| My dear Readers: | | | | in this world is like a walk under a row of trees, |
| Many years ago I read a book, FORTY THOUSAND | | | | checkered with light and shade; and because we |
| QUOTATIONS, Prose and Poetical; Compiled by | | | | cannot all along walk in the sunshine, we therefore |
| Charles Noel Douglas, 1940, Blue Ribbon Books, 14 | | | | perversely fix only upon the darker passages, and so |
| West 49th Street, New York, N.Y.(Halcyon House: | | | | lose all the comfort of our comforts. We are like |
| New York). As I read the book I typed the ones | | | | froward children who, if you take away one of their |
| that touched my mind and heart, and I have gone | | | | playthings from them, throw away all the rest in |
| back to these through the years for new inspiration. | | | | spite. Bishop Hopkins. |
| I would like to share these with you, along with | | | | *Oh, when we are journeying through the murky |
| comments I made on some of them (in | | | | night and the dark woods of affliction and sorrow, it |
| parentheses). | | | | is something to find here and there a spray broken, |
| *Who does the best his circumstances allows, Does | | | | or a leafy stem bent down with the tread of His |
| well, acts nobly; angels could do no more. Young. | | | | foot, and the brush of His hand as He passed; and to |
| (Mk.14:8.) | | | | remember that the path He trod He has hallowed, |
| *Too much is vanity; enough is a feast. Quarles. | | | | and thus to find lingering fragrance and hidden |
| (Moderation.) | | | | strength in the remembrance of Him as "in all points |
| *Abundance changes the value of things. Terence. | | | | tempted like as we are," bearing grief for us, bearing |
| *Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes | | | | grief with us, bearing grief like us. Alexander Maclaren. |
| our abundance. J. Petit-Senn. | | | | *Age either transfigures or petrifies. Marie |
| *Great abundance of riches cannot be gathered and | | | | Ebner-Eschenbach. |
| kept by any man without sin. Erasmus. | | | | *Have a care lest the wrinkles in the face extend to |
| *Remember that it is not he who gives abuse or | | | | the heart. Marguerite de Valois. |
| blows who affronts, but the view we take of these | | | | *I love everything that's old,--old friends, old times, |
| things as insulting. When, therefore, anyone provokes | | | | old manners, old books, old wine. Goldsmith. |
| you, be assured that it is your own opinion which | | | | *Forty is the old age of youth; fifty is the youth of |
| provokes you. Epictetus. | | | | old age. Victor Hugo. |
| *There are no accidents so unfortunate from which | | | | *Gray hairs seem to my fancy like the light of a soft |
| skillful men will not draw some advantage, nor so | | | | moon, silvering over the evening of life. Richter. |
| fortunate that foolish men will not turn them to their | | | | *Time has laid his hand upon my heart gently, not |
| hurt. La Rochefoucauld. | | | | smiting it; but as a harper lays his open palm upon his |
| *Moral conduct includes every thing in which men are | | | | harp, to deaden its vibrations. Longfellow. |
| active and for which they are accountable. They are | | | | *There is a vast deal of vital air in loving words. |
| active in their desires, their intentions, and in every | | | | Landor. |
| thing they say and do of choice; and for all these | | | | *The surest sign of age is loneliness. While one finds |
| things they are accountable to God. Emmons. | | | | company in himself and his pursuits, he cannot be old, |
| *We cannot do all things. Virgil. | | | | whatever his years may be. Alcott. |
| *Activity is the presence of function, - character is | | | | *The farmers are the founders of civilization. Daniel |
| the record of function. Greenough. | | | | Webster. |
| *Remember that in all miseries lamenting becomes | | | | *The divine chemistry works in the subsoil. |
| fools, and action wise folk. Sir P. Sidney. | | | | Hawthorne. |
| *Speak out in acts; the time for words has passed, | | | | *The sun, which ripens the corn and fills the succulent |
| and deeds alone suffice. Whittier. | | | | herb with nutriment, also pencils with beauty the |
| *'Tis human actions paint the chart of time. | | | | violet and the rose. J.C. Abbott. |
| Montgomery. | | | | *God Almighty first planted a garden; and indeed it is |
| *A great mind is a good sailor, as a great heart is. | | | | the purest of human pleasures; it is the greatest |
