radiantly
true to God—the only life that can be lived in both worlds. Maltbie Babcock.
The Highest Being reveals
himself in man. Carlyle.
God never made anything
else so beautiful as man. Henry Ward Beecher.
The noble man is only God's
image. Ludwig Tieck.
Man is the image and glory
of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. Bible.
Man is the jewel of God,
who has created this material world to keep his treasure in. Theodore Parker.
Of all the things which
a man has, next to the gods his soul is the most divine and most truly
his own. Plato.
There is only one temple
in the universe, and that is the body of man. Novalis.
God gave man an upright
countenance to survey the heavens, and to look upward to the stars. Ovid.
A man is a great thing upon
the earth and through eternity; but every jot of the greatness of man is
unfolded out of woman. Walt Whitman.
Man himself is the crowning
wonder of creation; the study of his nature the noblest study the world
affords. Gladstone.
A man ought to carry himself
in the world as an orange-tree would if it could walk up and down the garden,—swinging
perfume from every little censer it hold up to the air. Beecher.
Man is greater than a world,
than systems of worlds; there is more mystery in the union of soul with
the physical than in the creation of a universe. Henry Giles.
A man would have no pleasures
discovering all the beauties of the universe, even in heaven itself, unless
he had a partner to whom he might communicate his joys. Cicero.
Serenity of manners is the
zenith of beauty. Frederika Bremer.
Fine manners are the mantle
of fair minds. Alcott.
There is certainly something
of exquisite kindness and thoughtful benevolence in that rarest of gifts,—fine
breeding. Lytton.
Manners are the happy ways
of doing things; each one a stroke of genius or of love, now repeated and
hardened into usage, they form at least a rich varnish, with which the
routine of life is washed, and its details adorned. If they are superficial,
so are the dew-drops which give such a depths to the morning meadows. Emerson.
Of earthly goods, the best
is a good wife. Simonides.
Marriage is the nursery
of heaven? Jeremy Taylor.
A wife is a gift bestowed
upon a man to reconcile him to the loss of paradise. Goethe.
When men enter into the
state of marriage, they stand nearest to God. Henry Ward Beecher.
Love in marriage should
be the accomplishment of a beautiful dream, and not, as it too often proves,
then end. Alphonse Karr.
Such a large sweet fruit
is a complete marriage, that it needs a very long summer to ripen in and
then a long winter to mellow and season it. Theodore Parker.
Happy and thrice happy are
they who enjoy an uninterrupted union, and whose love, unbroken by any
complaints, shall not dissolve until the last day. Horace.
Save the love we pay to
heaven, there is none purer, holier, than that a virtuous woman feels for
him she would cleave through life to. Sisters part from sisters, brothers
from brothers, children from their parents, but such woman from the husband
of her choice never! Sheridan Knowles.
A good wife is heaven's
last best gift to man; his angel and minister of graces innumerable; his
gem of many virtues; his casket of jewels; her voice his sweet music; her
smiles his brightest day; her kiss the guardian of his innocence; her arms
the pale of his safety, the balm of his health, the balsam of his life;
her industry, his surest wealth; her economy, his safest steward, her lips,
his faithful counselors; her bosom, the softest pillow of his cares; and
her prayers, the ablest advocates of heaven's blessings on his head. Jeremy
Taylor.
Marriage is the mother of
the world, and preserves kingdoms, and fills cities and chaurches, and
heaven itself. . . . Marriage, like the useful bee, builds a house, and
gathers sweetness from every flower, and labors and unites into societies
and republics, and sends out colonies, and feeds the world with delicacies,
and obeys their king, and keeps order, and exercises many virtues, and
promotes the interest of mankind, and is that state of good things to which
God hath designed the present constitution of the world. Jeremy Taylor.
The man of meditation is
happy, not for an hour or a day, but quite round the circle of his years.
Isaac Taylor.
Among the attributes of
God, although they are all equal, mercy shines with even more brilliancy
than justice. Cervantes.
The greatest attribute of
Heaven is mercy. Beaumont and Fletcher.
It is the mind that makes
us rich and happy, in what condition soever we are, and money signifies
no more to it than it does to the gods. Seneca.
Every great mind seeks to
labor for eternity. All men are captivated by immediate advantages; great
minds alone are excited by the prospect of distant good. Schiller.
Every believer is God's
miracle. Bailey.
The miracles of earth are
the laws of heaven. Jean Paul Richter.
Blessed be mirthfulness!
It is one of the renovators of the world. Henry Ward Beecher.
Mirth is God's medicine.
Everybody ought to bathe in it. Henry Ward Beecher.
Mirthfulness is in the mind,
and you cannot get it out. It is the blessed spirit that God has set in
the mind to dust it, to enliven its dark places, and to drive asceticism,
like a foul fiend, out at the back door. It is just as good, in its place,
as conscience or veneration. Praying can no more be made a substitute for
smiling than smiling can for praying. Henry Ward Beecher.
Moderation is the pleasure
of the wise. Voltaire.
True happiness spring from
moderation. Goethe.
Tranquil pleasures last
the longest. Bovee.
In everything the middle
course is best. Plautus.
Moderation is the silken
string running through the pearl-chain of all virtues. Fuller.
Only actions give life strength;
only moderation gives it a charm. Richter.
Moderation consists in being
moved as angels are moved. Joubert.
Modesty is the citadel of
beauty and virtue. Demades.
Modesty is a diamond setting
to female beauty. Fanny Kemble Butler.
The greatest ornament of
an illustrious life is modesty and humility, which go a great way in the
character even of the most exalted princes. Napoleon.
The first of all virtues
is innocence; the next is modesty. Addison.
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.
Good manners are a part
of good morals. Whately.
Sweet as dew-drops on the
flowery lawns when the sky opens, and the morning dawns. Tickell.
I was always an early riser.
Happy the man who is! Every morning day comes to him with a virgin's love,
full of bloom and freshness. The youth of nature is contagious, like the
gladness of a happy child. Bulwer-Lytton.
Darkness is fled. Now flowers
unfold their beauties to the sun, and blushing kiss the beam he sends to
wake them. Sheridan.
Let the day have a blessed
baptism by giving your first waking thoughts into the bosom of God. The
first hour of the morning is the rudder of the day. Beecher.
At the morning hour, when
the half-awakened sun, trampling down the lingering shadows of the west,
spreads his ruby-tinted tresses over jessamines and roses, drying with
cloths of gold Aurora's tears of mingled fire with snow, which the sun's
rays converted into pearls. Calderon.
Heaven is at the feet of
mothers. Roebuck.
If there be aught surpassing
human deed or word or thought it is a mother's love! Marchioness de Spadara.
Maternal love! thou word
that sums all bliss. Pollock.
Mother is the name of God
in the lips and hearts of little children. Thackeray.
