A Green Old Age

1895

"A green old age" is a phrase often grossly abused. It is a literal translation of Virgil's description of Charon, the ferryman of the nether regions. The poet speaks of him as "Jam senior, sed cruda deo viridisque senectus" (somewhat aged, but his godship's old age was still fresh and green). This we might say of a hale sexagenarian, but to talk, as we do, of the green old age of a nonagenarian, however hale, is sheer nonsense. — Macmillan's Magazine.


He Struck the Right Chord

"No, I can never marry you. I do not love you, nor do I like your habits."
"Well — er — why not marry me and reform me afterward?"
Cards have been issued. — New York Recorder.

Figs and Thistles

1900

Worry wears.

Haste makes waste.

Wishing is not willing.

Faith frames fate.

It is best to kill serpents in the egg.

Courtesy is never costly, yet never cheap.

When heaven is in the heart heresies are kept out of the head.

No man was ever healed of a disease by reading a medical book alone.

Only they who have known the great change now know no changes.

Good things are always beautiful, but beautiful things are not always good.

The indiscriminate lash will drive ten devils into the boy for one it drives out.

The prescription for salvation must have an application as well as an understanding before healing is found.

The difficulty that the Bible presents to many skeptics is not that it will not stand deep and rational examination, but that it will not stand superficial examination.

Patriotism is based on principles.

Restraining prayer is retaining care.

That only is done which the heart does.

God's work must have God's power.

No furnace can ever burn out the gold.

To take up a cross is to lay down a care.

— The Ram's Horn, Nov. 17, 1900, p. 5.

Wise Words — No Man Wants To Be A Saint

1896

No man wants to be a saint unless he knows what it means to be a sinner.

It is just as easy to predict a severe winter as any other kind.

People never mean it when they say they don't care how they look.

Widowers do not have half so much fun as they are supposed to have.

It is to live twice when you can enjoy the recollection of our former life.

There are several things worse than disappointment in love. Rheumatism is one.

Unfriended indeed is he who has no friend bold enough to point out his faults.

The only way some people ever prepare for a rainy day is by stealing an umbrella.

A man's conduct is only a picture-book of his creed. He acts after what he believes.

Waste of wealth is sometimes retrieved; waste of health seldom; waste of time never.

The man who sells ice in the summer and coal in the winter is about the only fellow who can safely defy the elements.

Scandal is described as something which one-half the world takes pleasure in inventing and the other half in believing. — The South-West.

Little Classics — Literary Quotations

1900

To the pure all things are pure. — Shelley.

Self-trust is the essence of heroism. — Emerson.

A good laugh is sunshine in a house. — Thackeray.

Christianity is a battle, not a dream. — Wendell Phillips.

Children have more need of models than of critics. — Joubert.

The mind will quote whether the tongue does or not. — Emerson.

He who believes in nobody knows that he himself is not to be trusted. — Auberbach.

Nature has sometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of man's own making. — Addison.

Show me a thoroughly contented person and I will show you a useless one. — H. W. Shaw.

Drive prejudices out by the door, they will re-enter by the window. — Frederick the Great.

Minorities lead and save the world, and the world knows them not till long afterwards. — John Burroughs.

Teach thy necessity to reason thus: There is no virtue like necessity. — Richard II.

But faithfulness can feed on suffering, and knows no disappointment. — George Eliot.

Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never happen. — Lowell.

But, in spite of all the criticizing elves, those who would make us feel, must feel themselves. — Churchill.

The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit and not when they miss; and commit to memory the one and forget and pass over the other. — Bacon.

Women have a smile for every joy, a tear for every sorrow, a consolation for every grief, an excuse for every fault, a prayer for every misfortune, and encouragement for every hope. — Saint-Foix.

Of Interest To Drunkards

1900

Vaccination May Enable Us to Drink Rum

It seems that the advance of medical science may yet allow a man to be vaccinated for the "rum habit" so that he will be immune. Not immune in the way that a "Keeley graduate" is — with a lost desire for drink — but in such a manner that he will be able to drink enough to kill an ordinary man and not suffer any ill effects.

