Many Thoughts of Many Minds Part 7

Few people do business well who do nothing else.--CHESTERFIELD.

To men addicted to delights, business is an interruption; to such as are cold to delights, business is an entertainment. For which reason it was said to one who commended a dull man for his application, "No thanks to him; if he had no business, he would have nothing to do."--STEELE.

CARE.--To carry care to bed is to sleep with a pack on your back.

--HALIBURTON.

Cast all your care on G.o.d: that anchor holds.--TENNYSON.

Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt, And every grin, so merry, draws one out.

--DR. WOLCOT.

He who climbs above the cares of this world, and turns his face to his G.o.d, has found the sunny side of life.--SPURGEON.

CAUTION.--It is a good thing to learn caution by the misfortunes of others.--PUBLIUS SYRUS.

Vessels large may venture more, But little boats should keep near sh.o.r.e.

--BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

Caution is the eldest child of wisdom.--VICTOR HUGO.

All is to be feared where all is to be lost.--BYRON.

CENSURE.--Few persons have sufficient wisdom to prefer censure which is useful to them to praise which deceives them.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.

To arrive at perfection, a man should have very sincere friends, or inveterate enemies; because he would be made sensible of his good or ill conduct either by the censures of the one or the admonitions of the others.--DIOGENES.

Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.--SWIFT.

The villain's censure is extorted praise.--POPE.

CHARACTER.--How wonderfully beautiful is the delineation of the characters of the three patriarchs in Genesis! To be sure if ever man could, without impropriety, be called, or supposed to be, "the friend of G.o.d," Abraham was that man. We are not surprised that Abimelech and Ephron seem to reverence him so profoundly. He was peaceful, because of his conscious relation to G.o.d.--S.T. COLERIDGE.

The great hope of society is individual character.--CHANNING.

A man is known to his dog by the smell, to his tailor by the coat, to his friend by the smile; each of these know him, but how little or how much depends on the dignity of the intelligence. That which is truly and indeed characteristic of the man is known only to G.o.d.--RUSKIN.

Never does a man portray his own character more vividly than in his manner of portraying another.--RICHTER.

There are beauties of character which, like the night-blooming cereus, are closed against the glare and turbulence of every-day life, and bloom only in shade and solitude, and beneath the quiet stars.--TUCKERMAN.

There are many persons of whom it may be said that they have no other possession in the world but their character, and yet they stand as firmly upon it as any crowned king.--SAMUEL SMILES.

The man that makes a character makes foes.--YOUNG.

He's truly valiant that can wisely suffer The worst that man can breathe; And make his wrongs his outsides, To wear them like his raiment, carelessly; And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart, To bring it into danger.

--SHAKESPEARE.

Every man has three characters--that which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has.--ALPHONSE KARR.

The best rules to form a young man are to talk little, to hear much, to reflect alone upon what has pa.s.sed in company, to distrust one's own opinions, and value others that deserve it.--SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE.

Brains and character rule the world. The most distinguished Frenchman of the last century said, "Men succeed less by their talents than their character." There were scores of men a hundred years ago who had more intellect than Washington. He outlives and overrides them all by the influence of his character.--WENDELL PHILLIPS.

All men are like in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ.--BOVEE.

You may depend upon it that he is a good man whose intimate friends are all good.--LAVATER.

Give me the character and I will forecast the event. Character, it has in substance been said, is "victory organized."--BOVEE.

A good character is in all cases the fruit of personal exertion. It is not inherited from parents, it is not created by external advantages, it is no necessary appendage of birth, wealth, talents, or station; but it is the result of one's own endeavors.--HAWES.

Actions, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell characters.--LAVATER.

CHARITY.--I have much more confidence in the charity which begins in the home and diverges into a large humanity, than in the world-wide philanthropy which begins at the outside of our horizon to converge into egotism.--MRS. JAMESON.

To complain that life has no joys while there is a single creature whom we can relieve by our bounty, a.s.sist by our counsels, or enliven by our presence, is to lament the loss of that which we possess, and is just as irrational as to die of thirst with the cup in our hands.--FITZOSBORNE.

But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.--MATTHEW 6:3.

The spirit of the world encloses four kinds of spirits, diametrically opposed to charity--the spirit of resentment, spirit of aversion, spirit of jealousy, and the spirit of indifference.--BOSSUET.

Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness, when bequeathed by those who, when alive, would part with nothing.--COLTON.

The drying up a single tear has more Of honest fame, than shedding seas of gore.

--BYRON.

Be charitable and indulgent to every one but yourself.--JOUBERT.

Almost all the virtues that can be named are enwrapt in one virtue of charity and love:--for "it suffereth long," and so it is longanimity; it "is kind," and so it is courtesy; it "vaunteth not itself," and so it is modesty; it "is not puffed up," and so it is humility; it "is not easily provoked," and so it is lenity; it "thinketh no evil," and so it is simplicity; it "rejoiceth in the truth," and so it is verity; it "beareth all things," and so it is fort.i.tude; it "believeth all things," and so it is faith; it "hopeth all things," and so it is confidence; it "endureth all things," and so it is patience; it "never faileth," and so it is perseverance.--CHILLINGWORTH.

As every lord giveth a certain livery to his servants, charity is the very livery of Christ. Our Saviour, who is the Lord above all lords, would have his servants known by their badge, which is love.--LATIMER.

You must have a genius for charity as well as for anything else.

--Th.o.r.eAU.

Prayer carries us half way to G.o.d, fasting brings us to the door of his palace, and alms-giving procures us admission.--KORAN.

Above all things have fervent charity among yourselves; for charity shall cover the mult.i.tude of sins.--1 PETER 4:8.

It is an old saying, that charity begins at home; but this is no reason it should not go abroad. A man should live with the world as a citizen of the world; he may have a preference for the particular quarter or square, or even alley, in which he lives, but he should have a generous feeling for the welfare of the whole.--c.u.mBERLAND.

Alas for the rarity of Christian charity under the sun!--HOOD.

You cannot separate charity and religion.--COLTON.