Many Thoughts of Many Minds Part 46

Even in social life, it is persistency which attracts confidence, more than talents and accomplishments.--WHIPPLE.

A falling drop at last will carve a stone.--LUCRETIUS.

Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt; Nothing so hard but search will find it out.

--LOVELACE.

It is interesting to notice how some minds seem almost to create themselves, springing up under every disadvantage, and working their solitary but irresistible way through a thousand obstacles.

--WASHINGTON IRVING.

Press on! a better fate awaits thee.--VICTOR HUGO.

PHILOSOPHY.--True philosophy is 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.

Philosophy abounds more than philosophers, and learning more than learned men.--W.B. CLULOW.

The road to true philosophy is precisely the same with that which leads to true religion; and from both the one and the other, unless we would enter in as little children, we must expect to be totally excluded.--BACON.

Philosophy is the art and law of life, and it teaches us what to do in all cases, and, like good marksmen, to hit the white at any distance.

--SENECA.

A little philosophy inclineth men's minds to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds to religion.--BACON.

Whence? whither? why? how?--these questions cover all philosophy.

--JOUBERT.

PHYSIOGNOMY.--Children are marvelously and intuitively correct physiognomists. The youngest of them exhibit this trait.--BARTOL.

As the language of the face is universal, so 'tis very comprehensive; no laconism can reach it; 'tis the short-hand of the mind, and crowds a great deal in a little room.--JEREMY COLLIER.

Spite of Lavater, faces are oftentimes great lies. They are the paper money of society, for which, on demand, there frequently proves to be no gold in the human coffer.--F.G. TRAFFORD.

The scope of an intellect is not to be measured with a tape-string, or a character deciphered from the shape or length of a nose.--BOVEE.

People's opinions of themselves are legible in their countenances.

--JEREMY COLLIER.

PIETY.--True piety hath in it nothing weak, nothing sad, nothing constrained. It enlarges the heart; it is simple, free, and attractive.

--FeNELON.

We may learn by practice such things upon earth as shall be of use to us in heaven. Piety, unostentatious piety, is never out of place.

--CHAPIN.

Piety does not mean that a man should make a sour face about things, and refuse to enjoy in moderation what his Maker has given.--CARLYLE.

Piety raises and fortifies the mind for trying occasions and painful events. When our country is threatened by dangers and pressed by difficulties who are the best bulwarks of its defence? Not the sons of dissipation and folly, not the smooth-tongued sycophants of a court, nor sceptics and blasphemers, from the school of infidelity; but the man whose moral conduct is animated and sustained by the doctrines and consolations of religion. Happy is that country where patriotism is sustained and sanctified by piety; where authority respects and guards freedom, and freedom reveres and loves legitimate authority; where truth and mercy meet together, righteousness and peace embrace each other.--TON.

It is impossible for the mind which is not totally dest.i.tute of piety, to behold the sublime, the awful, the amazing works of creation and providence; the heavens with their luminaries, the mountains, the ocean, the storm, the earthquake, and the volcano; the circuit of the seasons and the revolutions of empires; without marking in them all the mighty hand of G.o.d, and feeling strong emotions of reverence toward the Author of these stupendous works.--DWIGHT.

John Wesley quaintly observed that the road to heaven is a narrow path, not intended for wheels, and that to ride in a coach here and to go to heaven hereafter, was a happiness too much for man.--BEECHER.

We are surrounded by motives to piety and devotion, if we would but mind them. The poor are designed to excite our liberality; the miserable, our pity; the sick, our a.s.sistance; the ignorant, our instruction; those that are fallen, our helping hand. In those who are vain, we see the vanity of the world; in those who are wicked, our own frailty. When we see good men rewarded, it confirms our hope; and when evil men are punished, it excites our fear.--BISHOP WILSON.

PITY.--Pity, though it may often relieve, is but, at best, a short-lived pa.s.sion, and seldom affords distress more than transitory a.s.sistance; with some it scarce lasts from the first impulse till the hand can be put into the pocket.--GOLDSMITH.

We pity in others only those evils which we have ourselves experienced.

--ROUSSEAU.

No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.--SHAKESPEARE.

Pity and forbearance, and long-sufferance and fair interpretation, and excusing our brother, and taking in the best sense, and pa.s.sing the gentlest sentence, are as certainly our duty, and owing to every person that does offend and can repent, as calling to account can be owing to the law, and are first to be paid; and he that does not so is an unjust person.--JEREMY TAYLOR.

O, brother man! fold to thy heart thy brother, where pity dwells, the peace of G.o.d is there.--WHITTIER.

The world is full of love and pity. Had there been less suffering, there would have been less kindness.--THACKERAY.

Pity melts the mind to love.--DRYDEN.

PLEASURE.--Would you judge of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of pleasures, take this rule:--Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of G.o.d, or takes off the relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.--SOUTHEY.

Let not the enjoyment of pleasures now within your grasp be carried to such excess as to incapacitate you from future repet.i.tion.--SENECA.

The inward pleasure of imparting pleasure--that is the choicest of all.--HAWTHORNE.

He who can at all times sacrifice pleasure to duty approaches sublimity.--LAVATER.

The end of pleasure is to support the offices of life, to relieve the fatigues of business, to reward a regular action, and to encourage the continuance.--JEREMY COLLIER.

Choose such pleasures as recreate much and cost little.--FULLER.

The pleasures of the world are deceitful; they promise more than they give. They trouble us in seeking them, they do not satisfy us when possessing them, and they make us despair in losing them.--MADAME DE LAMBERT.

When the idea of any pleasure strikes your imagination, make a just computation between the duration of the pleasure and that of the repentance that is likely to follow it.--EPICTETUS.

The seeds of repentance are sown in youth by pleasure, but the harvest is reaped in age by pain.--COLTON.

Pleasure's the only n.o.ble end To which all human powers should tend; And virtue gives her heavenly lore, But to make pleasure please us more!

Wisdom and she were both design'd To make the senses more refined, That man might revel free from cloying, Then most a sage, when most enjoying!

--MOORE.

Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood, Our greatest evil, or our greatest good.

--POPE.

People should be guarded against temptation to unlawful pleasures by furnishing them the means of innocent ones. In every community there must be pleasures, relaxations, and means of agreeable excitement; and if innocent are not furnished, resort will be had to criminal. Man was made to enjoy as well as labor, and the state of society should be adapted to this principle of human nature.--CHANNING.