Dr. Reynold Webb Wilcox, in writing of "Recent Advances in Medical Science" in the International Monthly, says: "The work of Ehrlich showed that the antitoxins may be produced in the blood by successively increased doses of ricin and abrin. Maramaldi applied the same line of reasoning to alcohol. Increasing doses of ordinary alcohol, well diluted, were administered to dogs through an oesophageal tube until tolerance was established for a larger than an ordinary lethal dose. The blood serum of these animals was employed in the experimentation.

"His conclusions were: (1) It is possible to confer a real immunity on dogs by administering progressively increasing doses of this poison, ultimately reaching very large doses without producing functional disturbances or organic degenerations. (2) The serum of such a dog rendered immune to alcohol, contains a special antitoxin, capable of neutralizing the toxic action of a dose of alcohol one-fourth larger than the minimum fatal dose. (3) Normal blood serum does not possess the power of augmenting the organic resistance to alcohol, much less does it explain the curative action in acute poisoning." — New York Press.


Aphorisms

Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man. — Hume.

There is no friendship, no love, like that of parent for child. — H. W. Beecher.

To persevere in one's duty and be silent is the best answer to calumny. — George Washington.

Good humor and generosity carry the day with the popular heart all the world over. — Alexander Smith.

To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of life. — Johnson.

Origin of Some of World's Most Popular Quotations

1914

Famous Words That Will Endure

Cynical Old Diogenes Told the World "Habit Is Second Nature"

It is recorded that an ignorant person, explaining her distaste for Shakespearean performances, said that his plays were too full of quotations. Yet we, too, though we may pride ourselves upon our learning, probably do not know the origin of half the common phrases we use as carelessly as verbs in our daily conversation.

No less a person than Cicero first made use of the expression, "While there's life there's hope," in a letter he wrote to Atticus. "We are in the same boat" is not modern slang, but occurs in a letter written by Clement I., bishop of Rome, to the Church of Corinth in the first century. This letter is extant and is one of the prized documents of the early church.

"I never put off till tomorrow what I can do today," was Lord Chesterfield's explanation of how he managed to do so much work. "Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well" he wrote later in the famous letters to his son.

In some of the expressions we use habitually may be crystallized an epoch of history. Such is the motto of the Order of the Garter, "Honi soit qui mai y pense" ("Shamed be he who thinks evil of it"), which was given by Edward III. of England. Wishing to draw the best soldiers in the world to him, he proposed a revival of the round table of King Arthur, holding a tournament at Windsor castle on New Year's day, 1344. After the contest of arms the guests were entertained at his expense at a round table. Philip, king of France, was jealous over the interest this aroused and forbade his subjects to attend, at the same time misrepresenting Edward's motives. Several years later, when Edward founded the Order of the Garter, he chose a motto that seemed to challenge his rival monarch to think wrong of it if he dared.

Later English history has not been laggard in increasing the supply of apt remarks that have grown into everyday sayings. Lord Eldon, lord chancellor of England during the first twenty-six years of the nineteenth century, continually mispronounced the name of Henry Brougham, afterward to be a successor in the chancellor's office. Brougham objected to be called Broffam, and in this regard Eldon was the chief offender. Once, after Brougham had made an excellent speech, Eldon by way of apology pronounced his name correctly and made a proverb, "New brooms sweep clean."

The same expression occurs frequently to different people who could have no knowledge that their thought had been given utterance before. "No man is a hero to his valet" has been paraphrased by scores, from Mme. du Cornuel, a witty Frenchwoman of the seventeenth century, to Dr. Johnson and Napoleon. The first record of it, however, is found in Plutarch, who states that when Hermodotus addressed a poem to Antigonous I., king of Sparta, hailing him as son of the sun and a god, the monarch replied, "My body servant sings me no such song."

