Many Thoughts of Many Minds Part 53

Those who in quarrel interpose, Must often wipe a b.l.o.o.d.y nose.

--GAY.

Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just; And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.

--SHAKESPEARE.

READING.--Resolve to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence. If you gain fifteen minutes a day, it will make itself felt at the end of the year.--HORACE MANN.

We never read without profit if with the pen or pencil in our hand we mark such ideas as strike us by their novelty, or correct those we already possess.--ZIMMERMANN.

When what you read elevates your mind and fills you with n.o.ble aspirations, look for no other rule by which to judge a book; it is good, and is the work of a master-hand.--LA BRUYeRE.

When in reading we meet with any maxim that may be of use, we should take it for our own, and make an immediate application of it, as we would of the advice of a friend whom we have purposely consulted.

--COLTON.

We should accustom the mind to keep the best company by introducing it only to the best books.--SYDNEY SMITH.

If I were to pray for a taste which should stand me in stead under every variety of circ.u.mstances, and be a source of happiness and cheerfulness to me through life, and a shield against its ills, however things might go amiss, and the world frown upon me, it would be a taste for reading.--SIR JOHN HERSCHEL.

Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.... Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.--BACON.

Nothing, in truth, has such a tendency to weaken not only the powers of invention, but the intellectual powers in general, as a habit of extensive and various reading without reflection.--DUGALD STEWART.

Mr. Johnson had never, by his own account, been a close student, and used to advise young people never to be without a book in their pocket, to be read at bye-times, when they had nothing else to do. "It has been by that means," said he to a boy at our house one day, "that all my knowledge has been gained, except what I have picked up by running about the world with my wits ready to observe, and my tongue ready to talk."--MRS. PIOZZI.

Reading without purpose is sauntering, not exercise. More is got from one book on which the thought settles for a definite end in knowledge, than from libraries skimmed over by a wandering eye. A cottage flower gives honey to the bee, a king's garden none to the b.u.t.terfly.--LYTTON.

Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.--COLLECT.

Much reading is like much eating,--wholly useless without digestion.

--SOUTH.

REASON.--Reason is the glory of human nature, and one of the chief eminences whereby we are raised above the beasts, in this lower world.--DR. WATTS.

Let our reason, and not our senses, be the rule of our conduct; for reason will teach us to think wisely, to speak prudently, and to behave worthily.--CONFUCIUS.

Though reason is not to be relied upon as universally sufficient to direct us what to do, yet it is generally to be relied upon and obeyed where it tells us what we are not to do.--SOUTH.

He that will not reason is a bigot, he that cannot reason is a fool, and he that dares not reason is a slave.--SIR W. DRUMMOND.

Wise men are instructed by reason; men of less understanding, by experience; the most ignorant, by necessity; and beasts, by nature.--CICERO.

When a man has not a good reason for doing a thing, he has one good reason for letting it alone.--WALTER SCOTT.

One can never repeat too often, that reason, as it exists in man, is only our intellectual eye, and that, like the eye, to see, it needs light,--to see clearly and far, it needs the light of Heaven.

The language of reason, unaccompanied by kindness, will often fail of making an impression; it has no effect on the understanding, because it touches not the heart. The language of kindness, una.s.sociated with reason, will frequently be unable to persuade; because, though it may gain upon the affections, it wants that which is necessary to convince the judgment. But let reason and kindness be united in a discourse, and seldom will even pride or prejudice find it easy to resist.

--GISBORNE.

Good reasons must, of force, give place to better.--SHAKESPEARE.

There is a just Latin axiom, that he who seeks a reason for everything subverts reason.--EPES SARGENT.

REBUKE.--In all reprehensions, observe to express rather thy love than thy anger; and strive rather to convince than exasperate: but if the matter do require any special indignation, let it appear to be the zeal of a displeased friend, rather than the pa.s.sion of a provoked enemy.--FULLER.

RECONCILIATION.--Wherein is it possible for us, wicked and impious creatures, to be justified, except in the only Son of G.o.d? O sweet reconciliation! O untraceable ministry! O unlooked-for blessing! that the wickedness of many should be hidden in one G.o.dly and righteous man, and the righteousness of one justify a host of sinners!--JUSTIN MARTYR.

G.o.d pardons like a mother who kisses the offence into everlasting forgetfulness.--BEECHER.

As thro' the land at eve we went, And pluck'd the ripen'd ears, We fell out, my wife and I, We fell out I know not why, And kiss'd again with tears.

And blessings on the falling out That all the more endears, When we fall out with those we love And kiss again with tears!

For when we came where lies the child We lost in other years, There above the little grave, Oh, there above the little grave, We kiss'd again with tears.

--TENNYSON.

Oh, my dear friends,--you who are letting miserable misunderstandings run on from year to year, meaning to clear them up some day,--if you only could know and see and feel that the time is short, how it would break the spell! How you would go instantly and do the thing which you might never have another chance to do!--PHILLIPS BROOKS.

REFINEMENT.--Refinement is the delicate aroma of Christianity.

--CHARLOTTE M. YONGE.

That alone can be called true refinement which elevates the soul of man, purifying the manners by improving the intellect.--HOSEA BALLOU.

Refinement that carries us away from our fellow-men is not G.o.d's refinement.--BEECHER.

If refined sense, and exalted sense, be not so useful as common sense, their rarity, their novelty, and the n.o.bleness of their objects, make some compensation, and render them the admiration of mankind.--HUME.

Far better, and more cheerfully, I could dispense with some part of the downright necessaries of life, than with certain circ.u.mstances of elegance and propriety in the daily habits of using them.--DE QUINCEY.

REFORM.--He who reforms himself, has done more toward reforming the public, than a crowd of noisy, impotent patriots.--LAVATER.

He that has energy enough in his const.i.tution to root out a vice should go a little further, and try to plant a virtue in its place; otherwise he will have his labor to renew. A strong soil that has produced weeds may be made to produce wheat with far less difficulty than it would cost to make it produce nothing.--COLTON.

Time yet serves, wherein you may redeem your tarnished honors, and restore yourselves into the good thoughts of the world again.

--SHAKESPEARE.

Each year one vicious habit rooted out, in time might make the worst man good.--FRANKLIN.

Reform, like charity, must begin at home.--CARLYLE.

Whatever you dislike in another person take care to correct in yourself.--SPRAT.

He who reforms, G.o.d a.s.sists.--CERVANTES.