One lamp, thy mother's love,
amid the stars shall lift its pure flame changless, and before the throne
of God burn through eternity. N. P. Willis.
A mother should give her
children a superabundance of enthusiasm, that after they have lost all
they are sure to lose on mixing with the world, enough may still remain
to prompt and support them through great actions. J. C. Hare.
He that does good for good's
sake seeks neither praise nor reward, though sure of both at last. William
Penn.
Music is the universal language
of mankind. Longfellow.
Music, rather than poetry,
should be called "the happy art." Richter.
Music is the child of prayer,
the companion of religion. Chateaubriand.
It is by learning music
that many youthful hearts learn love. Ricard.
All musical people seem
to be happy. Sydney Smith.
Music,—we love it for the
buried hopes, the garnered memories, the tender feelings it can summon
at a touch. Miss L. E. Landon.
Music is God's best gift
to man, the only art of heaven given to earth, the only art of earth that
we take to heaven. But music, like all our gifts, is given to us in the
germ. It is for us to unfold and develop it by instruction and cultivation.
Charles W. Landon.
Music is the art of the
prophets, the only art that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is
one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us. Luther.
Music is a sacred, a divine,
a God-like thing, and was given to man by Christ to lift our hearts up
to God, and make us feel something of the glory and beauty of God, and
of all which God has made. Charles Kingsley.
I always loved music; whoso
has skill in this art, is of a good temperament, fitted for all things.
Martin Luther.
Good name in man and woman
is the immediate jewel of their souls. Shakespeare.
A good name is rather to
be chosen than great riches. Bible.
A virtuous name is the precious
only good, for which queens and peasants' wives must contest together.
Schiller.
Love can be founded upon
Nature only. Shenstone.
The laws of nature are the
thoughts of God. Zschokke.
There is but one book of
genius,—nature. Madame Deluzy.
Nature cannot be suprised
in undress. Beauty breaks out everywhere. Emerson.
Nature is man's religious
book, with lessons for every day. Theodore Parker.
Flowers, leaves, fruit are
therefore air-woven children of light. Moleschott.
One touch of nature makes
the whole world kin. Shakespeare.
A tree is a nobler object
than a prince in his coronation-robes. Pope.
Nature and truth are one,
and immutable, and inseparable as beauty and love. Mrs. Jameson.
Nature repairs her ravages,—repairs
them with her sunshine and with human labor. George Eliot.
Nature, like a kind and
smiling mother, lends herself to our dreams and cherishes our fancies.
Victor Hugo.
You will find something
ar 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.
There is no more lovely
worship of God than that for which no image is required, but which springs
up in our breast spontaneously when nature speaks to the soul, and the
soul speaks to nature face to face. Goethe.
Nature, like a loving mother,
is ever trying to keep land and sea, mountain and valley, each in its place,
to hush the angry winds and waves, balance the extremes of heat and cold,
of rain and drought, that peace, harmony, and beauty may reign supreme.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Nature imitates herself.
A grain thrown into good ground bring forth fruit; a principle thrown into
a good mind brings forth fruit. Everything is created and conducted by
the same Master; the root, the branch, the fruits,—the principles, the
consequences. Pascal.
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.
It were happy if we studied
nature more in natural things; and acted according to nature, whose rules
are few, palin, 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.
Nature, at all events, humanly
speaking, is manifestly very fond of color; for she has made nothing without
it. Her skies are blue; her fields, green; her waters vary with her skies;
her animals, vegetables, minerals, are all colored. She paints a great
many of them in apparently superfluous hues, as if to show the dullest
eye how she loves color. Leigh Hunt.
Though nature is constantly
beautiful, she does not exhibit her highest powers constatntly; for them
they would satiate us, and pall upon our senses. It is necessary to their
appreaciation that they should be rarely shown. Her finest touches are
things which must be watched for; her most perfect passages of beauty are
the most evanescent. Ruskin.
The truths of nature are
one eternal change, one infinite variety. There is no bush on the face
of the globe exactly like another bush; there are no two trees in the forest
whose boughs bend into the same network, nor two leaves on the same tree
which could not be told one from the other, nor two waves in the sea exactly
alike. Ruskin.
Nature is sanitive, refining,
elevating. How cunningly she hides every wrinkle of her inconceivable antiquity
under roses and violets and morning dew! Every inch of the mountains is
scarred with unimaginable convulsions, yet the new day is purple with bloom
of youth and love. Emerson.
"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 the 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 loveliness of nature. Dr. Chalmers.
The best thing is to go
from nature's God down to nature; and if you once get to nature's God,
and believe Him, and love Him, it is surprising how easy it is to hear
music in the waves, and songs in the wild whisperings of the winds; to
see God everywhere in the stones, in the rocks, in the rippling brooks,
and hear Him everywhere, in the lowing of cattle, in the rolling of thunder,
and in the fury of tempests. Get Christ first, put Him in the right place,
and you will find Him to be the wisdom of God in your own experience. C.
H. Spurgeon.
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.
All things are engaged in
writing their history. The planet, the pebble, goes attedned by its shadow.
The rolling rock leaves its scratches on the mountain; the river, its channel
in the soil; the animal, its bones in the stratum; the fern and leaf, their
modest epitaph in the coal. The falling drop makes its sculpture in the
sand or the stone. Not a foot steps into the snow or along the ground,
but prints, in characters more or less lasting, a map of its march. Every
act of man inscribes itself in the memories of its fellows, and in his
own manners and face. The air is full of sounds, the sky of tokens, the
ground is all memoranda and signatures, and every object covered over with
hints which speak to the intelligent. Emerson.
Neatness is the crowning
grace of womanhood. Fontenelle.
All the good of which humanity
is capable is comprised in obedience. J. Stuart Mill.
He praiseth God best that
serveth and obeyeth Him most: the life of thankfulness consists in the
thankfulness of the life. Burkitt.
It is the close observation
of little things which is the secret of success in business, in art, in
science, and in every pursuit in life. Human knowledge is but an accumulation
of small facts made by successive generations of men—the little bits of
knowledge and experience carefully treasured up by them growing at length
into a mighty pyramid. Samuel Smiles.
The happiest man is he,
who being above the troubles which money brings, has his hands the fullest
of work. Anthony Trollope.
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.
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.
October is the opal month
of the year. It is the month of glory, of ripeness. It is the picture-month.
Henry Ward Beecher.
The happiest end of life
is this: when the mind and the other senses being unimpaired, the same
nature which put it together takes asunder her own work. Cicero.
The day of life spent in
honest and benevolent labor comes in hope to an evening calm and lovely;
and though the sun declines, the shadows that he leaves behind are only
to curtain the spirit unto rest. Henry Giles.
To improve the golden moment
of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great
art of life. Johnson.
Heaven, on occasion, half
opens its arms to us; and that is the great moment. Victor Hugo.
Order is heaven's first
law. Pope.
