Thoughts, Selected from the Writings of Favorite Authors, by Ladies of Fabiola Hospital Association

[Pg 7]To get peace, if you do want it, make for yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts. None of us yet knows, for none of us has been taught in early youth, what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thoughts—proof against all adversity. Bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble histories, faithful sayings, treasure-houses of precious and restful thoughts, which care cannot disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty take away from us—houses built without hands for our souls to live in.

[Pg 10] The thrift of time will repay in after life with usury of profit beyond your most sanguine dreams, and waste of it will make you dwindle alike in intellectual and moral stature beyond your darkest reckoning.

Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear three—all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.

If there is any person to whom you feel dislike, that is the person of whom you ought never to speak.

The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.

In nature there is no blemish but the mind;—none can be called deformed but the unkind.

Do the duty which lies nearest thee, which thou knowest to be a duty. Thy second duty will already have become clearer.

We need a revival of the individual. The question is not, What are they doing?—but, What am I doing? Not, Why do you not do this, that, or the other?—but, Why am not I doing this, that, or the other?

That man is blessed who every day is permitted to behold anything so pure and serene as the western sky at sunset, while revolutions vex the world.

It is a matter of economy to be happy, to view life and all its conditions from the brightest angle; it enables one to seize life at its very best. It expands the soul.

To educate the heart, one must be willing to go out of himself, and to come into loving contact with Others.

Virgil said of the winning crew in his boat-race, “They can, because they believe they can.”

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

To be wise we must first learn to be happy: for those who can finally issue forth from self by the portal of happiness, know infinitely wider freedom than those who pass through the gate of sadness.

When we humor our weaknesses they force themselves continually upon our attention, like spoiled children. When we assert our mastery of ourselves and compel its recognition, we stand secure in our sovereign rights.

Put away all sarcasm from your speech. Never complain. Do not prophesy evil. Have a good word for everyone, or else keep silent.

Treat your friends for what you know them to be. Regard no surfaces. Consider not what they did, but what they intended.

Small kindnesses, small courtesies, small considerations, habitually practiced in our social intercourse, give a greater charm to the character than the display of great talent and accomplishments.

I believe that the mind can be profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality.

Don’t hang a dismal picture on the wall, and do not daub with sables and glooms in your conversation. Don’t be a cynic and disconsolate preacher.

Always laugh when you can; it is a cheap medicine. Merriment is a philosophy not well understood. It is the sunny side of existence.

If we are not responsible for the thoughts that pass our doors, we are at least responsible for those we admit and entertain.

Would you remain always young, and would you carry all joy and buoyancy of youth into your maturer years? Then have care concerning but one thing—how you live in your thought world.

To live in love is to live an everlasting youth. Whoever enters old age by this royal road will find the last of life to be the very best of life. Instead of finding himself descending the hills of life, he will find it up-hill all the way, into clearer air. There the vision reaches further; here the sunsets are more golden and the twilight lasts longer.

Those who live on the mountain have a longer day than those who live in the valley. Sometimes all we need to brighten our day is to rise a little higher.

Good luck is the willing handmaid of upright, energetic character, and conscientious observance of duty.

The highest compact we can make with our fellow is, let there be truth between us two forevermore.

Unfaithfulness in the keeping of an appointment is an act of clear dishonesty. You may as well borrow a person’s money as his time.

Logic makes only one demand, that of conscience. But life makes a thousand. The body wants health; the imagination cries out for beauty; and the heart for love. Pride asks for consideration; the soul yearns for peace; the conscience for holiness; our whole being is athirst for happiness and for perfection.

Was there ever a wiser or more loving conspiracy than that which keeps the venerable figure of Santa Claus from slipping away, with all the other old-time myths, into the forsaken wonderland of the past?

Mankind are always happier for having been happy. So that if you make them happy now, you make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it.

Never fancy you could be something if only you had a different lot and sphere assigned you. The very things that you most deprecate, as fatal limitations or obstructions, are probably what you most want. What you call hindrances, obstacles, discouragements, are probably God’s opportunities.

Happiness and the sense of victory are only for those who live for conscience and duty and the soul’s higher ideals.

“Try this for one day:—Think as though your thoughts were visible to all about you.”

Beware lest thy friend learn to tolerate one frailty of thine, and so an obstacle be raised to the progress of thy love.

