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.

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.

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.

Philip, Macedonian King, Drunk or Sober

1915

Philip, the Macedonian king, while drowsy with wine was trying a case and the prisoner after sentence was pronounced, exclaimed, "I appeal." "And to whom do you appeal?" inquired the astonished monarch. "I appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober," replied the prisoner, and the king granted the request and at a rehearing gave the prisoner his liberty.

The people drowsy with the wine of discord ofttimes pronounce a verdict on public questions which they reverse in their more calm and deliberate moments. The next best thing to making no mistakes is to correct them.


His Ambition.

"While I have been cordially detested during the most of my life, with or without ample justification," stated J. Fuller Gloom. "I intend to at least not be a nuisance after death. To that end I have consistently refrained from making epigrams, manufacturing maxims and uttering sonorous sentences, to be repeated to helpless children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me."— Judge.