The gods love those of ordered
soul. Sophocles.
Good order is the foundation
of all good things. Burke.
Order is a lovely nymph,
the child of Beauty and Wisdom; her attendants are Comfort, Neatness, and
Activity; her abode is the valley of happiness; she is always to be found
when sought for, and never appears so lovely as when contrasted with her
opponent, Disorder. Johnson.
If you would create something,
you must be something. Goethe.
As we grow in wisdom, we
pardon more freely. Mme. de Stael.
Next to God, thy parents.
William Penn.
The sacred books of the
ancient Persians say: "If you would be holy instruct your children, because
all the good acts they perform will be imputed to you." Montesquieu.
Parents must give good example
and reverent deportment in the face of their children. And all those instances
of charity which usually endear each other—sweetness of conversation, affability,
frequent admonition—all signification of love and tenderness, care and
watchfulness, must be expressed towards children; that they may look upon
their parents as their friends and patrons, their defence and sanctuary,
their treasure and their guide. Jeremy Taylor.
Nothing that was worthy
in the past departs; no truth or goodness realized by man ever does or
can die; but all is still here, and, recognized or not, lives and works
through endless changes. Carlyle.
Patience and fortitude conquer
all things. Emerson.
Patient endurance is Godlike.
Longfellow.
To know how to wait is the
great secret of success. De Maistre.
Patience is the guardian
of faith, the preserver of peace, the cherisher of love, the teacher of
humility; patience governs the flesh, strengthens the spirit, sweetens
the temper, stifles anger, extinguishes envy, subdues pride; she bridles
the tongue, refrains the hands, tramples upon temptation, endures persecutions,
consummates martyrdom; patience produces unity in the church, loyalty in
the state, harmony in families and societies; she comforts the poor and
moderates the rich; she makes us humble in prosperity, cheerful in adversity,
unmoved by calumny and reproach; she teaches us to forgive those who have
injured us, and to be the first in asking forgiveness to those whom we
have injured; she delights the faithful, and invites the unbelieving; she
adorns the woman, and approves the man; is loved in a child, praise in
a young man, admired in an old man; she is beautiful in either sex and
every age. Bishop Horne.
He serves his party best
who serves the country best. Rutherford B. Hayes.
The love of country is more
powerful than reason itself. Ovid.
The man who loves home best,
and loves it most unselfishly, loves his country best. J. G. Holland.
Let our object be our country,
our whole country, and nothing but our country. And, by the blessing of
God, may that country itself become a vast and splendid monument, not of
oppression and terror, but of wisdom, of peace, and of liberty, upon which
the world may gaze with admiration forever! Daniel Webster.
Peace is the fairest form
of happiness. William Ellery Channing.
Peace rules the day, where
reason rules the mind. Collins.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God. Bible.
Peace is the happy, natural
state of man.... Thomson.
Peace is the evening star
of the soul, as virtue is its sun, and the two are never far apart. Colton.
All things that speak of
heaven speak of peace. Bailey.
Like the rainbow, peace
rests upon the earth, but its arch is lost in heaven. Heaven bathes it
in hues of light—it springs up amid tears and clouds—it is a reflection
of the eternal sun—it is an assurance of calm—it is the sign of a great
covenant between God and man—it is an emanation from the distant orb of
immortal light. Colton.
The people are the only
soverigns of any country. R. D. Owen.
Woman is most perfect when
most womanly. Gladstone.
Few things are impossible
to diligence and skill. Johnson.
Great works are performed
not by strength but by perseverance. Johnson.
The practice of perseverance
is the discipline of the noblest virtues. To run well, we must run to the
end. It is not the fighting but the conquering that vies a hero his title
of renown. E. L. Magoon.
True philosophy si that
which renders us to ourselves, and all others who surround us, better,
and at the same time more content, more patient, more calm, and more ready
for all decent and pure enjoyment. Lavater.
The shortest pleasures are
the sweetest. Farquhar.
God made all pleasures innocent.
Mrs. Norton.
The greatest of all pleasures
is to give pleasure to one whom we love. Boufflers.
A man would have no pleasures
in discovering all the beauties of the universe, even in heaven itself,
unless he had a partner with whom he might share his joys. Cicero.
Poetry is the breath of
beauty. Leigh Hunt.
Poetry is the robe, the
royal apparel, in which truth asserts its divine origin. Beecher.
Poetry is the music of thought,
conveyed to us in music and language. Chatfield.
Poetry is the record of
the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds. Shelley.
Poetry is the music of the
soul, and, above all, of great and feeling souls. Voltaire.
Poetry uses the rainbow
tints for special effects, but always keeps its essential object in the
purest light of truth. Holmes.
Poetry is simply the most
beautiful, impressive and widely effective mode of saying theing, and hence
its importance. Matthew Arnold.
That which moveth the heart
most is the best poetry; it comes nearest unto God, the source of all power.
Landor.
There is as much difference
between good poetry and fine verses as between the smell of a flower-garden
and of a perfumer's shop. Hare.
Poetry and flowers are the
wine and spirit of the Arab; a couplet is equal to a bottle, and a rose
to a dram, without the evil effects of either. Layard.
The world is full of poetry.
The air is living with its spirit; and the waves dance to the music of
its melodies, and sparkle with its brightness. Percival.
Poetry is the blossom and
the fragrance of all human knowledge, human thoughts, human passions, emotions,
language. Coleridge.
Poetry is music in words,
and music is poetry in sound.... Fuller.
Poetry reveals to us the
loveliness of nature, brings back the freshness of youthful feeling, revives
the relish of simple pleasures, keeps unquenched the enthusiasm which warmed
the springtime of our being, refines youthful love, strengthens our interest
in human nature, by vivid delineations of its tenderest and softest feelings,
and, through the brightness of its prophetic visions, helps faith lay hold
on the future life. Channing.
All great poets have been
men of great knowledge. Bryant.
Poets alone are sure of
immortality; they are the truest diviners of nature. Bulwer-Lytton.
To have read the gretest
works of any great poet, to have beheld or heard the greatest works of
any great painter or musician, is a possession added to the best things
of life. Swinburne.
Politeness is a wreath of
flowers that adorns the world. Mme. de Bassanville.
There is a politeness of
the heart; this is closely allied to love. Goethe.
Politeness is as natural
to delicte natures as perfume is to flowers. De Finod.
Fine manners are like personal
beauty,—a letter of credit everywhere. Bartol.
True politeness is perfect
ease and freedom. It simply consists in treating others just as you love
to be treated yourself. Chesterfield.
There is no policy like
politeness; and a good manner is the best thing in the world, either to
get one a good name or to supply the want of it. Bulwer-Lytton.
All our possessions are
as nothing compared to health, strength, and a clear conscience. Hosea
Ballou.
All the good things of this
world are no further good than as they are of use; and whatever we may
heap up to give to others, we enjoy only as much of as we can use. De Foe.
