Background Image

...

Out Of Politics Comes More Uproar Than Progress. It Is Indeed Surprising How Little, Comparatively, This Noisy Department Of Human Affairs Contributes To The World's Prosperity. Political Commotions Upon The Grandest Scale, Political Events Of Astounding Suddenness, Political Characters Of The Greatest Ability, Abound, But Still, Permanent Results Are Rare, And We Look In Vain For A Measure Of Public Good Corresponding In Extent To The Hideous Rout Which Ushers It In. Progress But Turns Upon Its Pillow, And Goes To Sleep Again.

-Christian Nestell Bovee

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Out Of Politics Comes

Christian Nestell Bovee

...

Out Of Politics Comes More Uproar Than Progress. It Is Indeed Surprising How Little, Comparatively, This Noisy Department Of Human Affairs Contributes To The World's Prosperity. Political Commotions Upon The Grandest Scale, Political Events Of Astounding Suddenness, Political Characters Of The Greatest Ability, Abound, But Still, Permanent Results Are Rare, And We Look In Vain For A Measure Of Public Good Corresponding In Extent To The Hideous Rout Which Ushers It In. Progress But Turns Upon Its Pillow, And Goes To Sleep Again.

Views: 6

Topic

More From Christian Nestell Bovee

The Extent Of Poverty In The World Is Much Exaggerated. Our Sensitiveness Makes Half Our Poverty; Our Fears--anxieties For Ills That Never Happen--a Greater Part Of The Other Half.

Nothing Is So Fragile As Thought In Its Infancy; An Interruption Breaks It: Nothing Is So Powerful, Even To Overturning Empires, When It Reaches Its Maturity.

A Profusion Of Fancies And Quotations Is Out Of Place In A Love-letter. True Feeling Is Always Direct, And Never Deviates Into By-ways To Cull Flowers Of Rhetoric.

It Is Our Relation To Circumstances That Determines Their Influence Upon Us.

It Is Curious To What A Degree One May Become Attached To A Fine Tree, Especially When It Is Placed Where Trees Are Rare.

There Is No Sense Of Weariness Like That Which Closes In A Day Of Eager And Unintermittent Pursuit Of Pleasure. The Apple Is Eaten, But "the Core Sticks In The Throat." Expectation Has Then Given Way To Ennui, Appetite To Satiety.

The Natural Wants Are Few, And Easily Gratified: It Is Only Those Which Are Artificial That Perplex Us By Their Multiplicity.

Mortal Beauty Stings While It Delights.

Constant Companionship Is Not Enjoyable, Any More Than Constant Eating. We Sit Too Long At The Table Of Friendship, When We Outsit Our Appetites For Each Other's Thoughts.

Alas, The Transports Beauty Can Inspire!

Intellectually, As Politically, The Direction Of All True Progress Is Towards Greater Freedom, And Along An Endless Succession Of Ideas.

There Is Probably No Hell For Authors In The Next World - They Suffer So Much From Critics And Publishers In This.

Who Aspires To Remain Leader Must Keep In Advance Of His Column. His Fear Must Not Play Traitor To His Occasions. The Instant He Falls Into Line With His Followers, A Bolder Spirit May Throw Himself At The Head Of The Movement Initiated, And In That Moment His Leadership Is Gone.

The Opinions Of The Misanthropical Rest Upon This Very Partial Basis, That They Adopt The Bad Faith Of A Few As Evidence Of The Worthlessness Of All.

The Beauty Seen Is Partly In Him Who Sees It. [a Predisposition To Notice The Beautiful, In Everything.]

When All Else Is Lost, The Future Still Remains.

The Greatest Happiness Comes From The Greatest Activity.

We Should Not So Much Esteem Our Poverty As A Misfortune, Were It Not That The World Treats It So Much As A Crime

Hunger And Poverty

Our Courage Is Greater To Dare A Visible Than An Imagined Danger. A Visible Danger Rouses Our Energies To Meet Or Avert It; A Fancied Peril Appalls From Its Presenting Nothing To Be Resisted. Thus, A Panic Is, Usually, A Sudden Going Over To The Enemy Of Our Imagination. All Is Then Lost, For We Have Not Only To Fight Against That Enemy, But Our Imagination As Well.