As soon as a stranger is introduced into any company, one of the first questions which all wish to have answered, is, How does that man get his living? And with reason; every man is a consumer, and ought to be a producer. He fails to make his place good in the world unless he not only pays his debts but also adds something to the common wealth.

All impatience disturbs the circulation, scatters force, makes concentration difficult if not impossible.

There is no music in a rest, that I know of, but there is the making of music in it.

This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

We are haunted by an ideal life, and it is because we have within us the beginning and the possibility of it.

Thoughts are forces: through their instrumentality we have in our grasp, and as our rightful heritage, the power of making life and all its manifold conditions exactly what we will.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

[Pg 25] Blessed are the Happiness Makers. Blessed are they who know how to shine on one’s gloom with their cheer.

The time will come when the civilized man will feel that the rights of every living creature on the earth are as sacred as his own. Anything short of this cannot be perfect civilization.

Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit.

How true it is that what we really see day by day depends less on the objects and scenes before our eyes than on the eyes themselves and the minds and hearts that use them.

You have not fulfilled every duty, unless you have fulfilled that of being pleasant.

If I am not for myself who will be for me? But if I am for myself alone what am I? If not now—when?

Shun idleness, it is the rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.

Few men suspect how much mere talk fritters away spiritual energy—that which should be spent in action, spends itself in words. Hence he who restrains that love of talk lays up a fund of spiritual strength.

Truthfulness is the foundation of all personal excellence. It exhibits itself in conduct. It is rectitude, truth in action, and shines through every word and deed.

The cry of the age is more for fraternity than for charity. If one exists, the other will follow, or better still, will not be needed.

There is philosophy as well as philanthropy in the keeping in touch with all sweetness and love, in the being swift to be kind. This is living on the spiritual plane, and spirituality is power.

Manners are the happy ways of doing things. If they are superficial, so are the dewdrops, which give such a depth to the morning meadows.

“The man who never makes mistakes loses a great many chances to learn something.”

Why should a true and sincere appreciation be termed flattery, and degraded to the level of insincere praise? Why should an individual be accused of acting from base and selfish policy because he feels the glow and warmth of social response?

Our power over others lies not so much in the amount of thought within us as in the power of bringing it out.

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?

I always seek the good that is in people and leave the bad to Him who made mankind and knows how to round off the corners.

Don’t bewail and bemoan. Omit the negative propositions. Nerve us with incessant affirmations. Don’t waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.

How the sting of poverty, or small means, is gone when one keeps house for one’s own comfort, and not for the comfort of one’s neighbors.

Culture is not an accident of birth, although our surroundings advance or retard it; it is always a matter of individual education.

No man need hunt for his mission. His mission comes to him. It is not above, it is not below, it is not far—not to make happy human faces now and then among the children of misery, but to keep happy human faces about us all the time.

Whoever will prosper in any line of life must save his own time and do his own thinking. He must spend neither time nor money which he has not earned.

I pray you, O excellent wife, not to cumber yourself and me to get a rich dinner for this man or this woman who has alighted at our gate, nor a bed-chamber made ready at too great a cost. These things they can get for a dollar at any village. But let this stranger, if he will, in your looks, in your accent, and behavior, read your heart and earnestness, your thought and will, which he cannot buy at any price in any village or city, and which he may well travel fifty miles and dine sparely and sleep hard in order to behold. Certainly, let the board be spread and let the bed be dressed for the traveler; but let not the emphasis of hospitality lie in these things. Honor to the house where they are simple to the verge of hardship, so that there the intellect is awake and reads the laws of the Universe.

[Pg 33]“The secret of the joy of living is the proper appreciation of what we actually possess.”

Thrust an Emerson into any Concord, and his pungent presence will penetrate the entire region. Soon all who come within the radius of his life respond to his presence as flowers and trees respond with boughs, brilliant and fragrant, to the sunshine. After a little, each Emerson stands girt about with Hawthornes, Whittiers, Holmeses and Lowells.

The nobler life is just as possible to us all as that which is ignoble. The moment one will assert his freedom from petty cares, perplexities, troubles, and anxieties, that moment they fall off of themselves.

He approaches nearest to the gods who knows how to be silent even though he knows he is in the right.

We need only obey. There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening, we shall hear the right word.

When a man has not a good reason for doing a thing, he has one reason for letting it alone.