We only begin to realize
the value of our possessions when we commence to do good to others with
them. No earthly investment pays so large an interest as charity. Joseph
Cook.
Our material possessions,
like our joys, are enhanced in value by being shared. G. D. Prentice.
Good things should be praised.
Shakespeare.
Praise is the reflection
of virtue. Bacon.
Praise, like gold and diamonds,
owes its value only to its scarcity. Dr. Johnson.
It is a great happiness
to be praised of them that are most praiseworthy. Sir P. Sidney.
Praise consists in the love
of God, in wonder at the goodness of God, in recognition of the gifts of
God, in seeing God in all things He gives us, ay, and even in the things
that He refuses to us; so as to see our whole life in the light of God;
and seeing this, to bless Him, adore Him, and glorify Him. Manning.
Prayer ardent opens heaven.
Young.
A life of prayer is a life
whose litanies are ever fresh acts of self-devoting love. F. W. Robertson.
Happy are they who freely
mingle prayer and toil till God responds to the one and rewards the other.
S. Irenaeus Prime.
A single grateful thought
towards heaven is the most complete prayer. Lessing.
All places are the temple
of God, for it is the mind that prays to him. Menander.
He that loveth little prayeth
little; he that loveth much prayeth much. St. Augustine.
So a good prayer, though
often used, is still fresh and fair in the ears and eyes of heaven. Fuller.
A good man's prayers will
from the deepest dungeon climb heaven's height, and bring a blessing down.
Joanna Baillie.
The best and sweetest flowers
of Paradise God gives to His people when they are upon their knees. Prayer
is the gate of heaven, or key to let us in to Paradise. Thomas Brooks.
Prayer is the wing wherewith
the soul flies to heaven, and meditation the eye wherewith we see God.
St. Ambrose.
When we pray for any virtue,
we should cultivate the virtue as well as pray for it; the form of your
prayers should be the rule of your life: every petition to God is a precept
to man. Jeremy Taylor.
True prayer is only another
name for the love of God. Its excellence does not consist of the multitude
of our words; for our Father knoweth what things we have need of before
we ask Him. The true prayer is that of the heart, and the heart prays only
for what it desires. To pray, then, is to desire—but to desiere what God
would have us desire. Fenelon.
Prayer is the peace of our
spirit, the stillness of our thoughts, the evenness of recollection, the
seat of mediation, the rest of our cares and the calm of our tempest: prayer
is the issue of a quiet mind, of untroubled thoughts; it is the daughter
of charity and the sister of meekness. Jeremy Taylor.
Let us never forget that,
to be profited, that is, to be spiritaully improved in knowledge, fairth,
holiness, joy and love, is the end of hearing sermons, and not merely to
have our taste gratified by genius, eloquence and oratory. John Angel James.
If principle is good for
anything, it is worth living up to. Franklin.
Moral excellence is the
bright consummate flower of all progress. Charles Sumner.
To bring the best human
qualities to anything like perfection, to fill them with the sweet juices
of courtesy and charity, prosperity,or, at all events, a moderate amount
of it, is required,—just as sunshine is need for the ripening of peaches
and apricots. Alexander Smith.
The genius, wit, and spirit
of a nation are discovered by their proverbs. Bacon.
Proverbs are mental gems
gathered in the diamond districts of the mind. W. R. Alger.
Proverbs: Jewels five words
long, that on the stretched forefinger of all Time sparkle forever. Tennyson.
Everything that happens
in this world is a part of a great plan of God running through all time.
Henry Ward Beecher.
God's plans, like lilies
pure and white, unfold; we must not tear the close-shut leaves apart; time
will reveal the calyxes of gold. May Riley Smith.
Every pure thought is a
glimpse of God. Bartol.
Purity of mind and conduct
is the first glory of a woman. Mme. de Stael.
While our hearts are pure,
our lives are happy and our peace is sure. William Winter.
Purity of heart is the noblest
inheritance, and love the fairest ornament, of woman. Matthias Claudius.
The love of woman is a precious
treasure. Tenderness has no deeper source, devotion no purer shrine, sacrifice
no more saintlike abnegation. Saint-Foix.
If a woman be herself pure
and noble-hearted, she will come into every circle as a person does into
a heated room, who caries with him the freshness of the woods where he
has been walking. Frances Power Cobbe.
Woman was formed to admire;
man to be admirable. His are the glories of the sun at noonday; hers the
softened splendors of the midnight moon. Sir P. Sidney.
The heart that is to be
filled to the brim with holy joy must be held still. Bowes.
Be it mine to draw from
wisdom's fount, pure as it flows, that calm of soul which virtue only knows.
AEschylus.
The wisdom of the wise and
the experience of ages may be preserved by quotation. Isaac Disraeli.
A beautiful verse, an apt
remark, or a well-turned phrase, appropriately quoted, is always effective
and charming. Mme. du Deffand.
Every book is a quotation,
and every house is a quotation out of all the forest and mines and stone-quarries,
and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors. Emerson.
A good thought is a great
boon, for which God is to be first thanked, then he who is the first to
utter it, and then, in a lesser, but still in a considerable degree, the
man who is the first to quote it to us. Bovee.
Many useful and valuable
books lie buried in shops and libraries unknown and unexamined, unless
some lucky compiler opens them by chance, and finds an easy spoil of wit
and learning. Dr. Johnson.
All truly wise thoughts
have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours,
we must think them over again honestly, till they take firm root in our
personal experience. Goethe.
Reading is to the mind what
exercise is to the body. As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened,
and invigorated; by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind)
is kept alive, cherished, and comfirmed. Addison.
Reason elevates our thoughts
as high as the stars, and leads us through the vast space of this mighty
fabric; yet it comes far short of the real extent of our corporeal being.
Johnson.
The reasoning of the strongest
is always the best. La Fontaine.
Refinement creates beauty
everywhere. Hazlitt.
Religion is using everything
for God. Henry Ward Beecher.
The best religion is the
most tolerant. Mme. de Girardin.
Every religion is good that
teaches man to be good. Thomas Paine.
Of all joyful, smiling,
ever-laughing experiences, there are none like those which spring from
religion. Henry Ward Beecher.
The flower of youth never
appears more beautiful than when it bends toward the Sun of Righteousness.
Matthew Henry.
Religion finds the love
of happiness and principle of duty separated in us and its mission is to
unite them. (No Author Given)
Freedom of religion is one
of the greatest gifts of God to man, without distinction of race or color.
He is the author and lord of conscience, and no power on earth has a right
to stand between God and the conscience. Philip Schaff.
All natural results are
spontaneous. The diamond sparkles without effort, and the flowers open
impulsively beneath the summer rain. And true religion is a spontaneous
thing,—as natural as it is to weep, to love, or to rejoice. Chapin.