| Emerson. | | | | refreshment to the spirits of man. Bacon. |
| *Act well at the moment, and you have performed a | | | | *Nothing presents a more mournful aspect than a |
| good action to all eternity. Lavater. | | | | family divided by anger and animosity. Zachokke. |
| *I have always thought the actions of men the best | | | | *They are never alone that are accompanied with |
| interpreters of their thoughts. Locke. | | | | noble thoughts. Sir Philip Sydney. |
| *Deliberate with caution, but act with decision; and | | | | *Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals; we |
| yield with graciousness, or oppose with firmness. | | | | storm heaven itself with our folly. Horace. |
| Colton. | | | | *Remarkable places are like the summits of rocks; |
| *Our grand business undoubtedly is, not to see what | | | | eagles and reptiles only can get there. Madame |
| lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at | | | | Necker. |
| hand. Carlyle. | | | | *Most people would succeed in small things if they |
| *I have lived to know that the secret of happiness is | | | | were not troubled with great ambition. Longfellow. |
| never to allow your energies to stagnate. Adam | | | | *The tallest trees are most in the power of the |
| Clarke. | | | | winds, and ambitious men of the blasts of fortune. |
| *Every action of our lives touches on some chord | | | | William Penn. |
| that will vibrate in eternity. Chapin. | | | | *To be ambitious of true honor, of the true glory |
| *To live is not merely to breathe: it is to act; it is to | | | | and perfection of our natures, is the very principle |
| make use of our organs, senses, faculties,--of all | | | | and incentive of virtue; but to be ambitious of titles, |
| those parts of ourselves which give us the feeling of | | | | of place, of ceremonial respects and civil pageantry, |
| existence. Rousseau. | | | | is as vain and little as the things are which we court. |
| *It is not to taste sweet things, but to do noble and | | | | Sir P. Sidney. |
| true things, and vindicate himself under God's heaven | | | | *A noble man compares and estimates himself by an |
| as a God made man, that the poorest son of Adam | | | | idea which is higher than himself, and a mean man by |
| dimly longs. Show him the way of doing that, the | | | | one which is lower than himself. The one produces |
| dullest day-drudge kindles into a hero. Carlyle. | | | | aspiration; the other, ambition. Ambition is the way in |
| *It is good policy to strike while the iron is hot; it is | | | | which a vulgar man aspires. Beecher. |
| still better to adopt Cromwell's procedure, and make | | | | *There is no greater unreasonableness in the world |
| the iron hot by striking. The master-spirit who can | | | | than in the designs of ambition; for it makes the |
| rule the storm is great, but he is much greater who | | | | present troublesome, and discontented, for the |
| can both raise and rule it. E.L. Magoon. (Action first, | | | | uncertain acquisition of an honor which nothing can |
| then feeling follows!) | | | | secure;and, besides a thousand possibilities of |
| *All the means of action--the shapeless masses, the | | | | miscarrying, it relies upon no greater certainty than |
| materials--lie everywhere about us; what we need is | | | | our life; and when we are dead all the world sees |
| the celestial fire to change the flint into transparent | | | | who was the fool. Jeremy Taylor. |
| crystal, bright and clear. Longfellow. (Creativity, Divine | | | | *The origin of all mankind was the same; it is only a |
| spark, Holy Spirit. "Fan into flame the gift of God." 2 | | | | clear and good conscience that makes a man noble, |
| Tim. 1:6b NIV.) | | | | for that is derived from heaven itself. Seneca. |
| *Time's best gift to us is serenity. Bovee. | | | | *No man is nobler born than another, unless he is |
| *Better that we should err in action than wholly | | | | born with better abilities and a more amiable |
| refuse to perform. The storm is so much better than | | | | disposition. They who make such a parade with their |
| the calm, as it declares the presence of a living | | | | family pictures and pedigrees, are, properly speaking, |
| principle. Stagnation is something worse than death. It | | | | rather to be called noted or notorious than noble |
| is corruption also. Simms. | | | | persons. I thought it right to say this much, in order |