Pure religion as taught by Jesus Christ is a life, a growth, a divine spirit within, coming out in love and sympathy and helpfulness to our fellow-men.

Be sure of the foundation of your life. Know why you live as you do. Be ready to give a reason for it. Do not, in such a matter as life, build on opinion or custom, or what you guess is true. Make it a matter of certainty and science.

Nothing raises the price of a blessing like its removal; whereas, it was its continuance which should have taught us its value.

Christianity wants nothing so much in the world as sunny people, and the old are hungrier for love than for bread. The Oil of Joy is very cheap, and if you can help the poor with a Garment of Praise, it will be better for them than blankets.

You will find it less easy to uproot faults than to choke them by gaining virtues. Do not think of your faults, still less of others’ faults. In every person who comes near you look for what is good and strong; honor that; rejoice in it; and as you can, try to imitate it; and your faults will drop off like dead leaves, when their time comes.

When you hold persistently to the successful mental state, you become a magnet drawing other people to aid you as you in return can aid them. But if you are much of the time despondent and gloomy, you become the negative magnet driving the best from you.

There are two days about which nobody should ever worry, and these are yesterday and to-morrow.

A child, however educated, is still untaught if by his teaching we have not emphasized his individual character, if we have not strengthened his will and its guide and guardian, the mind.

The optimist, by his superior wisdom and insight, is making his own heaven, and in the degree that he makes his own heaven, is he helping to make one for all the world beside.

Do not let your head run upon that which is none of your own, but pick out some of the best of your circumstances, and consider how eagerly you would wish for them, were they not in your possession.

Insist on your self; never imitate. There is at this moment for you an utterance brave and grand as that of the colossal chisel of Phidias, or the pen of Moses or Dante, but different from these. If you can hear what these patriarchs say, surely you can reply to them in the same pitch of voice.

O God, animate us to cheerfulness! May we have a joyful sense of our blessings, learn to look on the bright circumstances of our lot, and maintain a perpetual contentedness.

A man is specially and divinely fortunate, not when his conditions are easy, but when they evoke the very best that is in him; when they provoke him to nobleness, and sting him to strength, when they clear his vision, kindle his enthusiasm and inspire his will.

The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. If he knows I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward.

It is always good to know, if only in passing, charming human beings. It refreshes one like flowers and woods and clear brooks.

Do not discharge in haste the arrow which can never return: it is easy to destroy happiness; most difficult to restore it.

Disappointment should always be taken as a stimulant, and never viewed as a discouragement.

It is a great folly not to part with your own faults, which is possible, but to try instead to escape from other people’s faults, which is impossible.

“To persuade one soul to lead a better life is to leave the world better than you found it.”

“He that brings sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from himself.”

Give us, oh, give us, the man who sings at his work! Be his occupation what it may, he is equal to any of those who follow the same pursuit in silent sullenness. He does more in the same time—he will do it better—he will persevere longer.

Be sure you give men the best of your wares though they be poor enough; and the gods will help you to lay by a better store for the future.

Reading is indeed to the mind as food is to the body—the material of which its fibre is made. It is surprising to note the difference in the quality of mental thought which even one-half hour’s good reading each day will make.

Cherish ideals as the traveler cherishes the north star, and keep the guiding light pure and bright and high above the horizon.

The days come and go like muffled and veiled figures sent from a distant friendly party; but they say nothing, and if we do not use the gifts they bring, they carry them as silently away.

To keep one’s foot firmly set in the way that leads upwards, however dark and thorny it may be at the moment, is to conquer.

To love is the great glory, the last culture, the highest happiness; to be loved is little in comparison.

I have lived to know that the secret of happiness is never to allow your energies to stagnate.

Entertaining is the finest of all the fine arts, and it cannot be done by proxy. It cannot be done by the cook, nor yet by the decorator. Let the hostess give her guests her personal interest, her sympathetic comprehension, and she will have then mastered the delicate and subtle art.

I am primarily engaged to myself to be a public servant to all the gods, to demonstrate to all men that there is a good will and intelligence at the heart of things, and ever higher and yet higher leadings.

Few causes age the body faster than wilful indolence and monotony of mind—the mind, that very principle of physical youthfulness.

“To speak wisely may not always be easy, but not to speak ill requires only silence.”