Reputation is a jewel which
nothing can replace; it is ten thousand times more valuable capital than
your diamonds. Laboulaye.
Self-respect is the best
of all. Hosea Ballou.
That woman is happiest whose
life is passed in the shadow of a manly, loving heart. Mme. Necker.
Woman is a flower that breathes
its perfume in the shade only. Lamennais.
Pleasure is the flower than
fades; rembrance is the lasting perfume. Boufflers.
He possessses dominion over
himself and is happy, who can every day say, "I have lived." To-morrow
the Heavenly Father may either involve the world in dark clouds or cheer
it with clear sunshine; he will not, however, render ineffectual the things
which have already taken place. Horace.
Romance is always young.
Whittier.
Roses: The smiles of God's
goodness. Wilberforce.
When love first came to
earth, the spring spread rose-beds to receive him. Campbell.
Happy are they who can create
a rose-tree, or erect a honeysuckle. Gray.
The happiness of heaven
is the constant keeping of the Sabbath. Heaven is called a Sabbath, to
make those who have Sabbaths long for heaven, and those who long for heaven
love Sabbaths. Philip Henry.
Sunday is the golden clasp
that binds together the volume of the week. Longfellow.
Most powerful is he who
has himself in his power. Seneca.
Which is the best government?
That which teaches us to govern ourselves. Goethe.
Real glory springs from
the silent conquest of ourselves. Thomson.
Beauty is a quality of the
heart. It is more than skin deep. (No Author Given)
Silence is a true friend
who never betrays. Confucius.
Silence is the perfect herald
of joy. Shakespeare.
Let us be silent, so we
may hear the whisper of the gods. Emerson.
A good simile is the sunshine
of wisdom. Hosea Ballou.
The greatest truths are
the simplest. Hosea Ballou.
Genuine simplicity of heart
is a healing and cementing pirnciple. Burke.
Nothing so truly becomes
feminine beauty as simplicity. Mme. Deluzy.
The most agreeable of all
companions is a simple, frank man, without any high pretensions to an oppressive
greatness,—one who loves life, and understands the use of it; obliging
alike at all hours; above all, of a golden temper, and steadfast as an
anchor. For such an one we gladly exchange the greatest genius, the most
brilliant wit, the profoundest thinker. Lessing.
Sincerity is the way to
heaven; to think how to be sincere is the way of man. Mencius.
The true measure of life
is not length, but honesty. John Lyly.
Those who love with purity
consider not the gift of the lover, but the love of the giver. Thomas a
Kempis.
Let grace and goodness be
the principal loadstone of they affections; for love which hath ends will
have an end, whereas that which is founded on true love will always continue.
Dryden.
How bravely autumn paints
upon the sky the gorgeous fame of summer which is fled! Hood.
And they were canopied by
the blue sky, so cloudless, clear, and purely beautiful, that God alone
was to be seen in heaven. Byron.
When I look into the blue
sky, it seems so deep, so peaceful, so ull of a mysterious tenderness,
that I could lie for centuries, and wait for the dawning of the face of
God out of the awful loving-kindness. George MacDonald.
Let youth cherish sleep,
the happiest of earthly boons, while yet it be at its command; for there
cometh the day of all when "neither the voice of the lute nor the birds"
shall bring back the sweet slumbers that fell on their young eyes as unbidden
as the dews. Bulwer-Lytton.
Smiles are the language
of love. J. C. and A. W. Hare.
A beautiful smile is to
the female countenance what the sunbeam is to the landscape; it embellishes
an inferior face and redeems an ugly one. Lavater.
It [A smile] is the color
which loves wears, and cheerfulness, and joy—these three. It is the light
in the window of the face by which the heart signifies to father, husband,
or friend that it is at home and waiting. Beecher.
Heaven often protects valuable
souls charged with great secrets, great ideas, but long shutting them up
with their own thoughts. Emerson.
If the mind loves solitude,
it has thereby acquired a loftier character, and it becomes still more
noble when the taste is indulged in. Wilhelm von Humboldt.
Solitude is a good school,
but the wold is the better teacher; the institution is best there, but
the practice here; the winderness hath the advantage of discipline, and
society opportunities of perfection. Jeremy Taylor.
Faith and joy are the ascensive
forces of song. Stedman.
Songs: Little dew-drops
of celestial melody. Carlyle.
All great song, from the
first day when human lips contrived syllables, has been sincere song. Ruskin.
A single soul is richer
than all the worlds. Alexander Smith.
The one thing in the world
of value is the active soul. Emerson.
The soul is a temple; and
God is silently building it by night and by day. Precious thoughts are
building it; disinterested love is building it; all-penetrating faith is
building it. Henry Ward Beecher.
Our immortal souls, while
righteous, are by God himself beautified with the title of his own image
and similitude. Sir Walter Raleigh.
As the flowers follow the
sun, and silently hold up their petals to be tinted and enlarged by its
shining, so must we, if we would know the joy of God, hold our souls, wills,
hearts, and minds, still before Him, whose voice commands, whose love warns,
whose truth makes fair our whole being. God speaks for the most part in
such silence only. If the soul be full of tumult and jangling voices, His
voice is little likely to be heard. Alexander Maclaren.
Speech is the golden harvest
the followeth the flowering of thought. Tupper.
The speech of the tongue
is best known to men; God best understands the language of the heart. Warwick.
He [Spring] wakes into music
the green forest-bowers. W. G. Clark.
When Spring unlocks the
flowers to paint the laughing soil. Bishop Heber.
In the spring a young man's
fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. Tennyson.
The peach-bud glows, the
wild bee hums, and wind-flowers wave in graceful gladness. Lucy Larcom.
Sweet Spring! full of sweet
days and roses; a box where sweets compacted lie. George Herbert.
Stately Spring! whose robe-folds
are valleys, whose breast-bouquet is gardens, and whose blush is a vernal
evening. Richter.
Thus came the lovely spring,
with a rush of blossoms and music, flooding the earth with flowers and
the air with melodies vernal. Longfellow.
Ah, how wonderful is the
advent of spring,—the great annual miracle of the blossoming of Aaron's
rod, repeated on myriads and myriads of branches! Longfellow.
Bright April showers will
bid again the fresh green leaves expand; and May, light floating in a cloud
of flowers, will cause theee to rebloom with magic hand. G. H. Lewes.
Spring is a beautiful piece
of work; and not to be in the country to see it don is the not realizing
what glorious masters we are, and how cheerfully, minutely, and unflaggingly
the fair fingers of the season broider the world for us. Willis.
So then the year is repeating
its old story again. We are come once more, thank God! to its most charming
chapter. The violets and the Mayflowers are as its inscriptions or vignettes.
It always makes a pleasant impression on us, when we open again at these
pages of the book of life. Goethe.