In Secluding Himself Too Much From Society, An Author Is In Danger Of Losing That Intimate Acquaintance With Life Which Is The Only Sure Foundation Of Power In A Writer.

Luminous Quotations, Also, Atone, By Their Interest, For The Dulness Of An Inferior Book, And Add To The Value Of A Superior Work By The Variety Which They Lend To Its Style And Treatment.

What A Position Of Transcendent Horror Must That Be, Where The Perpetrator Of A Great Crime, Till Then A Stranger To Positive Guilt, Finds Himself Suddenly Cut Off, And Forever, From All Human Sympathy, Isolated From Hope, The Tenant Of A Solitary Cell, And With A Wide, Impassable Gulf Yawning Between Him And That Great Brotherhood Of Which He Has Ceased To Be A Part--no Longer Regarded As A Man, But As A Monster In The Shape Of One, From Whom Mercy Herself Turns Away, And For Whom Pity Even Has No Tears!

Excellence In Art Is Largely The Result Of Attention To Minutiae, And--prayer.

Enthusiasm Is The Inspiration Of Everything Great.

Enthusiasm For Life

The Busiest Of Living Agents Are Certain Dead Men's Thoughts.

Formerly When Great Fortunes Were Only Made In War, War Was A Business; But Now, When Great Fortunes Are Only Made By Business, Business Is War.

The Less The Difference, The Greater The Quarrel Over It.

Melancholy Sees The Worst Of Things, Things As They May Be, And Not As They Are. It Looks Upon A Beautiful Face, And Sees But A Grinning Skull.

Panic Is A Sudden Desertion Of Us, And A Going Over To The Enemy Of Our Imagination.

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.

Truth Comes To Us From The Past, As Gold Is Washed Down From The Mountains Of Sierra Nevada, In Minute But Precious Particles, And Intermixed With Infinite Alloy, The Debris Of The Centuries.

Wit Must Be Without Effort. Wit Is Play, Not Work; A Nimbleness Of The Fancy, Not A Laborious Effort Of The Will; A License, A Holiday, A Carnival Of Thought And Feeling, Not A Trifling With Speech, A Constraint Upon Language, A Duress Upon Words.

God Has Created Too Few Unmixed Evils To Warrant The Belief That Death Is One Of Them. In All Things Else In Nature, Goodness So Abounds That We Are Authorized To Infer That It Does Not Stop Even At The Grave. It Is Only That Her Footprints Have Become Invisible.

The Selection Of A Subject Is To The Author What Choice Of Position Is To The General,--once Skilfully Determined, The Battle Is Already Half Won. Of A Few Writers It May Be Said That They Are Popular In Despite Of Their Subjects--but Of A Great Many More It May Be Observed That They Are Popular Because Of Them.

Judicious Praise Is To Children What The Sun Is To Flowers.

Our Opinions Partake, More Or Less, Of The Prejudices Of Our Class, Party, Or Sect. We Are All Largely Pledged, Through Interest, Affection, Or Passion, To Particular Classes Of Opinion, And The Strength Of Efforts To Get Released From These Pledges, Is The Measure Of Our Advancement.

A Better Principle Than This, That "the Majority Shall Rule," Is This Other, That Justice Shall Rule. "justice," Says The Code Of Justinian, "is The Constant And Perpetual Desire To Render Every Man His Due.

Love Makes A Few Weeks So Rich That All The Rest Of Our Lives Seems Poor In Comparison.

There Is, Indeed, No Wild Beast More To Be Dreaded Than A Communicative Man Having Nothing To Communicate.

A Genuine Passion Is Like A Mountain Stream; It Admits Of No Impediment; It Cannot Go Backward; It Must Go Forward.

The Beauty Seen Is Partly In Him Who Sees It.

Besides The Five Senses, There Is A Sixth Sense, Of Equal Importance--the Sense Of Duty.

To Death We Owe Our Life; The Passing Of One Generation Opens A Way For Another.

Doubt Whom You Will, But Never Yourself.