| *No one knows what he is doing while he is acting | | | | to repel the insolence of men who depend entirely |
| rightly, but of what is wrong we are always | | | | upon chance and accidental circumstances for |
| conscious. Goethe. | | | | distinction, and not at all on public services and |
| *Newton's great generalization, which he called the | | | | personal merit. Seneca. |
| "third law of motion," was that "Action and reaction | | | | *Men in rage strike those that wish them best. |
| are always equal to each other;" and that law has | | | | Shakespeare. |
| been one of the most pregnant of all truths about | | | | *People hardly ever do anything in anger, of which |
| the mystery of Force,--one of the brightest windows | | | | they do not repent. Richardson. |
| through which modern eyes have looked into the | | | | *Violence in the voice is often only the death-rattle |
| world of Nature. Phillips Brooks. | | | | of reason in the throat. J.F. Boyes. |
| *That action is not warrantable which either blushes | | | | *Anger is not only the prevailing sin of argument, but |
| to beg a blessing, or, having succeeded, dares not | | | | its greatest stumbling-block. Gladstone. |
| present a thanksgiving. Quarles. | | | | *A man deep-wounded may feel too much pain to |
| *Amid the most mercenary ages it is but a | | | | feel much anger. George Eliot. |
| secondary sort of admiration that is bestowed upon | | | | *Anger ventilated often hurries towards forgiveness; |
| magnificence. Shenstone. (We might ask who are our | | | | anger concealed often hardens into revenge. |
| heroes!) | | | | Bulwer-Lytton. |
| *That which astonishes, astonishes once; but | | | | *In the same degree in which a man's mind is nearer |
| whatever is admirable becomes more and more | | | | to freedom from all passion, in the same degree also |
| admirable. Joubert. | | | | is it nearer to strength. Marcus Antonius. |
| *To cultivate sympathy you must be among living | | | | *Anger wishes all mankind had only one neck; love, |
| creatures, and thinking about them; and to cultivate | | | | that it had only one heart; grief, two tear-garlands; |
| admiration, you must be among beautiful things and | | | | pride, two bent knees. Richter. |
| looking at them. Ruskin. | | | | *Those passionate persons who carry their heart in |
| *If I were but sure that I should live to see the | | | | their mouth are rather to be pitied than feared; their |
| coming of the Lord, it would be the joyfulest tidings | | | | threatenings serving no other purpose than to |
| in the world. O that I might see His kingdom come! It | | | | forearm him that is threatened. Fuller. |
| is the characteristic of His saints to love His | | | | *Anger blows out the lamp of the mind. In the |
| appearing, and to look for that blessed hope. `The | | | | examination of a great and important question, every |
| Spirit and the bride say, Come.' "Even so, come, Lord | | | | one should be serene, slow-pulsed, and calm. R.G. |
| Jesus." Richard Baxter. | | | | Ingersoll. |
| *God brings men into deep waters, not to drown | | | | *Angry and choleric men are as ungrateful and |
| them, but to cleanse them. Aughey. | | | | unsociable as thunder and lightening, being in |
| *Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortunes; | | | | themselves all storm and tempest; but quiet and |
| but great minds rise above them. Washington Irving. | | | | easy natures are like fair weather, welcome to all. |
| *The brightest crowns that are worn in heaven have | | | | Clarendon. |
| been tried and smelted and polished and glorified | | | | *If a man meets with injustice, it is not required that |
| through the furnace of tribulation. Chapin. | | | | he shall not be roused to meet it; but if he is angry |
| *Our dependence upon God ought to be so entire | | | | after he has had time to think upon it, that is sinful. |
| and absolute that we should never think it necessary, | | | | The flame is not wrong, but the coals are. Beecher. |
| in any kind of distress, to have recourse to human | | | | *In proportion as our cares are employed upon the |
| consolations. Thomas a Kempis. | | | | future, they are abstracted from the present, from |
| *Must not earth be rent before her gems are found? | | | | the only time which we can call our own, and of |
| Mrs. Hemans. | | | | which, if we neglect the apparent duties to make |