It is not the variegated
colors, the cheerful sounds, and the warm breezes which enliven us so much
in the spring; it is the quiet prophetic spirit of endless hope, a presentiment
of many happy days, the anticipation of higher everlasting blossoms and
fruits, and the secret sympathy with the world that is developing itself.
Martin Optiz.
It is not merely the multiplicity
of tints, the gladness of the tone, or the balminess of the air which delight
in the spring; it is the still consecrated spirit of hope, the prophecy
of happy days yet to come; the endless variety of nature, with presentiments
of eternal flowers which shall never fade, and sympathy with the blessedness
of the ever-developing world. Novalis.
The golden line is drawn
between winter and summer. Behind all is balckness and darkness and dissolution.
Before is hope, and soft airs, and the flowers, and the sweet season of
hay; and people will cross the fields, reading or walking with one another;
and instead of the rain that soaks death into the heart of green things,
will be the rain which they drink with delight; and there will be sleep
on the grass at midday, and early rising in the morning, and long moonlight
evenings. Leigh Hunt.
Stars: The thoughts of God
in the heavens. Longfellow.
The world is great; the
stars are golden fruit upon a tree all out of reach. George Eliot.
Stars which stand as thick
as dew-drops on the field of heaven. Bailey.
It is a gentle and affectionate
thought, that in immeasurable height above us, at our first birth, the
wreath of love was woven with sparkling stars for flowers. Coleridge.
If the stars should appear
one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve
for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been
shown! But every night come out those envoys of beauty, and light the universe
with their admonishing smile. Emerson.
A star is beautiful; it
affords pleasure, not from what it is to do, or to give, but simply by
being what it is. It befits the heavens; it has congruity with the mighty
space in which it dwells. It has repose; no force disturbs its eternal
peace. It has freedom; no obstruction lies between it and infinity. Carlyle.
A State would be happy where
philosophers were kings, or kings philosophers. Plato.
True statesmanship is the
art of changing a nation from what it is into what it ought to be. W. H.
Alger.
God is a kind Father. He
sets us all in the places where he wishes us to be employed. He chooses
work for every creature which will be delightful to them if they do it
simply and humbly. He gives us always strength enough and sense enough
for what he wants us to do. Ruskin.
A few books, well studied,
and thoroughly digested, nourish the understanding more than hundreds but
gargled in the mouth, as ordinary students use. F. Osborn.
The beautiful invariably
possesses a visible and a hidden beauty; and it is certain that no style
is so beautiful as that which presents to the attentive reader a half-hidden
meaning. Joubert.
Whatever is pure is also
simple. It does not keep the eye on itself. The observer forgets the window
in the landscape it displays. A fine style give the view of gancy—its figures,
its trees, or its palaces,—with a spot. Willmott.
Anything which elevates
the mind is sublime. Greatness of matter, space, power, virtue or beauty,
are all sublime. Ruskin.
The greatest success is
confidence, or perfect understanding between sincere people. Emerson.
The great highroad of human
welfare lies along the old highway of steadfast well-doing; and they who
are the most persistent, and the work in the truest spirit, will invariably
be the most successful; success treads on the heels of every right effort.
Samuel Smiles.
The talent of success is
nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you
can do without a thought to fame. If it comes at all it will come because
it is deserved, not because it is sought after. Longfellow.
The secret of pleasure in
life, as distinct from its great triumphs of transcendent joy, is to life
in a series of small, legitimate successes. By legitimate I mean such as
are not accompanied by self-condemnation. Sydney Dobell.
Life is our "chance of learning
love." Maltbie Babcock.
All green and fair the summer
lies, just budded from the bud of spring. Susan Coolidge.
The glorious lamp of heaven,
the sun. Herrick.
Suns are sunflowers of a
higher light. Richter.
The glorious lamp of heaven,
the radiant sun, is Nature's eye. Dryden.
The sun is all about the
world we see, the breath and strength of every spring. Swinburne.
The glorious sun stays in
his courses, and plays the alchemist, turning with splendor of his precious
eye the meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold. Shakespeare.
Purple, violet, gold and
white,
Royal clouds are they;
Catching the spear-like
rays in the west—
Lining therewith each downy
nest,
At the close of Summer day. J. K. Hoyt
The two noblest things,
which are sweetness and light. Swift.
The greatest pleasures of
which the human mind is susceptible are the pleasures of consciousness
and sympathy. Parke Godwin.
Happy is the man who has
that in his soul which acts upon the dejected as April airs upon violet
roots. Gifts from the hand are silver and gold, but the heart gives that
which neither silver nor gold can buy. To be full of goodness, full of
cheerfulness, full of sympathy, full of helpful hope, cause a man to carry
blessings of which he is himself as unconscious as a lamp is of its own
shining. Such a one moves on human life as stars move on dark seas to bewildered
mariners; as the sun wheels, bringing all the seasons with him from the
south. Beecher.
Good taste is the flower
of good sense. Poincelot.
A truly elegant taste is
generally accompanied with an excellency of heart. Fielding.
A well-dressed woman in
a room should fill it with poetic sense, like the perfume of flowers. Miss
Oakley.
It is a luxury to learn;
but the luxury of learning is not to be compared with the luxury of teaching.
Roswell D. Hitchcock.
Those who educate children
well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only
gave them life, those the art of living well. Aristotle.
Love is loveliest when embalmed
in tears. Walter Scott.
A smile is ever the most
bright and beautiful with a tear upon it. What is the dawn without the
dew? The tear is rendered by the smile precious above the smile itself.
Landor.
A cheerful temper, joined
with innocence, will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful, and
wit good natured. It will lighten sickness, poverty and affliction; convert
ignorance into an amiable simplicity, and render deformity itself agreeable.
Addison.
In love we do not think
of moral qualities, and scarcely of intellectual ones. Temperament and
manner alone, with beauty, excite love. Hazlitt.
Temperance in everything
is requisite for happiness. B. R. Haydon.
Temperance is a bridle of
gold; he who uses it rightly is more like a god than a man. Burton.
Tenderness is the infancy
of love. Rivarol.
Our whole life should speak
forth our thankfulness; every condition and place we are in should be a
witness of our thankfulness. This will make the times and places we live
in better for us. When we ourselves are monuments of God's mercy, it is
fit we should be patterns of His priises, and leave monuments to others.
We should think it give to us to do something better than to live in. We
live not to live; our life is not the end of itself, but the praise of
the giver. R. Libbes.
Great thoughts proceed from
the heart. Vauvenargues.
Great thoughts reduced to
practice become great acts. Hazlitt.
Great thoughts ensure musical
expression. Emerson.
A delicate thought is a
flower of the mind. Charles Rollin.
Nurture your minds with
great thoughts. Beaconsfield.
It is godlike to unloose
the spirit, and forget yourself in thought. N. P. Willis.
A single grateful thought
towards heaven is the most perfect prayer. Lessing.