If you have not slept, or if you have slept, or if you have a headache, or sciatica, or leprosy, or thunder stroke, I beseech you by all the angels to hold your peace, and not pollute the morning, to which all the housemates bring serene and pleasant thoughts, by corruptions and groans.

Happiness rarely is absent. It is we that know not of its presence. The greatest felicity avails us nothing if we know not that we are happy.

Instead of a gem, or even a flower, cast the gift of a lovely thought into the heart of a friend.

Do not think it wasted time to submit yourself to any influence that will bring upon you any noble feeling.

Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that day, which must be done whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you ... a hundred virtues which the idle never know.

Foresight is very wise, but foresorrow is very foolish; and castles are, at any rate, better than dungeons in the air.

It requires a sterner virtue than good nature to hold fast the truth, that it is nobler to be shabby and honest, than to do things handsomely in debt.

“Drop the subject when you cannot agree; there is no need to be bitter because you know you are right.”

It is not only a part of the wisdom of happiness, but it is absolutely essential to the conditions of any true work in the world, to so live that one may not be too greatly affected by the attitude of other people. A man’s life is, after all, primarily between God and himself.

The thoughts that come often unsought, and, as it were, drop into the mind, are commonly the most valuable we have, and therefore should be secured, because they seldom return again.

A man’s own good breeding is the best security against other people’s ill manners.

The best teacher of duties that still lie near to us, is the practice of those we see and have at hand.

“The secret of a sweet and Christian life is learning to live by the day. It is the long stretches that tire us.”

To one who is in the rôle of host there can be no more bitter rebuke than to have any guest or chance caller go out from the portals with the feeling that he is sorry he came—that he is depressed rather than up-lifted. For all personal association, whether permanent or transient, whether prearranged or a matter of accidental contact, should leave behind it a lingering charm, a deeper sense of the loveliness of life.

One of the natural tendencies of the mortal mind is toward proselyting. The moment we believe something to be true, we begin to try to convert others to our belief. We learn to say, with some degree of realization, “God worketh in me to will and to do of His good pleasure,” but we quite forget that the same God is working equally in our brother “to will and to do.” “I am the door,” says the Christ within every man’s own soul. Now you are trying to have your dear one enter in through your door. He must enter in through his own Christ, his own desire.

You may not be able to leave your children a great inheritance, but day by day you may be weaving coats for them which they will wear through all eternity.

He that cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven.

We exhaust our strength in our impatience at our work, and the conditions that surround us. There is nothing that comes to us which we could not do easily with true adjustment, but we waste our forces in our worries.

It seems as if heroes had done almost all for the world that they can do; and not much more can come until common men awake and take their common tasks. I believe the common man’s task is the hardest.

When you find a person a little better than his word, a little more liberal than his promise, a little more than borne out in his statements by facts, a little larger in deed than in speech, you recognize a kind of eloquence in that person’s utterance not laid down in Blair or Campbell.

Young man! let the nobleness of your mind impel you to its improvement. You are too strong to be defeated, save by yourself.

The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech, he takes a low business tone, avoids all brag, promises not at all, performs much. He calls his employment by its lowest names, and so takes from evil tongues their sharpest weapon.

“In judging others, weigh carefully the method against the motive. If the latter be pure, be patient and charitable, however different from your own the method may be.”

“Refuse to regard as unfortunate the treatment you receive from others; let it stimulate you to deal more justly with yourself and with them.”

The strength of affection is a proof not of the worthiness of the object, but of the largeness of the soul which loves.

Every flower is a hint of His beauty; every grain of wheat a token of His beneficence; every atom of dust, a revelation of His power. In and through all things He is attracting our regard.

It is easy in the world, to live after the world’s opinion: it is easy in solitude, to live after our own. But the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

Manners impress as they indicate real power. A man who is sure of his point, carries a broad and contented expression, which everybody reads. And you cannot rightly train one to an air and manner, except by making him the kind of man of whom that manner is the natural expression. Nature forever puts a premium on reality.

The world is full of judgment-days, and in every assembly that a man enters, in every action he attempts, he is gauged and stamped. A man passes for what he is worth.

Life is noble in proportion to the nobleness of faith; it is successful in proportion to the fixedness of faith.

We should tell ourselves once for all that it is the first duty of the soul to become as happy, complete, independent, and great as lies in its power.

“Cold and reserved natures should remember that though not infrequently flowers may be found beneath the snow, it is chilly work to dig for them, and few care to take the trouble.”