It was Diogenes, the cynic, who declared that "habit is second nature." The phrase "circumstances over which he has no control" was used by the Duke of Wellington in a letter concerning some affairs in which his son was mixed up and with which be declined to interfere. Dickens also used the expression a few years later when he had Micawber write to David Copperfield. "Circumstances beyond my individual control," etc.

"Conspicuous by their absence" has been used on many occasions in modern oratory. It was first used by Tacitus in relating that in the funeral procession of Julia, niece of Cato, sister of Brutus, wife of Cassius, many of the images of the most famous families in Rome were seen, but "Cassius and Brutus shone pre-eminent because their images were not displayed."

"Nothing is certain but death and taxes," wrote Benjamin Franklin, stating that the constitution of the United States was in operation and to all appearances would last.

"Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones" was said by James I. of England when his favorite, the Duke of Buckingham, complained that a mob had broken his glass windows, which were at that time a luxury.

"Mind your p's and q's" is said to have been taken from an old French phrase at the time of Louis XIV. A very low bow was in fashion, and the dancing master in instructing his pupils would warn them to look out for the position of the feet and the movement of the head lest their cue wigs be disarranged. The French word for foot is pied. "Mind your pieds and queues" soon came to be transplanted into English and abbreviated.

Wallace Irwin once complained that when he had been invited to be funny at a banquet his real gems of wit were addressed to the back of his chauffeur on the way home. But what's the difference? According to the Latin poet, upheld by modern investigation, everything you could possibly say has been said before. — Anna Bird Stewart in Minneapolis Journal.

Words of Wise Men

1921

Diffused knowledge immortalizes itself.

A little commendation goes a long way.

Ambition to merit praise fortifies our virtue.

He who does what he can has done what he ought.

The strength of will is the test of a young man's possibilities.

Truth is a mighty instrument, whatsoever hand may wield it.

All the best men have been best because they possessed "ideals."

The thought that conquers the world not contemplative but active.

Some doubts are as generous and passionate as the very noblest conditions.

Every noble life leaves the fiber of it interwoven with the work of the world.

To strive with difficulties and to conquer them is the highest human triumph.

What the Microscope Reveals

1878

Mold is a forest of beautiful trees, with the branches, leaves and fruit.

Butterflies are fully feathered.

Hairs are hollow tubes.

The surface of our bodies is covered with scales like a fish; a single grain of sand would cover one hundred and fifty of these scales, and yet a scale covers five hundred pores. Through these narrow openings the perspiration forces itself like water through a sieve.

Each drop of stagnant water contains a world of living creatures, swimming with as much liberty as whales in the sea.

Each leaf has a colony of insects grazing it, like a cow in a meadow. — Exchange.


Words of Wisdom

It is easier to blame than to do better.

If you wish to succeed in life, govern your temper.

We love much more warmly by cherishing the intention of giving pleasure than an hour afterwards when we have given it.

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other hearts, but a continent that joins them.

The last, best fruit which comes to late perfection, even in the kindliest soul, is tenderness toward the hard, forbearance toward the unforbearing, warmth of heart toward the cold, and philanthropy toward the misanthropic.

Words of Wisdom — The Shortest Answer is Doing

1878

Words of Wisdom

Little wealth little care.

The offender never pardons.

The shortest answer is doing.

He is rich that wants nothing.

Praise the sea but keep on land.

Bear with all evil and expect good.

Sometimes the best gain is to lose.

Mental gifts often hide bodily defects.

A gift much expected, is paid not given.

One bad example soils many good precepts.

A wise man makes more opportunities than he finds.

He that hath love in his heart hath spurs in his sides.

Send a wise man on an errand and say nothing unto him.

Pardon and pleasantness are great revengers of slander.

Indolence is the rust of the mind and the inlet of every vice.

Life becomes useless and insipid when we have no longer friends or enemies.

It is always safe to learn even of our enemies — seldom safe to venture to instruct even our friends.

Make no more vows to perform this or that; it shows no great strength, and makes thee ride behind thyself.