Poverty Is Only Contemptible When It Is Felt To Be So. Doubtless The Best Way To Make Our Poverty Respectable Is To Seem Never To Feel It As An Evil.

Courage Enlarges, Cowardice Diminishes Resources. In Desperate Straits The Fears Of The Timid Aggravate The Dangers That Imperil The Brave.

Four Sweet Lips, Two Pure Souls, And One Undying Affection, - These Are Love's Pretty Ingredients For A Kiss.

New Situations Inspire New Thoughts. Here Is The Benefit Of Travelling, Much More Than In Mere Sight-seeing. We Lose Ourselves In The Streets Of Our Own City, And Go Abroad To Find Ourselves.

Contentment Is Not Happiness. An Oyster May Be Contented. Happiness Is Compounded Of Richer Elements.

It Is The Life Of Democracy To Favor Equality.

A Good Thought Is Indeed A Great Boon, For Which God Is To Be First Thanked; Next He Who Is The First To Utter It, And Then, In A Lesser, But Still In A Considerable Degree, The Friend Who Is The First To Quote It To Us. Whoever Adopts And Circulates A Just Thought, Participates In The Merit That Originated It.

Fame - A Few Words Upon A Tombstone, And The Truth Of Those Not To Be Depended On.

Too Much Society Makes A Man Frivolous; Too Little, A Savage.

The Great Artist Is A Slave To His Ideals.

Patience Is Only One Faculty; Earnestness The Devotion Of All The Faculties. Earnestness Is The Cause Of Patience; It Gives Endurance, Overcomes Pain, Strengthens Weakness, Braves Dangers, Sustains Hope, Makes Light Of Difficulties, And Lessens The Sense Of Weariness In Overcoming Them.

The Cure For Tender Sensibilities Is To Make More Of Our Objects And Less Of Our Selves.

Kindred Weaknesses Induce Friendships As Often As Kindred Virtues.

Economy Is For The Poor; The Rich May Dispense With It.

Weakness Ineffectually Seeks To Disguise Itself,--like A Drunken Man Trying To Show How Sober He Is.

Ambitious Princes Value Inherited Kingdoms Not So Much As Conquered Provinces.

It Is With Charity As With Money--the More We Stand In Need Of It, The Less We Have To Give Away.

Partial Culture Runs To The Ornate, Extreme Culture To Simplicity.

The Legitimate Aim Of Criticism Is To Direct Attention To The Excellent. The Bad Will Dig Its Own Grave.

He That Shrinks From The Grave With Too Great A Dread, Has An Invisible Fear Behind Him Pushing Him Into It.

There Is A German Proverb Which Says That Take-it-easy And Live-long Are Brothers.

Bad Taste Is A Species Of Bad Morals.

It Is Of Very Little Use In Trying To Be Dignified, If Dignity Is No Part Of Your Character.

Tranquil Pleasures Last The Longest; We Are Not Fitted To Bear The Burden Of Great Joys.

Examples Are Few Of Men Ruined By Giving.

Sorrow Is Never More Sorrowful Than When It Jests At Its Own Misery.

Activity And Sadness Are Incompatible.

Without Death In The World, Existence In It Would Soon Become, Through Over-population, The Most Frightful Of Curses.

When We Have The Means To Pay For What We Desire, What We Get Is Not So Much What Is Best, As What Is Costliest.

We Take Life Too Seriously: The Office Of Wit Is To Correct This Tendency.

It Is Invidious To Distinguish Particular Men As Adventurers: We Are All Such.

Can That Which Is The Greatest Virtue In Philosophy, Doubt (called By Galileo The Father Of Invention), 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.

However Much Of Time, Labor, Or Other Means It Takes To Establish A Reputation, It Frequently Happens That It Requires Nearly As Much To Maintain It. One Who Has Written A Good Book, Is Expected On All Occasions To "talk Like A Book." Or, If One Has Achieved An Act Of Heroism, He Is Expected To Perform Acts Of Heroism For The Edification Of All Who Approach Him. There Are People Who Can Never Believe They See A Lion Unless They Hear Him Roar.

There Are Ceremonious Bows That Repel One Like A Cudgel.