Whenever we send out loving thought in generous profusion, every part of our environment echoes back a sweet benediction.

A good book, whether a novel or not, is one that leaves you farther on than when you took it up. If when you drop it, it drops you down in the same old spot, with no finer outlook, no clearer vision, no stimulated desires for that which is better and higher, it is in no sense a good book.

Each act of humble service is that divine touching of the ground which enables one to get the spring whereby he leaps to greater heights.

Every noble life leaves the fibre of it interwoven forever in the works of the world.

One ought never to speak of the faults of one’s friends; it mutilates them. They can never be the same afterward.

“Never argue with a man who talks loud. You couldn’t convince him in a thousand years.”

The new science perceives that instincts and aspirations in the mind are facts of nature that must be interpreted and accounted for by reason as truly as a stone in the hand.

Work and love: that is the body and soul of the human being. Happy he where they are one.

You picture to yourself the beauty of bravery and steadfastness. And then some little, wretched, disagreeable duty comes which is your martyrdom, the lamp for your oil; and if you do not do it, your oil is spilled.

“Watch the thought you hold for the neighbor who is yet living in the consciousness of truth as you understand it. As you are taught of the Spirit, so will he be taught in the way best adapted to him.”

Why do we so often prefer to believe in the necessity of suffering and weakness rather than in the possibility of strength and gladness?

Great powers and natural gifts do not bring privileges to their possessor, so much as they bring duties.

The higher education of women means more for the future than all conceivable legislative reforms. Its influence does not stop with the home.

“It is not the spurt at the start, but the continued, unresting, unhasting advance that wins the day.”

That which is past is gone and irrevocable, and wise men have enough to do with things present and to come.

A lady’s dress should be such as to please God, not laying aside taste, for is He not much more pleased when His children look well than otherwise? I have no idea that Christ was negligent of his dress. His garment was one counted worthy of casting lots upon.

Experience shows that success is due less to ability than to zeal. The winner is he who gives himself to his work, body and soul.

It is monotony which eats the heart out of joy, destroys the buoyancy of the spirit, and turns hope to ashes; it is monotony which saps the vitality of the emotions; depletes the energy of the will, and finally turns the miracle of daily existence into dreary commonplace. And monotony has its roots, not in our conditions, but in ourselves.

Begin, therefore, with little things. Is it a little oil spilt or a little wine stolen? Say to yourself, this is the price paid for peace and tranquillity; and nothing is to be had for nothing. And when you call your servant, consider that it is possible he may not come at your call, or, if he does, that he may not do what you wish. But it is not at all desirable for him, and very undesirable for you, that it should be in his power to cause you any disturbance.

Let us never forget that an act of goodness is of itself an act of happiness. No reward coming after the event can compare with the sweet reward that went with it.

I said, “I will go out and look for mine enemies,” and that day I found no friends. Again, I said, “I will go out and look for my friends,” and that day I found no enemies.

Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind, for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.

“If you will call your ‘troubles’ ‘experiences,’ and remember that every experience develops some latent force within you, you will grow vigorous and happy, however adverse your circumstances may seem to be.”

Wanting to have a friend is altogether different from wanting to be a friend. The former is a mere natural human craving, the latter is the life of Christ in the soul.

When we cultivate thoughts of strength for others, we ourselves grow strong. Habitual thoughts of peace bring us tranquillity.

All high happiness has in it some element of love; all love contains a desire for peace. One immediate effect of new happiness is to make us turn toward the past with a wish to straighten out its difficulties, heal its breaches and forgive its wrongs.

You have not fulfilled every duty unless you have fulfilled that of being pleasant.

We do a great deal of shirking in this life on the ground of not being geniuses.

We never know for what God is preparing us in His schools—for what work on earth, for what work in the hereafter. Our business is to do our work well in the present place, whatever that may be.

Health is the first of all liberties, and happiness gives us the energy which is the basis of health.

Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this, that you are dreadfully like other people.

There is a dust that settles on the heart as well as that which rests upon the ledge. It is better to wear out than to rust out.

How many a thing which we cast to the ground, when others pick it up becomes a gem.

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

Flowers, says Ruskin, seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity. Children love them; quiet, tender, contented, ordinary people love them as they grow; they are the cottager’s treasure; and in the crowded town mark, as with a little broken fragment of rainbow, the windows of the workers in whose heart rests the covenant of peace.

