Many Thoughts of Many Minds Part 10

When young, we trust ourselves too much, and we trust others too little when old. Rashness is the error of youth, timid caution of age.

Manhood is the isthmus between the two extremes; the ripe and fertile season of action, when alone we can hope to find the head to contrive, united with the hand to execute.--COLTON.

He who believes in n.o.body knows that he himself is not to be trusted.

--AUERBACH.

Trust not him that hath once broken faith.--SHAKESPEARE.

People have generally three epochs in their confidence in man. In the first they believe him to be everything that is good, and they are lavish with their friendship and confidence. In the next, they have had experience, which has smitten down their confidence, and they then have to be careful not to mistrust every one, and to put the worst construction upon everything. Later in life, they learn that the greater number of men have much more good in them than bad, and that even when there is cause to blame, there is more reason to pity than condemn; and then a spirit of confidence again awakens within them.

--FREDRIKA BREMER.

Trust him little who praises all, him less who censures all, and him least who is indifferent about all.--LAVATER.

CONSCIENCE.--Conscience is a clock which, in one man, strikes aloud and gives warning; in another, the hand points silently to the figure, but strikes not. Meantime, hours pa.s.s away, and death hastens, and after death comes judgment.--JEREMY TAYLOR.

Oh! Conscience! Conscience! Man's most faithful friend, Him canst thou comfort, ease, relieve, defend: But if he will thy friendly checks forego, Thou art, oh! wo for me, his deadliest foe!

--CRABBE.

In the commission of evil, fear no man so much as thyself; another is but one witness against thee, thou art a thousand; another thou mayest avoid, thyself thou canst not. Wickedness is its own punishment.

--QUARLES.

A good conscience is a continual Christmas.--FRANKLIN.

Be mine that silent calm repast, A conscience cheerful to the last: That tree which bears immortal fruit, Without a canker at the root; That friend which never fails the just, When other friends desert their trust.

--DR. COTTON.

No man ever offended his own conscience, but first or last it was revenged upon him for it.--SOUTH.

He that loses his conscience has nothing left that is worth keeping.

Therefore be sure you look to that, and in the next place look to your health; and if you have it praise G.o.d and value it next to a good conscience.--IZAAK WALTON.

Our secret thoughts are rarely heard except in secret. No man knows what conscience is until he understands what solitude can teach him concerning it.--JOSEPH COOK.

A man never outlives his conscience, and that, for this cause only, he cannot outlive himself.--SOUTH.

Rules of society are nothing, one's conscience is the umpire.--MADAME DUDEVANT.

A man, so to speak, who is not able to bow to his own conscience every morning is hardly in a condition to respectfully salute the world at any other time of the day.--DOUGLAS JERROLD.

In matters of conscience first thoughts are best; in matters of prudence last thoughts are best--REV. ROBERT HALL.

A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next, to escape the censures of the world. If the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applause of the public.--ADDISON.

Conscience raises its voice in the breast of every man, a witness for his Creator.

We should have all our communications with men, as in the presence of G.o.d; and with G.o.d, as in the presence of men.--COLTON.

I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, self.--LUTHER.

The most reckless sinner against his own conscience has always in the background the consolation that he will go on in this course only this time, or only so long, but that at such a time he will amend. We may be a.s.sured that we do not stand clear with our own consciences so long as we determine or project, or even hold it possible, at some future time to alter our course of action.--FICHTE.

There is one court whose "findings" are incontrovertible, and whose sessions are held in the chambers of our own breast.--HOSEA BALLOU.

Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience in everything.

--STERNE.

He that hath a blind conscience which sees nothing, a dead conscience which feels nothing, and a dumb conscience which says nothing, is in as miserable a condition as a man can be on this side of h.e.l.l.

--PATRICK HENRY.

Conscience is its own readiest accuser.--CHAPIN.

If thou wouldst be informed what G.o.d has written concerning thee in Heaven look into thine own bosom, and see what graces He hath there wrought in thee.--FULLER.

Yet still there whispers the small voice within, Heard thro' gain's silence, and o'er glory's din; Whatever creed be taught or land be trod, Man's conscience is the oracle of G.o.d!

--BYRON.

The world will never be in any manner of order or tranquillity until men are firmly convinced that conscience, honor and credit are all in one interest; and that without the concurrence of the former the latter are but impositions upon ourselves and others.--STEELE.

CONTENTMENT.--To secure a contented spirit, measure your desires by your fortune, and not your fortune by your desires.--JEREMY TAYLOR.

I press to bear no haughty sway; I wish no more than may suffice: I do no more than well I may, Look what I lack, my mind supplies; Lo, thus I triumph like a king, My mind's content with anything.

--BYRD.

Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.--CONDORCET.

To be content with little is difficult; to be content with much, impossible.--MARIE EBNER-ESCHENBACH.

My G.o.d, give me neither poverty nor riches; but whatsoever it may be Thy will to give, give me with it a heart which knows humbly to acquiesce in what is Thy will.--GOTTHOLD.

One who is contented with what he has done will never become famous for what he will do. He has lain down to die. The gra.s.s is already growing over him.--BOVEE.

Contentment is a pearl of great price, and whoever procures it at the expense of ten thousand desires makes a wise and a happy purchase.--BALGUY.

If men knew what felicity dwells in the cottage of a G.o.dly man, how sound he sleeps, how quiet his rest, how composed his mind, how free from care, how easy his position, how moist his mouth, how joyful his heart, they would never admire the noises, the diseases, the throngs of pa.s.sions, and the violence of unnatural appet.i.tes that fill the house of the luxurious and the heart of the ambitious.--JEREMY TAYLOR.

He is richest who is content with the least; for content is the wealth of nature.--SOCRATES.

Poor and content, is rich and rich enough; But riches, fineless, is as poor as winter, To him that ever fears he shall be poor.

--SHAKESPEARE.

Learn to be pleased with everything, with wealth so far as it makes us beneficial to others; with poverty, for not having much to care for; and with obscurity, for being unenvied.--PLUTARCH.

It is right to be contented with what we have, but never with what we are.--SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.

Without content, we shall find it almost as difficult to please others as ourselves.--GREVILLE.

True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.--COLTON.