Man wastes his mornings in anticipating his afternoons, and wastes his afternoons in regretting his mornings,

When the heart is pure, there is hardly anything which can mislead the understanding in matters of immediate personal concernment.

Try to combine beauty and utility. A flower is none the less sweet because it has a germ in its heart that will fructify after the fall of its petals.

Is it just to forget all the kindness done us by those with whom we live for little pain, which, after all, may have been given unintentionally?

Life is itself neither good nor evil. It the scene of good or evil, as you make it; and if you have lived a day, you have seen all. One day is equal to and like all other days; there is no other light, no other shade; this very sun, this moon, these very stars, this very order and revolution of things, are the same your ancestors enjoyed, and that shall also entertain your posterity.

Leisure, the highest happiness on earth, is seldom enjoyed with perfect satisfaction except in solitude. Indolence and indifference do not always afford leisure, for true leisure is frequently found in that interval of relaxation which divides a painful duty from an agreeable relax — recreation; a toilsome business from the more agreeable occupations of literature and philosophy.

Proverbs from the Talmud

The ass complains of the cold even in July.

A single light answers as well for a hundred men as for one.

Teach thy tongue to say: "I do not know."

Thy friend has a friend, and thy friend's friend has a friend; be discreet.

Deal with those who are fortunate.

The doctor who prescribes gratuitously gives a worthless prescription.

The soldiers fight, and the kings are heroes.

Make but one sale, and thou art called a merchant.

If the fox is king bow before him.

The rivalry of scholars advances science.

The world is saved by the breath of school-children.

Even to rebuild the Temple, the schools must not be closed.

If a word spoken is its time is worth one piece of money, silence in its time is worth two.

Blessed is the son who has studied with his father, and blessed the father who has instructed his son.

Rab said: "Men should be careful lest they cause women to weep, for God counts their tears."

In cases of charity, where both women and men claim relief, the latter should be first assisted; if there should not be enough for both, the men should cheerfully relinquish their claims.

Rabbah said: "When one stands at the judgment seat of God these questions are asked: "Hast thou been honest in all thy dealings? Hast thou set aside a portion of thy time for the study of the Law? Hast thou observed the first commandment? Hast thou in trouble still hoped and believed in God? Hast thou spoken wisely?"

Words of Wisdom – Look For Happiness in Useful Work

1878

It is but poor eloquence which only shows that the orator can talk.

If what is said be not to the purpose a single word is already too much.

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

The most common error of men and women is that of looking for happiness somewhere outside of useful work. It has never yet been found when thus sought, and never will be while the world stands; and the sooner the truth is learned, the better for everyone. If you doubt the proposition, go around among your friends and acquaintances and select those who have the most enjoyment through life. Are they idlers and pleasure-seekers, or are the earnest workers? We know what your answer will be. Of the miserable human beings it has been our fortune or misfortune to know, those were the most wretched who had retired from useful employment in order to enjoy themselves.

Truth will never die; the stars will grow dim, the sun will pale his glory, but truth will be ever young. Integrity, uprightness, honesty, love, goodness, these are all imperishable. No grave can ever entomb these immortal principles. They have been in prison, but they have been freer than before; those who enshrined them in their hearts have been burned at the stake, but out of their ashes other witnesses have arisen. No sea can drown, no storm can wreck, no abyss can swallow up the everlasting truth. You cannot kill goodness and integrity and righteousness; the way that is consistent with these must be a way everlasting.

Russian Proverbs

1878

When life is not bright, death does not fright.
A tongue that is pert is its own sure hurt.
Speak out with might when your cause is right.
If Heaven don't forsake us the pigs will not take us.
Truth is severe, but to God 'tis dear.
Don't plunge in the brook for a ford till you look.
If simply you live to five score, you'll survive.
Every fox praises his own tail.
Stretch your feet according to the length of your coat.
Chase two wolves and you will not catch one.
Pledge not thy word rashly but hold to it when pledged.
Dig not a pit for others lest thou fall into it thyself.
Through heedless words the head falls off.
Fear not the threats of the great but rather the tears of the poor.
A word is not a sparrow, for, once flown, you can never catch it again.
Every little frog is great in his own bog.
Disease comes in by hundred weights and goes out by ounces.
An old friend is worth two new ones.
Water runs not beneath a resting stone.
Be praised not for your ancestors but for your virtues.
To the sky 'tis high, to the czar 'tis far.