He who has a high standard of living and thinking will certainly do better than he who has none at all.

You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments that stand out, the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love.

And let him go where he will, he can only find so much beauty or worth as he carries.

As you grow ready for it, somewhere or other you will find what is needful for you—in a book, or a friend, or, best of all, in your own thoughts, the eternal thought speaking in your thought.

Displays of moral excellence, truths set forth in living actions, are multiplied as they are shown. Men are won by what they approve. They are led to imitate what they admire. Laudable actions never stand alone. They go from eye to eye, from heart to heart, creating fresh copies of their immortal worth.

We should think just as though our thought were visible to all about us. Real character is not outward conduct, but quality of thinking.

It is a much shallower and more ignoble occupation to detect faults than to discover beauties.

Whatever you wish to accomplish, be willing to do, and to commence your work at once, right where you find yourself, and decide that you do not want anything better to begin with than the conditions that surround you, for God is with you.

The broad-minded see the truth in different religions; the narrow-minded see only their differences.

To live in the presence of great truths and eternal laws, to be led by permanent ideals,—that is what keeps a man patient when the world ignores him, and calm and unspoiled when the world praises him.

No education is complete, nor, indeed, of great permanent value, that does not teach how to live contentedly and to economize nerve energy.

I have seen manners that make a similar impression with personal beauty, that give us the like exhilaration, and refine us like that. But they must be marked by fine perception, they must always show self-control. Then they must be inspired by the good heart.

The life of a man consists not in seeing visions and in dreaming dreams, but in active charity and in willing service.

From Socrates to Browning the thinkers and poets have all been emancipators. In the end, this bringing of new light into the minds of the world will be counted their chief service.

Personal happiness is almost synonymous with personal interests; the wider the range of the latter, the higher is the degree of happiness.

Thoughts of courage, and hope, and highest expectation growing habitual, may lift out and up many a weary pilgrim.

Do not waste a minute—not a second—in trying to demonstrate to others the merit of your own performance. If your work does not vindicate itself, you cannot vindicate it.

To go about moping, depressed, blue, out of spirits in general, is to exist, but not to live. It is the condition of a mollusk, and unworthy a human being. Worry is a state of spiritual corrosion. A trouble either can be remedied, or it cannot. If it can be, then set about it; if it cannot be, dismiss it from your consciousness, or bear it so bravely that it may become transfigured to a blessing.

I think we should treat our minds as innocent children whose guardian we are—be careful what objects and what subjects we thrust on their attention.

Gather roses while they blossom; to-morrow is not to-day! Allow no moment to escape; to-morrow is not to-day.

Cheapness of nature can be redeemed only from one source—that of the invisible power on the divine side of life. By seeking this in silence and concentration for a little time each day all refinement and loveliness and charm can be achieved. It is the magic of life.

I have wished to teach a single lesson, true alike to all men—the lesson of the saving of time.

There are so many things—best things—that can only come when youth is past, that it may well happen to many of us to find ourselves happier and happier to the last.

Poetry frequents and keeps habitable those upper chambers of the mind that open toward the sun’s rising.

The individual who cultivates grievances, and who is perpetually exacting explanations of his assumed wrongs, can only be ignored, and left to the education of time and of development.... One does not argue or contend with the foul miasma that settles over stagnant water; one leaves it and climbs to a higher region, where the air is pure and the sunshine fair.

Let not future things disturb thee, for thou wilt come to them if it shall be necessary, having with thee the same reason which thou now usest for present things.

We hear much said of “environment.” We need to realize that environment should never be allowed to make the man, but that man should always, and always can, condition the environment. When we realize this, we will find that many times it is not necessary to take ourselves out of any particular environment, because we may yet have a work to do there; but by the very force we carry with us, we can so affect and change matters that we will have an entirely new set of conditions in an old environment.

O the paralyzing effect of fear of evil! It surely doth make “cowards of us all.” It makes us pygmies where we might be giants, were we only free from it.

As you grow old, guard against the tendency to live more coarsely, to relax in your discipline. Obey your finest instincts. Be fastidious to the extreme of sanity.

Character is not only written in the face, expressed in conduct and language, but is sent forth as a thought atmosphere.

To love one soul for its beauty and grace and truth is to open the way to appreciate all beautiful and true and gracious souls, and to recognize spiritual beauty wherever it is seen.

