"Now, as words affect, not by any original power, but by representation, it might be supposed that their influence over the passions should be but light; yet it is quite otherwise; for we find by experience that eloquence and poetry are as capable, nay indeed much more capable, of making deep and lively impressions than …
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Cast forth
"Cast forth thy act, thy word, into the ever-living, ever-working universe: it is a seed-grain that cannot die; unnoticed to-day, it will be found flourishing as a banyan grove, perhaps, alas, as a hemlock forest, after a thousand years." - Thomas Carlyle Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay, comp. by S. Austin Allibone. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott …
Hook, Line and Sinker
"Men create oppositions which are not, and put them into new terms so fixed, as whereas the meaning ought to govern the term, the term in effect governeth the meaning." - Francis Bacon, Essay III., Of Unity in Religion. The moment I read this I thought it the perfect description of what has happened with respect …
Circumstances
"In all our reasonings concerning men we must lay it down as a maxim that the greater part are moulded by circumstances." - Robert Hall: Apology for the Freedom of the Press, Sect. V. If the greater part of men are moulded by their circumstances, then the lesser part are not. But if a man is not moulded …
The Riddle of Life
"How true is that old fable of the sphinx who sat by the wayside, propounding her riddle to the passengers, which if they could not answer, she destroyed them! Such a sphinx is this life of ours to all men and societies of men. Nature, like the sphinx, is of womanly celestial loveliness and tenderness; …
One Great End
"Irresolution on the schemes of life which offer themselves to our choice, and inconstancy in pursuing them, are the greatest and most universal causes of all our disquiet and unhappiness. When ambition pulls one way, interest another, inclination a third, and perhaps reason contrary to all, a man is likely to pass his time but …
Improve the Present
"Look not mournfully into the past,—it comes not back again; wisely improve the present,—it is thine; go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a manly heart." - Ralph Waldo Emerson While events of the future cast their shadows on the present moment, the future remains largely unknown. The unknown can be …
Good and Happiness
"Friendship is a strong and habitual inclination in two persons to promote the good and happiness of each other." - Joseph Addison True friends promote both the good and happiness of each other, not just the happiness. As such there is occasionally the need to communicate hard sayings, counsel which would likely offend in more …
Fundamental Preferences
"Men are apt to prefer a prosperous error before an afflicted truth." - Jeremy Taylor The world is filled with the by-products of prosperous errors, in fact, it may appear on occasion to turn on them. The momentary success of prosperous errors creates the misleading appearance of a sustainable alternative to a life lived according …
Purity of Heart
"When you admonish your friend, let it be without bitterness; when you chide him, let it be without reproach; when you praise him, let it be with worthy purpose, and for just causes, and in friendly measures; too much of that is flattery, to little is envy; if you do it justly, you teach him …
Gregory Hake 