Some One Called Sir Richard Steele The "vilest Of Mankind," And He Retorted With Proud Humility, "it Would Be A Glorious World If I Were.

Hunting Is A Relic Of The Barbarism That Once Thirsted For Human Blood, But Is Now Content With The Blood Of Animals.

Tears Are Nature's Lotion For The Eyes. The Eyes See Better For Being Washed By Them.

A Great Destiny Needs A Generous Diet.... What Can Be Expected Of A People That Live On Macaroni!

The Language Denotes The Man. A Coarse Or Refined Character Finds Its Expression Naturally In A Coarse Or Refined Phraseology.

It Is Some Compensation For Great Evils, That They Enforce Great Lessons.

Nature Has Provided For The Exigency Of Privation, By Putting The Measure Of Our Necessities Far Below The Measure Of Our Wants. Our Necessities Are To Our Wants As Falstaff's Pennyworth Of Bread To His Any Quantity Of Sack.

Many An Honest Man Practices Upon Himself An Amount Of Deceit Sufficient, If Practised Upon Another, And In A Little Different Way, To Send Him To The State Prison.

A Strong Will Deals With The Hard Facts Of Life As A Sculptor With His Marbles, Making Them Facile And Yielding To His Purposes, And Conquering Their Stubbornness By A Greater Stubbornness In Himself.

A Man Cannot Paint Portraits Till He Has Seen Faces.

If One Is Not Virtuous He Becomes Vicious.

A Woman's Love, Like Lichens Upon A Rock, Will Still Grow Where Even Charity Can Find No Soil To Nurture Itself.

An Ambition To Excel In Petty Things Obstructs The Progress To Nobler Aims.

Men, Like Musical Instruments, Seem Made To Be Played Upon.

We May Learn From Children How Large A Part Of Our Grievances Is Imaginary. But The Pain Is Just As Real.

To Cultivate A Garden Is. . . To Go Hand In Hand With Nature In Some Of Her Most Beautiful Processes, To Learn Something Of Her Choicest Secrets, And To Have A More Intelligent Interest Awakened In The Beautiful Order Of Her Works Elsewhere.

The Beauty Of A Woman Transcends All Other Forms Of Beauty, As Well In The Sweetness Of Its Suggestions, As In The Fervor Of The Admiration It Awakens. The Beauty Of A Lovely Woman Is An Inspiration, A Sweet Delirium, A Gentle Madness. Her Looks Are Love-potions. Heaven Itself Is Never So Clearly Revealed To Us As In The Face Of A Beautiful Woman.

Very Handsome Women Have Usually Far Less Sensibility To Compliments Than Their Less Beautiful Sisters.

Life Being Full Of Harsh Realities, We Seek Relief From Them In A Variety Of Pleasing Delusions.

Perhaps The Heroic Element In Our Natures Is Exhibited To The Best Advantage, Not In Going From Success To Success, And So On Through A Series Of Triumphs, But In Gathering, On The Very Field Of Defeat Itself, The Materials For Renewed Efforts, And In Proceeding, With No Abatement Of Heart Or Energy, To Form Fresh Designs Upon The Very Ruins And Ashes Of Blasted Hopes. Yes, It Is This Indomitable Persistence In A Purpose, Continued Alike Through Defeat And Success, That Makes, More Than Aught Else, The Hero.

Earnestness Is The Devotion Of All The Faculties.

A Particular Disappointment Is Seldom More Than An Excrescence Upon The Trunk Of A General Good--a Shower That Spoils The Pleasure Party, But Refreshes And Enriches The Earth.

To Cultivate A Garden Is To Walk With God.

The Use We Make Of Our Fortune Determines Its Sufficiency. A Little Is Enough If Used Wisely, And Too Much If Expended Foolishly.

Most Books Fail, Not So Much From A Want Of Ability In Their Authors, As From An Absence In Their Productions Of A Thorough Development Of Their Ability.

Something Of A Person's Character May Be Observed By How They Smile. Some Never Smile They Only Grin.

An Eager Pursuit Of Fortune Is Inconsistent With A Severe Devotion To Truth. The Heart Must Grow Tranquil Before The Thought Can Become Searching.