Words of Wisdom

1878

Go among great folks for great sinners.

Love drifts into hate more easily than indifference into animosity.

He is no true friend who has nothing, but compliments and praise for you.

Sharp and intelligent rascals are more respected by the world than virtuous fools.

Many people find their only happiness in forcing themselves to be unhappy.

Ennui is a malady for which the only remedy is work; pleasure is only a palliative.

He who has no desire to improve upon his present condition, is usually one who most needs improvement.

Adverse criticism is cheaper than noble attempts to improve upon existing models.

We could not endure solitude were it not for the powerful companionship of hope or of some unseen one.

It is not difficult to do good for the means are constantly clustering about every man's lips and hands.

Pride is like the beautiful acacia, that lifts its head proudly above its neighbor plants, forgetting that it too, like them, has its root in the dirt.

We shall never learn to feel and respect our real calling and destiny unless we have taught ourselves to consider everything as moonshine compared with the education of the heart.

The great blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach, but we shut our eyes and, like people in the dark, we fall foul upon the very thing we search for without finding it.

Evils in the journey of life are like the hills which alarm travelers upon their road; they both appear great at a distance, but when we approach them we find that they are far less insurmountable than when we had conceived them.

Manners are the shadows of virtues; the momentary display of those qualities which our fellow creatures love and respect. If we strive to become, then, what we strive to appear, manners may often be rendered useful guides to the performance of our duties.

Among the many arguments, while others have been refuted, this alone remains unshaken, that we ought to beware of committing injustice rather than of being injured, and that, above all, a man ought to study not to appear good, but to be so, both privately and publicly.

It is resignation and contentment that are best calculated to lead us safely through life. Whoever has not sufficient power to endure privations and even suffering can never feel that he is armor proof against painful emotion — nay, he must attribute to himself, or at least to the morbid sensitiveness of his nature, every disagreeable feeling he may suffer.

When Asked To Sign His John Hancock, He Did

1920

Examining Physician Has Odd Experience

Policy Seeker's Name Furnishes a Strange Coincidence

ELDORADO, Kan. — "What's in a name, anyway?" has been asked frequently and the answers have been divided about 50-50 as to their import. Among those who have realized that there is something in a name is an Eldorado physician, who passed through a peculiar experience recently.

A man came to the doctor to be examined for insurance. Everything went along swimmingly and when the time came for the applicant to sign his name the doctor said jocularly:

"Just sign your John Hancock right there," at the same time pointing to the line reserved for the signature of an applicant.

Imagine the physician's surprise when the man returned the document with the name "John Hancock" legibly inscribed on the line alluded to.

"Oh, I meant for you to sign your own name," the doctor exclaimed, at the same time having visions of a spoiled application blank.

"Well, I did," replied the man. "My name is John Hancock."

"Can you beat it," exclaimed the physician, as he folded the blank and turned it over to the insurance agent.

It Comes Easy

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Comes Easy
It never requires any practice to be dissatisfied.
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Births and Deaths at Sea
For every birth occurring at sea there are about 16 deaths.
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Still a Task
When life ceases to be a promise it does not cease to be a task. -- Amiel.
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The Ballot in Bolivia
Only citizens who are able to read and write have the power to vote in Bolivia.
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All in the Man
It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath. -- Aeschylus.
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Good Reason
"Cupid should be a girl." "Why?" "Because he has a string on his beau."
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Justice in London.
The administration of police and justice for a year costs London $10,000,000.

--The Ellis Review-Headlight, Ellis, Kansas, 1911.