Great thoughts, like great
deeds, need no trumpet. Bailey.
Beautiful thoughts flit
across the brain, like butterflies in the sun's rays, and are as difficult
to capture. Anna Cora Mowatt.
Good thoughts are blessed
guests, and should be heartily welcomed, well fed, and much sought after.
Like rose leaves, they give out a sweet smell if laid up in the jar of
memory. Spurgeon.
The happiness of your life
depends upon the quality of your thoughts; therefore guard accordingly,
and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable
nature. Marcus Antoninus.
We should manage our thoughts
as shepherds do their flowers in making a garland: first, select the choicest,
and then dispose them in the most proper places, that every one may reflect
a part of its color and brightness on the next. Coleridge.
The happier the time, the
quicker it passes. Pliny the Younger.
Time is generally the best
medicine. Ovid.
The great rule of moral
conduct is, next to God, to respect time. Lavater.
As every thread of gold
is valuable, so is every minute of time. Mason.
Time is the shower of Danae;
each drop is golden. Mme. Swetchine.
To the true teacher, time's
hourglass should still run gold-dust. Douglas Jerrold.
Toleration is the best religion.
Victor Hugo.
Clemency alone makes us
equal to the gods. Claudianus.
Let us be very gentle with
our neighbors' failings, and forgive our friends their debts as we hope
ourselves to be forgiven. Thackeray.
Tranquil pleasures last
the longest. Bovee.
The fountain of tranquility
is within ourselves; let us keep it pure. Phocian.
In heaven the trees of life
ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines yield nectar. Milton.
When we plant a tree, we
are doing what we can to make our planet a more wholesome and happier dwelling-place
for those who come after us if not for ourselves. Holmes.
How sweet the words of truth
breathed from the lips of love! James Beattie.
The truth of truths is love.
Bailey.
Whoever lives true life
will love true love. E. B. Browning.
What we have in us of the
image of God is the love of truth and justice. Demosthenes.
Old truths are always new
to us, if they come with the smell of heaven upon them. Bunyan.
Nothing is really beautiful
but truth, and truth alone is lovely. Boileau.
The greatest truths are
commonly the simplest. Malesherbes.
Truth is the highest thing
that man may keep. Chaucer.
The man who loves with his
whole heart truth will love still more he who suffers for truth. Lavater.
To love the truth for truth's
sake is the primcipal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot
of all other virtues. John Locke.
All high truth is poetry.
Take the results of science: they glow with beauty, cold nd hard as are
the methods of reaching them. Charles Buxton.
The usefullest truths are
plainest.... William Penn.
Truth is a queen who has
her eternal throne in heaven, and her seat of empire in the heart of God.
Bossuet.
The firmest and noblest
ground on which people can live is truth; and real with the real; a ground
on which nothing is assumed. Emerson.
Love of truth will bless
the lover all his days; yet when he brings her home his fair-faced bride,
she comes empty-handed to his door, herself her only dower. Theodore Parker.
Truth is the source of every
good to gods and men. He who expects to be blessed and fortunate in this
world she be a partaker of it from the earliest moment of his life. Plato.
The germs of all truth lie
in the soul, and when the ripe moment comes, the truth within answers to
the fact without as the flower responds to the sun, giving it form for
heat and color for light. Hamilton W. Mabie.
The love of truth is the
stimulus to all noble conversation. This is the root of all the charities.
The tree which springs from it may have a thousand golden branches, but
they will all bear a golden and generous fruitage. Orville Dewey.
The very essense of truth
is plainness and brightness; the darkness and crookedness is our own. The
wisdom of God created understanding, fit and proportionable to truth, the
object nd end of it, as the eye of the thing visible. If our understanding
have a film of ignorance over it, or be blear with gazing on other false
glittering, what is that to truth? Milton.
Truth is the beginning of
every good thing, both in heaven and on earth; and he who would be blessed
and happy should be from the first a partaker of the truth, that he may
live a true man as long as possible, for then he can be trusted; but he
is not to be trusted who loves voluntary falsehood, and he who loves involuntary
falsehood is a fool. Plato.
Women have the understanding
of the heart, which is better than that of the head. Rogers.
We can sometimes love what
we do not understand, but it is impossible completely to understand what
we do not love. Mrs. Jameson.
It is not the eye, that
sees the beauty of the heaven, nor the ear, that hears the sweetness of
music or the glad tidings of a prosperous accident, but the soul, that
perceives all the relishes of sensual and intellectual perfections; and
the more noble and excellent the soul is, the greater and more savory are
its perceptions. Jeremy Taylor.
Union does everything when
it is perfect; it satisfies desires, it simplifies needs, it forsees the
wishes of the imagination; it is an aisle always open, and becomes a constant
fortune. De Senancour.
The secret of being loved
is in being lovely; and the secret of being lovely is in being unselfish.
J. G. Holland.
The useful and the beautiful
are never separated. Periander.
Nothing in this world is
so good as usefulness. It binds your fellow-creatures to you, and you to
them; it tends to the improvement of your own character; and it gives you
a real importance in scoiety, much beyond what any artificial station can
bestow. Sir Benjamin Brodie.
How often do we sigh for
opportunities of doing good, whilst we neglect the openings of Providence
in little things, which would frequently lead to the accomplishment of
most important usefulness! Dr. Johnson used to say, "He who waits to do
a great deal of good at once will never do any." Good is done by degrees.
However small in proportion the benefits which follow individual attempts
to do good, a great deal may thus be accomplished by perseverance, even
in the midst of discouragements and disappointments. Crabb.
As land is improved by sowing
it with various seeds, so is the mind by exercising it with different studies.
Pliny.
The smile of God is victory.
Whittier.
Virtue is the beauty of
the soul. Socrates.
Virtue is, like health,
the harmony of the whole man. Carlyle.
The soul's calm sunshine,
and the heartfelt joy, is virtue's prize. Pope.
The only amaranthine flower
on earth is virtue. Cowper.
Virtue is its own reward.
There's a pleasure in doing good which sufficiency pays itself. Vanbrugh.
Virtue is the health of
the soul. It gives a flavor to the smallest leaves of life. Joubert.
Virtue alone is sufficient
to make a man great, glorious, and happy. Benjamin Franklin.
Good sense, good health,
good conscience, and good fame,—all these belong to virtue, and all prove
that virtue has a title to your love. Cowper.
The paths of virtue, though
seldom those of worldly greatness, are always those of pleasantness and
peace. Sir Walter Scott.
The best perfection of a
religious man is to do common things in a perfect manner. A constant fidelity
in small things is a great and heroic virtue. St. Bonaventura.
The glory of riches and
of beauty is frail and transitory; virtue remains bright and eternal. Sallust.
Virtue is that perfect good,
which is the complement of a happy life; the only immortal thing that belongs
to mortality. Seneca.
