Great Throughts Treasury

"Self-control is promoted by humility. Pride is a fruitful source of uneasiness. It keeps the mind in disquiet. Humility is the antidote to this evil."

"The true order of learning should be: first, what is necessary; second, what is useful, and third, what is ornamental. To reverse this arrangement is like beginning to build at the top of an edifice."

"Those who are most disinterested, and have the least of selfishness, have best materials for being happy."

"To attain excellence in society, an assemblage of qualification is requisite: disciplined intellect, to think clearly, and to clothe thought with propriety and elegance; knowledge of human nature, to suit subject to character; true politeness, to prevent giving pain; a deep sense of morality, to preserve the dignity of speech; and a spirit of benevolence, to neutralize its asperities, and sanctify its powers."

"We speak of educating our children. Do we know that our children also educate us?"

"Whatever you would have your children become, strive to exhibit in your own lives and conversation."

"With the gain of knowledge, connect the habit of imparting it. This increases mental wealth by putting it in circulation; and it enhances the value of our knowledge to ourselves, not only in its depth, confirmation and readiness for use, but in that acquaintance with human nature, that self-command, and that reaction of moral training upon ourselves, which are above all price."

""Keep aloof from sadness," says an Icelandic writer, "for sadness is a sickness of the soul." Life has, indeed, many ills, but the mind that views every object in its most cheering aspect, and every doubtful dispensation as replete with latent good, bears within itself a powerful and perpetual antidote. The gloomy soul aggravates misfortune, while a cheerful smile often dispels those mists that portend a storm."

"It is one proof of a good education, and of true refinement of feeling, to respect antiquity."

"Lost wealth may be restored by industry, the wreck of health regained by temperance, forgotten knowledge restored by study, alienated friendship smoothed into forgetfulness, even forfeited reputation won by penitence and virtue. But who ever looked upon his vanished hours, recalled his slighted years, stamped them with wisdom, or effaced from Heaven's record the fearful blot of wasted time?"

"Language is slow; the mastery of wants doth teach it to the infant, drop by drop, as brooklets gather. Yet there is a love, simple and sure, that asks no discipline of weary years, the language of the soul, told through the eye. The stammering lip oft mars the perfect thought; but the heart's lightning hath no obstacle. Quick glances, like the thrilling wires, transfuse the telegraphic look."

"Teachers should be held in the highest honor. They are the allies of legislators; they have agency in the prevention of crime; they aid in regulating the atmosphere, whose incessant action and pressure cause the life-blood to circulate, and to return pure and healthful to the heart of the nation."

"One of the principal ingredients in the happiness of childhood is freedom from suspicion - why may it not be combined with a more extensive intercourse with mankind? A disposition to dwell on the bright side of character is like gold to its possessor; but to imagine more evil than meets the eye, betrays affinity for it."

"In early childhood you may lay the foundation of poverty or riches, industry or idleness, good or evil, by the habits to which you train your children. Teach them right habits then, and their future life is safe."

"Regularity in the hours of rising and retiring, perseverance in exercise, adaptation of dress to the variations of climate, simple and nutritious aliment, and temperance in all things are necessary branches of the regimen of health."

"The strength of a nation, especially of a republican nation, is in the intelligent and well ordered homes of the people."

"Dwelling much on the contemplation of little things, [we] are in danger of losing the intellectual appetite."

"An appearance of delicacy is inseparable from sweetness and gentleness of character."

"And say to mothers what a holy charge i Is theirs--with what a kingly power their love might rule the fountains of the new-born mind."

"And with a velvet lip print on his brow such language as the tongue hath never spoken."

"As nothing truly valuable can be attained without industry, so there can be no persevering industry without a deep sense of the value of time."

"Beware, said Lavater, of him who hates the laugh of a child.I love God and little children, was the simple yet sublime sentiment of Richter."

"Fear is the white lipp'd sire of subterfuge and treachery."

"Flow on forever in thy glorious robe of terror and of beauty. Yea, flow on Unfathomed and resistless? God hath set His rainbow on thy forehead; and the cloud mantles around thy feet. And He doth give Thy voice of thunder power to speak of Him Eternally, bidding the lip of man keep silence, and upon thy rocky altar pour incense of awe-struck praise."

"Habits, though in their commencement like the filmy line of the spider, trembling at every breeze, may in the end prove as links of tempered steel, binding a deathless being to eternal felicity or woe."

"Let her who is full of beauty and admiration, sitting like the queen of flowers in majesty among the daughters of women, let her watch lest vanity enter her heart, beguiling her to rest proudly upon her own strength; let her remember that she standeth upon slippery places, and be not high-minded but fear."

"Not on the outer world for inward joy depend; enjoy the luxury of thought, make thine own self friend; not with the restless throng, in search of solace roam but with an independent zeal be intimate at home."

"Observe how soon, and to what a degree, this influence begins to operate! Her first ministration for her infant is to enter, as it were, the valley of the shadow of death, and win its life at the peril of her own! How different must an affection thus founded be from all others!"

"Politeness, says Witherspoon, is real kindness kindly expressed; an admirable definition, and so brief that ail may easily remember it. This is the sum and substance of all true politeness. Put it in practice, and all will be charmed with your manners."

"Praise to our Father-God, high praise in solemn lay, alike for what His hand hath given, and what it takes away."

"Prosperity, alas! is often but another name for pride."

"Something will be gathered from the tablets of the most faultless day for regrets."

"Stranger, new flowers in our vales are seen, with a dazzling eye, and a lovely, green.--They scent the breath of the dewy morn: They feed no worm, and they hide no thorn, but revel and glow in our balmy air; they are flowers which Freedom hath planted there."

"The glorified spirit of the infant is as a star to guide the mother to its own blissful clime."

"The gospel's glorious hope, its rule of purity, its eye of prayer, its feet of firmness on temptation's steep, its bark that fails not, 'mid the storm of death."

"The soul of woman lives in love."

"The vanity of shining in conversation is usually subversive of its own desires."

"There is a lore simple and sure, that asks no discipline of weary years--the language of the soul, told through the eye."

"There must be some mixture of happiness in everything but sin."

"Think'st thou the man whose mansions hold the wordling's pomp and miser's gold, obtains a richer prize than he who, in his cot at rest, finds heavenly peace a willing guest, and bears this promise in his breast of treasure in the skies?"

"To reveal its complacence by gifts is one of the native dialects of love."

"Vigorous exercise will often fortify a feeble constitution."

"Ye say they all have passed away, that noble race and brave; that their light canoes have vanished from off the crested wave; that mid the forests where they roamed there rings no hunter's shout; but their name is on your waters; ye may not wash it out."