Logic Invents As Many Fallacies As It Detects; It Is A Good Weapon, But As Liable To Be Used In A Bad As In A Good Cause.

All Power Is Indeed Weak Compared With That Of The Thinker. He Sits Upon The Throne Of His Empire Of Thought, Mightier Far Than They Who Wield Material Sceptres.

A Peculiar Work In Any Art Must Not Be Too Hastily Judged. New Styles Have To Create New Tastes.

Successful Love Takes A Load Off Our Hearts, And Puts It Upon Our Shoulders.

Few Minds Wear Out; More Rust Out.

Great Warriors, Like Great Earthquakes, Are Principally Remembered For The Mischief They Have Done.

In Politics, Merit Is Rewarded By The Possessor Being Raised, Like A Target, To A Position To Be Fired At.

Common Sense, Alas In Spite Of Our Educational Institutions, Is A Rare Commodity.

The Worst Deluded Are The Self-deluded.

It Is With A Company As It Is With A Punch, Everything Depends Upon The Ingredients Of Which It In Composed.

Repose Without Stagnation Is The State Most Favorable To Happiness. "the Great Felicity Of Life," Says Seneca, "is To Be Without Perturbations.

Dishonest People Conceal Their Faults From Themselves As Well As Others, Honest People Know And Confess Them.

A Book Should Be Luminous Not Voluminous.

The Worth Of A Book Is A Matter Of Expressed Juices.

Care, Admitted As Guest, Quickly Turns To Be Master.

If It Is A Distinction To Have Written A Good Book, It Is Also A Disgrace To Have Written A Bad One.

The Cheerful Live Longest In Years, And Afterwards In Our Regards. Cheerfulness Is The Off-shoot Of Goodness.

Genius Makes Its Observations In Short-hand; Talent Writes Them Out At Length.

What We Call Conscience In Many Instances, Is Only A Wholesome Fear Of The Law.

Ambition, In One Respect, Is Like A Singer's Voice; Pitched At Too High A Key, It Breaks And Comes To Nothing.

The Best Evidence Of Merit Is A Cordial Recognition Of It Whenever And Wherever It May Be Found.

In General, Inquiry Ceases When We Adopt A Theory. After That, We Overlook Whatever Makes Against It, And See And Think, And Talk And Write, Only In Its Favor. Indeed, When We Have A Snug, Comfortable Theory, To Which We Are Much Attached, They Appear To Us As A Very Mean Set Of Facts That Will Not Square With It.

A Sound Discretion Is Not So Much Indicated By Never Making A Mistake As By Never Repeating It.

He Must Put His Whole Life Into His Work, Who Would Do It Well, And Make It Potential To Influence Other Lives.

Tearless Grief Bleeds Inwardly.

Losing A Loved One

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.

It May Almost Be Held That The Hope Of Commercial Gain Has Done Nearly As Much For The Cause Of Truth As Even The Love Of Truth.

The First Step Toward Greatness Is To Be Honest, Says The Proverb; But The Proverb Fails To State The Case Strong Enough. Honesty Is Not Only "the First Step Toward Greatness," - It Is Greatness Itself.

In Art There Are Two Principal Schools Between Which Each Aspirant Has To Choose--one Distinguished By Its Close Adherence To Nature, And The Other By Its Strenuous Efforts To Get Above It.

It Is Indeed A Misfortune For A Woman To Be Without Beauty, As With Men The Eye Is The Chief Arbiter Of Qualities In The Sex. Her Beauty Is Her Capital--her Worth In The Market Matrimonial Depends Upon It. With Her The Virtues Are Less Reverenced When Unaccompanied By The Graces. The Sex Understand This Very Well; And Hence They Seek Mainly To Make Captive The Eye, Knowing The Mind And Heart Will Follow As A Matter Of Course.

We Make Way For The Man Who Boldly Pushes Past Us.

The Very Cunning Conceal Their Cunning; The Indifferently Shrewd Boast Of It.