We must alter for the better always and unceasingly. Nature seems to be at rest only because she is perpetually renewed. The soul enjoys repose on the same terms.

God gives us power to bear all the sorrows of His making: but He does not give the power to bear the sorrows of our own making, which the anticipation of sorrow most assuredly is.

“The whole world unites in pushing us the way we have really made up our mind to go.”

Without distinction, without calculation, without procrastination, love. Lavish it upon the poor, where it is very easy; especially upon the rich, who often need it most; most of all upon our equals, where it is very difficult, and for whom perhaps we each do least of all.

It seems to me there is no maxim for a noble life like this: Count always your highest moments your truest moments. Believe that in the time when you were the greatest and most spiritual man, then you were your truest self.

The stream of content must flow from ourselves, taking its source from a deliberate disposition to learn what is good, and a determined resolution to seek for and enjoy it, however small the portion may be.

When you have a number of disagreeable duties to perform, always do the most disagreeable first.

God says, live deeply, earnestly in the present, and the spirit of all the ages shall come and reveal itself to you.

To try too hard to make people good is one way to make them worse. The only way to make them good, is to be good, remembering well the beam and the mote.

The sense of humor is the oil of life’s engine. Without it, the machinery creaks and groans. No lot is so hard, no aspect of things is so grim, but it relaxes before a hearty laugh.

“Of all work,” said the Bishop of Exeter, “that produces results, nine-tenths must be drudgery. There is no work, from the highest to the lowest, which can be done well by any man who is unwilling to make that sacrifice.”

It is a hard thing to close up a discourse and to cut it short, when you are once in, and have a great deal more to say. There is nothing wherein the strength and breeding of a horse is so much seen as in a round, graceful, and sudden stop.

When we feel a strong desire to thrust our advice on others, it is usually because we suspect their weakness; but we ought rather to suspect our own.

Efforts to be permanently useful, must be uniformly joyous—a spirit all sunshine—graceful from very gladness, beautiful because bright.

Read the philosophers, and learn how to make life happy; seeking useful precepts and brave and noble words which may become deeds.

The best piece of good fortune which can come to one is opportunity for intimacy with a leader, in whatever line of life he may be engaged.

God has delivered yourself to your care, and says: “I had no fitter to trust than you.”

Half the world is on the wrong scent in the pursuit of happiness. They think it consists in having and getting, and in being served by others. It consists in giving and in serving others.

What we like determines what we are, and is the sign of what we are; and to teach taste is inevitably to form character.

Of nothing may we be more sure than this, that if we cannot sanctify our present lot, we could sanctify no other. Our heaven and our Almighty Father are there or nowhere.

“Whether in large or small affairs, there must be perpetual adjustment. Neither men nor women, more than our finely strung musical instruments, can escape the need of constant tuning.”

As nothing reveals character like the company we like and keep, so nothing foretells futurity like the thoughts over which we brood.

Simply do the best you know, then trust. He who seeks to live by the Spirit and who cares above all for that, will not be without guidance.

“It is better to endure all the frowns and anger of the greatest on earth, than to have an uneasy conscience within our breast. O, let the bird in the soul be always kept singing whatsoever one may suffer.”

The men and women that are lifting the world upward and onward are those who encourage more than criticise.

I ought not to pronounce judgment on a fellow creature until I know all that enters into his life; until I can measure all the forces of temptation and resistance; until I can give full weight to all the facts in the case. In other words, I am never in a position to judge another.

What I am thinking and doing day by day is resistlessly shaping my future—a future in which there is no expiation except through my own better conduct. No one can save me. No one can live my life for me. If I am wise I shall begin to-day to build my own truer and better world from within.

I am an enemy to long explanation; they deceive either the maker or the hearer, generally both.

He who is false to present duty, breaks a thread in the loom, and will find a flaw, when he may have forgotten the cause.

Every advance we make toward the realization of the truth of the permanence and immanence of law, brings us nearer to Him, who is the First Cause of all law and all phenomena.

You are never to complain of your birth, your training, your employments, your hardships; never to fancy that you could be something if only you had a different lot and sphere assigned you. God understands his own plan, and He knows what you want a great deal better than you do yourself.

“If you would have a happy family life, remember two things: in matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.”

When the Kingdom is once found, life ceases to be a plodding, and becomes an exaltation, an ecstasy, a joy.