| *Men think God is destroying them because he is | | | | provision against visionary attacks, we shall certainly |
| tuning them. The violinist screws up the key till the | | | | counteract our own purpose. Dr. Johnson. |
| tense chord sounds the concert pitch; but it is not to | | | | *Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote. |
| break it, but to use it tunefully, that he stretches the | | | | Chesterfield. |
| string upon the musical rack. Beecher. | | | | *Can your solicitude alter the cause or unravel the |
| *Storms purify the atmosphere. Beecher. | | | | intricacy of human events? Blair. |
| *Times of great calamity and confusion have ever | | | | *Anxiety has no place in the life of one of God's |
| been productive of the greatest minds. The purest | | | | children. Christ's serenity was one of the most |
| ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the | | | | unmistakable signs of His filial trust. He was tired and |
| brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest | | | | hungry and thirsty and in pain; but we cannot imagine |
| storm. Colton. | | | | Him anxious or fretful. Maltbie Babcock. |
| *Begin nothing without considering what the end may | | | | *Collect as pearls the words of the wise and |
| be. Lady M.W. Montague. | | | | virtuous. Abd-el-Kader. |
| *It has been well observed that few are better | | | | *The little and short sayings of nice and excellent |
| qualified to give others advice than those who have | | | | men are of great value, like the dust of gold, or the |
| taken the least of it themselves. Goldsmith. | | | | least spark of diamonds. Tillotson. |
| *Harsh counsels have no effect; they are like | | | | *A maxim is the exact and noble expression of an |
| hammers which are always repulsed by the anvil. | | | | important and indisputable truth. Sound maxims are |
| Helvetius. | | | | the germs of good; strongly imprinted in the |
| *A man takes contradiction and advice much more | | | | memory, they nourish the will. Joubert. |
| easily than people think, only he will not bear it when | | | | *He may justly be numbered among the benefactors |
| violently given, even though it be well founded. | | | | of mankind who contracts the great rules of life into |
| Hearts are flowers; they remain open to the softly | | | | short sentences, that may be easily impressed on |
| falling dew, but shut up in the violent downpour of | | | | the memory, and taught by frequent recollection to |
| rain. Richter. | | | | recur habitually to the mind. Johnson. |
| *No one was ever the better for advice: in general, | | | | *A few words worthy to be remembered suffice to |
| what we called giving advice was properly taking an | | | | give an idea of a great mind. There are single |
| occasion to show our own wisdom at another's | | | | thoughts that contain the essence of a whole |
| expense; and to receive advice was little better than | | | | volume, single sentences that have the beauties of a |
| tamely to afford another the occasion of raising | | | | large work, a simplicity so finished and so perfect |
| himself a character from our defects. Lord | | | | that it equals in merit and in excellence a large and |
| Shaftesbury. | | | | glorious composition. Joubert. |
| *Love is strong in its passion; affection is powerful in | | | | *Polished brass will pass upon more people than |
| its gentleness. Michelet. | | | | rough gold. Chesterfield. |
| *I may not to the world impart/The secret of its | | | | *If you are surprised at the number of our maladies, |
| power,/But treasured in my inmost heart/I keep my | | | | count our cooks. Seneca. |
| faded flower. Ellen C. Howarth. | | | | *Choose rather to punish your appetites than to be |
| *Caresses, expressions of one sort or another, are | | | | punished by them. Tyrius Maximus. |
| necessary to the life of the affections as leaves are | | | | *All philosophy in two words,--sustain and abstain. |
| to the life of a tree. If they are wholly restrained | | | | Epictetus. |
| love will die at the roots. Hawthorne. | | | | *Hunger is a cloud out of which falls a rain of |
| *Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions. | | | | eloquence and knowledge; when the belly is empty, |
| Matthew Henry. | | | | the body becomes spirit; when it is full, the spirit |
| *Patience cannot remove, but it can always dignify | | | | becomes body. Saadi. |
| and alleviate, misfortune. Laurence Sterne. | | | | *When the million applaud you, seriously ask yourself |