Youth Is Too Tumultuous For Felicity; Old Age Too Insecure For Happiness. The Period Most Favorable To Enjoyment, In A Vigorous, Fortunate, And Generous Life, Is That Between Forty And Sixty.

I Desire To Go Through Life Knowing As Little Of Evil In It As Possible. To This End, I Sometimes Avoid Looking Too Closely Into The Nature Of Things, Studying Them Only So Far As They Seem To Be Good, And Abandoning Interest In Them As Soon As Their Darker Feature Begin To Appear. The Good Only Deserves A Hearty Interest.

Character Is Very Much A Matter Of Health.

Galileo Called Doubt The Father Of Invention; It Is Certainly The Pioneer.

Better Freedom With A Crust, Than Slavery With Every Luxury.

To Cultivate A Garden Is. . . To Go Hand In Hand With Nature In Some Of Her Most Beautiful Processes.

The Greatest Events Of An Age Are Its Best Thoughts. Thought Finds Its Way Into Action.

It Is Seldom That We Find Out How Great Are Our Resources Until We Are Thrown Upon Them.

Many Children, Many Cares; No Children, No Felicity.

It Is One Of The Arts Of A Great Beauty To Heighten The Effect Of Her Charms By Affecting To Be Sweetly Unconscious Of Them.

"there Is Nothing," Says A Correspondent Of The New York Times, "which The Business World Discards As Unpractical And Useless So Much As The Quiet, Thinking Scholar. But This Is The Man Who Makes Revolutions. Politicians Are Mere Puppets In The Hands Of Men Of Thought.

Hope Is The Best Part Of Our Riches. What Sufficeth It That We Have The Wealth Of The Indies In Our Pockets, If We Have Not The Hope Of Heaven In Our Souls?

Living With A Saint Is More Grueling Than Being One.

Christian Living

Passion Looks Not Beyond The Moment Of Its Existence. Better, It Says, The Kisses Of Love To Day, Than The Felicities Of Heaven Afar Off.

The Loss Of A Beloved Connection Awakens An Interest In Heaven Before Unfelt.

In Ambition, As In Love, The Successful Can Afford To Be Indulgent Toward Their Rivals. The Prize Our Own, It Is Graceful To Recognize The Merit That Vainly Aspired To It.

Hard Workers Are Usually Honest; Industry Lifts Them Above Temptation.

Successful Minds Work Like A Gimlet--to A Single Point.

When We Get Tired Of Enjoying All The Pleasures Within Our Reach, We Have Still A Resource In Thinking Of Others That Are Not.

A Mother Is The Best Friend God Ever Gave.

Funny Inspirational

Difficulties, By Bracing The Mind To Overcome Them, Assist Cheerfulness, As Exercise Assists Digestion.

We Fear Things In Proportion To Our Ignorance Of Them.

The Nearest Approximation To An Understanding Of Life Is To Feel It--to Realize It To The Full--to Be A Profound And Inscrutable Mystery.

The Method Of The Enterprising Is To Plan With Audacity And Execute With Vigor.

Next To Faith In God, Is Faith In Labor.

Wit Never Appears To Greater Advantage Than When It Is Successfully Exerted To Relieve From A Dilemma, Palliate A Deficiency, Or Cover A Retreat.

It Is Our Relation To Circumstances That Determine Their Influence Over Us. The Same Wind That Blows One Ship Into Port May Blow Another Off Shore.

The Most Brilliant Flashes Of Wit Come From A Clouded Mind, As Lightning Leaps Only From An Obscure Firmament.

Even When We Fancy We Have Grown Wiser, It Is Only, It May Be, That New Prejudices Have Displaced Old Ones.

Truth, Like The Sun, Submits To Be Obscured; But, Like The Sun, Only For A Time.

It Is The Nature Of Thought To Find Its Way Into Action.

The Life Even Of A Just Man Is A Round Of Petty Frauds; That Of A Knave A Series Of Greater. We Degrade Life By Our Follies And Vices, And Then Complain That The Unhappiness Which Is Only Their Accompaniment Is Inherent In The Constitution Of Things.

Example Has Far More Followers Than Reason.

Women Seldom Forfeit Their Claims To Respect To Men Whom They Respect.

