SaturdaySep 12, 2026
Quotes: 53419 Authors: 9969
A panic is a sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy, of our imagination.
The body of a sensualist is the coffin of a dead soul.
Sensitiveness is closely allied to egotism. Indeed, excessive sensitiveness is only another name for morbid self-consciousness. The cure for it is to make more of our objects, and less of ourselves.
Our first and last love is self-love.
We make way for the man who boldly pushes past us.
There is no tyrant like custom, and no freedom where its edicts are not resisted.
The method of the enterprising is to plan with audacity, and execute with vigor; to sketch out the map of possibilities; and then to treat them as probabilities.
Music is the fourth great material want of our natures, first food, then raiment, then shelter, then music.
It is the passion that is in a kiss that gives to it its sweetness; it is the affection in a kiss that sanctifies it.
Kindness a language which the dumb can speak, and the deaf can understand.
Next to God, we are indebted to women, first for life itself, and then for making it worth having.
Great warriors, like great earthquakes, are principally remembered for the mischief they have done.
A great thought is a great boon, for which God is to be first thanked, then he who is the first to utter it, and then in a lessor, but still in a considerable degree, the man who is the first to quote it to us.
Galileo called doubt the father of invention; it is certainly the pioneer.
Example has more followers than reason. We unconsciously imitate what pleases us, and approximate to the characters we most admire. A generous habit of thought and action carries with it an incalculable influence.
To cultivate a garden is to walk with God.
The legitimate aim of criticism is to direct attention to the excellent. The bad will dig its own grave, and the imperfect may safely be left to that final neglect from which no amount of present undeserved popularity can rescue it.
The small courtesies sweeten life; the greater ennoble it.
Discretion is the salt, and fancy the sugar of life; the one preserves, the other sweetens it.
Active natures are rarely melancholy. Activity and sadness are incompatible.
Genius makes its observations in short-hand; talent writes them out at length.
Few minds wear out; more rust out.
Fame - a few words upon a tombstone, and the truth of those not to be depended on.
Enthusiasm is the inspiration of everything great. Without it no man is to be feared, and with it none despised.
Dishonesty is a forsaking of permanent for temporary Advantages.
Courage enlarges, cowardice diminishes resources. In desperate straits the fears of the timid Aggravate the dangers that imperil the brave.
Can that which is the greatest virtue in philosophy, doubt, be in religion what the priests term it, the greatest of sins?
Good men have the fewest fears. He has but one great fear who fears to do wrong; he has a thousand who has overcome it.
All men are alike in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ.
False friends are like our shadow, keeping close to us while we walk in the sunshine, but leaving us the instant we cross into the shade.
A sound discretion is not so much indicated by never making a mistake as by never repeating it.
A panic is sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy of our imagination.
A failure establishes only this, that our determination to succeed was not strong enough.
A book should be luminous, but not voluminous.
When all else is lost, the future still remains.
Doubt is the opposite of belief.
An eager pursuit of fortune is inconsistent with a severe devotion to truth. The heart must grow tranquil before the thought can become searching.
The sweetest pleasure is in imparting it.
Truth, like the sun, submits to be obscured; But like the sun, only for a time.
There is probably no hell for authors in the next world-they suffer so much from critics and publishers in this.
There is great beauty in going through life without anxiety or fear. Half our fears are baseless, and the other half discreditable.
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
The use we make of our fortune determines as to its sufficiency.- A little is enough if used wisely, and too much if expended foolishly.
Hope is the best part of our riches. What sufficeth it that we have great wealth in our pockets, if we have not the hope of heaven in our souls?
The highest excellence is seldom attained in more than one vocation. The roads leading to distinction in separate pursuits diverge, and the nearer we approach the one, the farther we recede from the other.
The greatest events of an age are its best thoughts. Thought finds its way into action.
The grandest of all laws is the law of progressive development. Under it, in the wide sweep of things, men grow wiser as they grow older, and societies better.
Partial culture runs to the ornate; extreme culture to simplicity.
Mind unemployed is mind unenjoyed.
It is ever the invisible that is the object of our profoundest worship. With the lover it is not the seen But the unseen that he muses upon.
Men, like musical instruments, seem made to be played upon.
It is some compensation for great evils that they enforce great lessons.
Many children, many cares; no children, no felicity.
The very cunning conceal their cunning; the indifferently shrew boast of it.
Something of a person's character may be discovered by observing when and how he smiles. Some people never smile; they merely grin.
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