| *The loss of a beloved connection awakens an | | | | what harm you have done; when they censure you, |
| interest in heaven before unfelt. Bovee. | | | | what good! Colton. |
| *The eternal stars shine out as soon as it is dark | | | | *The silence that accepts merit as the most natural |
| enough. Carlyle. | | | | thing in the world, is the highest applause. Emerson. |
| *Grace will ever speak for itself and be fruitful in | | | | *It is only by loving a thing that you can make it |
| well-doing; the sanctified cross is a fruitful tree. | | | | yours. George Macdonald. |
| Rutherford. | | | | *To appreciate the noble is a gain which can never |
| *Affliction of itself does not sanctify anybody, but | | | | be torn from us. Goethe. |
| the reverse. I believe in sanctified afflictions, but not | | | | *You may fail to shine, in the opinion of others, both |
| in sanctifying afflictions. C.H. Spurgeon. | | | | in your conversation and actions, from being superior, |
| *When God makes the world too hot for His people | | | | as well as inferior to them. Greville. |
| to hold, they will let it go. T. Powell. | | | | *It is with certain good qualities as with the senses; |
| *...There is no Gethsemane without its angel! Rev. T. | | | | those who are entirely deprived of them can neither |
| Binney. | | | | appreciate nor comprehend them. Rochefoucauld. |
| *The damps of autumn sink into the leaves and | | | | *We are accustomed to see men deride what they |
| prepare them for the necessity of their fall; and thus | | | | do not understand; and snarl at the good and |
| insensibly are we, as years close around us, detached | | | | beautiful because it lies beyond their sympathies. |
| from our tenacity of life by the gentle pressure of | | | | Goethe. |
| recorded sorrow. W.S. Landor. | | | | *We must never undervalue any person. The |
| *As the most generous vine, if it is not pruned, runs | | | | workman loves not that his work should be despised |
| out into many superfluous stems, and grows at last | | | | in his presence. Now God is present everywhere, and |
| weak and fruitless; so doth the best man, if he be | | | | every person is His work. De Sales. |
| not cut short of his desires and pruned with | | | | *The more enlarged is our own mind, the greater |
| afflictions. If it be painful to bleed, it is worse to | | | | number we discover of men of originality. Your |
| wither. Let me be pruned, that I may grow, rather | | | | common-place people see no difference between |
| than be cut up to burn. Bishop Hall. | | | | one man and another. Pascal. |
| *The cloud which appeared to the prophet Ezekiel | | | | *It is very singular how the fact of a man's death |
| carried with it winds and storms, but it was environed | | | | often seems to give people a truer idea of his |
| with a golden circle, to teach us that the storms of | | | | character, whether for good or evil, than they have |
| affliction, which happen to God's children, are | | | | ever possessed while he was living and acting among |
| encompassed with brightness and smiling felicity. N. | | | | them. Hawthorne. |
| Caussin. | | | | *To feel, to feel exquisitely, is the lot of very many; |
| *There is an elasticity in the human mind, capable of | | | | it is the charm that lends a superstitious joy to fear. |
| bearing much, but which will not show itself until a | | | | But to appreciate belongs to the very few; to one or |
| certain weight of affliction be put upon it; its powers | | | | two alone, here and there, the blended passion and |
| may be compared to those vehicles whose springs | | | | understanding that constitute in its essence worship. |
| are so contrived that they get on smoothly enough | | | | Elizabeth Sheppard. |
| when loaded, but jolt confoundedly when they have | | | | *Of what use is fortune or talent to a cold and |
| nothing to bear. Colton. | | | | defective nature? Emerson. |
| *The truth is, when we are under any affliction we | | | | *A Gothic church is a petrified religion. Coleridge. |
| are generally troubled with a malicious kind of | | | | *The poetry of bricks and mortar. Horace Greeley. |
| melancholy; we only dwell and pore upon the sad and | | | | *The architect built his great heart into those |
| dark occurrences of Providence, but never take | | | | sculptured stones. Longfellow. |
| notice of the more benign and bright ones. Our way | | | | |