We Cannot Reason Ourselves Into Love, Nor Can We Reason Ourselves Out Of It, Which Suggests That Love And Reason Have Little To Do With Each Other.

Enthusiasm Is The Inspiration Of Everything Great. Without It No Man Is To Be Feared, And With It None Despised.

Men Were Created For Something Better Than Merely To Make Money. A Close Application To Business, Until A Competence Is Gained, Is One Of The Chief Virtues; But To Continue In Trade Long After This Result Is Obtained, Is One Of The Signs, Not To Be Mistaken, Of A Sordid And Ignoble Nature.

To Vindicate The Sanctity Of Human Life By Taking It Is An Outrage Upon Reason. The Spectacle Of A Human Being Dangling At The End Of A Gallows-rope Is A Degradation Of Humanity.

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.

No Work Deserves To Be Criticized That Has Not Much In It That Deserves To Be Applauded.

The Next Best Thing To Being Witty One's Self, Is To Be Able To Be Able To Quote Another's Wit.

At The Best, Sarcasms, Bitter Irony, Scathing Wit, Are A Sort Of Swordplay Of The Mind. You Pink Your Adversary, And He Is Forthwith Dead; And Then You Deserve To Be Hung For It.

Books Are Embalmed Minds.

We Give Our Best Affections To The Beautiful, Only Our Second Best To The Useful.

By His Provocations To Good-natured Merriment, A Humorist Of The First Water Contributes As Much To The Sum Of Happiness As The Gravest Philosopher.

One Must Have Been, At Some Time Or Other, In A Situation Where A Small Sum Was As Necessary Almost As Life Itself, With No More Ability To Raise It Than To Raise The Dead, Before He Can Fully Appreciate The Value Of Money.

Dignity Of Position Adds To Dignity Of Character, As Well As To Dignity Of Carriage. Give Us A Proud Position, And We Are Impelled To Act Up To It.

Beauty Can Afford To Laugh At Distinctions: It Is Itself The Greatest Distinction.

Woman's Power Is Over The Affections. A Beautiful Dominion Is Hers; But She Risks Its Forfeiture When She Seeks To Extend It.

He Has But One Great Fear That Fears To Do Wrong.

Cheerfulness Is An Offshoot Of Goodness And Of Wisdom.

Tis But A Short Journey Across The Isthmus Of Now.

It Is Difficult To Say Which Is The Greatest Evil--to Have Too Violent Passions, Or To Be Wholly Devoid Of Them. Controlled With Firmness, Guided By Discretion, And Hallowed By The Imagination, The Passions Are The Vivifiers And Quickeners Of Our Being. Without Passion There Can Be No Energy Of Character. Indeed, The Passions Are Like Fire, Useful In A Thousand Ways, And Dangerous Only In One--through Their Excess.

All Men Are Alike In Their Lower Natures; It Is In Their Higher Characters That They Differ.

Neither Love Nor Ambition, As It Has Often Been Shown, Can Brook A Division Of Its Empire In The Heart.

To Be Without Sympathy Is To Be Alone In The World--without Friends Or Country, Home Or Kindred.

The Reveries Of The Dreamer Advance His Hopes, But Not Their Realization. One Good Hour Of Earnest Work Is Worth Them All.

A Mother's Love Is Indeed The Golden Link That Binds Youth To Age; And He Is Still But A Child, However Time May Have Furrowed His Cheek, Or Silvered His Brow, Who Can Yet Recall, With A Softened Heart, The Fond Devotion, Or The Gentle Chidings, Of The Best Friend That God Gives Us.

Fortune, Like A Coy Mistress, Loves To Yield Her Favors, Though She Makes Us Wrest Them From Her.

Motives Are Better Than Actions. Men Drift Into Crime. Of Evil They Do More Than They Contemplate, And Of Good They Contemplate More Than They Do.

In The Assurance Of Strength There Is Strength; And They Are The Weakest, However Strong, Who Have No Faith In Themselves Or Their Powers.

Honesty Is Not Only "the First Step Toward Greatness," - It Is Greatness Itself.

Trending Author

Franz Grillparzer

Category