All virtue lies in individual
action, in inward energy, in self-determination. The best books have the
most beauty. Channing.
The most virtuous of all
men is he that contents himself with being virtuous without seeking to
appear so. Plato.
The worthiest things, virtue,
art, beauty, fortune, now I see, rareness of use, not nature value brings.
Donne.
The voice is the flower
of beauty. Zeno.
The voice of the people
is the voice of God. Hesiod.
A lovely countenance is
the fairest of all sights, and the sweetest harmony is the sound of the
voice of her whom we love. Bruyere.
How wonderful is the human
voice! It is indeed the organ of the soul! Longfellow.
The fewer our wants the
nearer we resemble the gods. Socrates.
Marriage with peace is the
world's paradise. St. Augustine.
There re few husbands whom
the wife cannot win in the long run, by patience and love. Marguerite de
Valois.
The happiness of married
life depends upon the power of making small sacrifices with readiness and
cheerfulness. Selden.
A happy marriage is a new
beginning of life, a new starting-point for happiness and usefulness. Dean
Stanley.
A good wife is heaven's
last, best gift to man,—his gem of many virtues, his casket of jewels;
her voice is sweet music, her smiles his brightest day, her kiss the guardian
of his innnocence, her arms the pale of his safety, her industry his surest
wealth, her economy his safest steward, her lips his faithful counselors,
her bosom the softest pillow of his care. Jeremy Taylor.
A man's wisdom is his best
friend. Sir W. Temple.
Nothing can be truer than
fairy wisdom. It is as true as sunbeams. Douglas Jerrold.
True wisdom is to know what
is best worth knowing, and to do what is best worth doing. Humphreys.
He who exercises wisdom
exercises the knowledge which is about God. Epictetus.
Wisdom is the olive that
springeth from the heart, bloometh on the tongue, and beareth fruit in
the actions. Grymestone.
Teach a man to read and
write, and you have put into his hands the great keys of the wisdom-box.
Huxley.
Knowledge is the treasure
of the mind, but discretion is the key to it, without which it is useless.
The practical part of wisdom is the best. Owen Feltham.
The most manifest sign of
wisdom is a continual cheerfulness; her state is like that of things in
the regions above the moon, always clear and serene. Montaigne.
Wisdom consisteth not in
knowing many things, nor even in knowing them thoroughly; but in choosing
and in following what conduces the most certainly to our lasting happiness
and true glory. Landor.
The true greatness and the
true happiness of a country consist in wisdom; in that enlarge and comprehensive
wisdom which includes education, knowledge, religion, virtue, freedom,
with every influence which advances and every institution which supports
them. Henry Giles.
Happy is the man that findest
wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding; for the merchandise of
it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than
fine gold. She is more precious than rubies; and all the things thou canst
desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is her right hand;
and in her left hand riches and honor. Here ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold
upon her; and happy is every one that retaineth her. Bible.
Knowest thou the land where
the lemon-trees flourish, where amid the shadowed leaves the golden oranges
glisten,—a gentle zephyr breathes from the blue heavens, the myrtle is
motionless, and the laurel rises high? Dost thou know it well? Thither,
thither, fain would I fly with tee, O my beloved! Goethe.
Genuine and innocent wit
is surely the very flavor of the mind. Moses Harvey.
The fairest blossoms of
pleasantry thrive best where the sun is not strong enough to scorch, nor
the soil rank enough to corrupt. L'Estrange.
The most brilliant flashes
of wit come from a clouded mind, as lightning leaps only from an obscure
firmament. Bovee.
The beauty of a lovely woman
is like music. George Eliot.
A handsome woman is a jewel;
a good woman is a treasure. Saadi.
If there be any one whose
power is in beauty, in purity, in goodness, it is a woman. Henry Ward Beecher.
A good woman is a hidden
treasure; who discovers her will do well not to boast of it. La Rochefoucauld.
If we require more perfection
from women than from ourselves, it is doing them honor. Dr. Johnson.
Women are the poetry of
the world, in the same sense as the stars are the poetry of heaven. Hargrave.
Woman is superlative; the
best leader in life, the best guide in happy days, the best consoler in
sorrow. Seume.
God has placed the genius
of women in their hearts, because the works of this genius are always works
of love. Lamartine.
Next to God, we are indebted
to women, first for life itself, and then for making it worth having. Bovee.
A woman's best qualities
do not reside in her intellect, but in her affections. She gives refreshment
by her sympathies, rather than by her knowledge. Samuel Smiles.
Women wish to be loved without
a why or a wherefore; not because they are pretty, or good, or well-bred,
or graceful, or intelligent, but because they are themselves. Amiel.
To describe women, the pen
should be dipped in the humid colors of the rainbow, and the paper dried
with the dust gathered from the wings of a butterfly. Diderot.
Nature has given women two
painful but heavenly gifts, which distinguish them, and often raise them
above human nature,—compassion and enthusiasm. By compassion, they devote
themselves; by enthusiasm they exalt themselves. Lamartine.
Woman is the highest, holiest,
most precious gift to man. Her mission and throne is the family, and if
anything is withheld that would make her more efficient, useful, or happy
in that sphere, she is wronged, and has not her rights. John Todd.
The most beautiful object
in the world, it will be allowed, is a beautiful woman. Maucaulay.
Fair words gladden so many
a heart. Longfellow.
Pleasant words are as an
honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. Bible.
Words become luminous when
the poet's finger has passed over them its phosphorescence. Joubert.
Kind words are benedictions.
They are not only instruments of power, but of benevolence and courtesy;
blessings both to the speaker and hearer of them. Frederick Saunders.
Words are good, but they
are not the best. The best is not to be explained by words; the spirit
in which we act is the great matter. Goethe.
Gentle words, quiet words,
are after all, the most powerful words. They are more convincing, more
compelling, more prevailing. Washington Gladden.
Liquid, flowing words are
the choicest and the best, if language is regarded as music. Joubert.
Genuine work alone, what
thou workest faithfully, that is eternal as the Almighty Founder and World-Builder
Himself. Carlyle.
God is a worker. He has
thickly strewn infinity with grandeur. God is love. He yet shall wipe away
Creation's tears, and all the worlds shall summer in His smile. Why work
I not? The veriest mote that sports its one-day life within the sunny beam
has its stern duties. Alexander Smith.
This world is God's world,
after all. Charles Kingsley.
As the love of the heavens
makes us heavenly, the love of virtue virtuous, so doth the love of the
world make one become worldly. Sir P. Sidney.
Beauties that from worth
arise are like the grace of deities. Sir. J. Suckling.
Nature's chief masterpiece
is writing well. Buckingham.
The best style of writing,
as well as the most forcible, is the plainest. Horace Greeley.
To be young is surely the
best, if the most precarious, gift of life. Lowell.
Wise men, like wine, are
best when old; pretty women, like bread, are best when young. Haliburton.
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