Immortality will come to such as are fit for it; and he who would be a great soul in the future must be a great soul now.

There is no kind of bondage which life lays upon us that may not yield both sweetness and strength; and nothing reveals a man’s character more fully than the spirit in which he bears his limitations.

The vision of things to be done may come a long time before the way of doing them appears clear. But woe to him who distrusts the vision.

In order to manage children well, we must borrow their eyes and their hearts, see and feel as they do, and judge them from their own point of view.

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations; I cannot reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.

No power in society, no hardship in your condition can depress you, keep you down, in knowledge, power, virtue, influence, but by your own consent.

Contentment comes neither by culture nor by wishing; it is reconciliation with our lot, growing out of an inward superiority to our surroundings.

At times it is only necessary to rest one’s self in silence for a few minutes, in order to take off the pressure and become wonderfully refreshed.

Touchiness, when it becomes chronic, is a morbid condition of the inward disposition.

It is not written, blessed is he that feedeth the poor, but he that considereth the poor. A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.

Oh, do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks! Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come in you by the grace of God.

What does your anxiety do? It does not empty to-morrow, brother, of its sorrow; but ah! it empties to-day of its strength. It does not make you escape the evil; it makes you unfit to cope with it if it comes.

If you wish to be miserable, think about yourself, about what you want, what you like, what respect people ought to pay you; and then to you nothing will be pure. You will spoil everything you touch, you will make misery for yourself out of everything which God sends you: you will be as wretched as you choose.

Let us beware of losing our enthusiasm. Let us ever glory in something, and strive to attain our admiration for all that would ennoble, and our interest in all that would enrich and beautify our life.

Not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

It is astonishing what a lot of odd minutes one can catch during the day, if one really sets about it.

No man can be provident of his time who is not prudent in the choice of his company.

Every great man is always being helped by everybody; for his gift is to get good out of all things and all persons.

Belief in compensation, or that nothing is got for nothing, characterizes all valuable minds.

Never shrink from anything which your business calls you to do. The man who is above his business may one day find his business above him.

Every life that has God in it has the index to character and the key to the highest attainment.

Be resolutely and faithfully what you are; be humbly what you aspire to be. Man’s noblest gift to man is his sincerity, for it embraces his integrity also.

Dost thou love life? Then waste not time; for time is the stuff that life is made of.

The best way of training the young, is to train yourself at the same time; not to admonish them, but to be seen always doing that of which you would admonish them.

It is a good and safe rule to sojourn in every place, as if you meant to spend your life there, never omitting an opportunity of doing a kindness, or speaking a true word, or making a friend.

Landor’s definition of a great man: He who can call together the most select company when it pleases him.

We go apart to get still; that new life, new inspiration, new power of thought, new supplies from the Fountainhead, may flow in.

Perhaps it is a good thing to have an unsound hobby ridden hard; for it is sooner ridden to death.

“He who is always inquiring what people will say, will never give them opportunity to say anything great about him.”

It is not so much what you say to the children that charges the atmosphere of your home, as it is the spirit of your life, the temper you exhibit, the ends which you live for.

Punishment closely follows sin, it being born at the same time with it. Whoever expects punishment, already suffers it; whoever has deserved it, expects it.

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, that of an “Honest Man.”

Trust in God, as Moses did, let the way be never so dark; and it shall come to pass that your life at last shall surpass even your longing. Not, it may be, in the line of that longing; that shall be as it pleaseth God; but the glory is as sure as the grace, and the most ancient heavens are not more sure than that.

Men suffer all their life long under the foolish superstition that they can be cheated. But it is as impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself, as for a thing to be and not to be at the same time. There is a third silent party to all our bargains. The nature and soul of things takes on itself the guaranty of the fulfilment of every contract, so that honest service cannot come to loss. If you serve an ungrateful master, serve him the more. Put God in your debt. Every stroke shall be repaid. The longer the payment is withholden, the better for you; for compound interest on compound interest is the rate and usage of this exchequer.

I believe if we could only see beforehand what it is that our Heavenly Father means us to be, the soul beauty and perfection and glory, the glorious and lovely spiritual body that this soul is to dwell in through all eternity, if we could have a glimpse of this, we should not grudge all the trouble and pains he is taking with us now to bring us up to that ideal which is his thought of us.

Let thy every word and act be perfect truth, uttered in genuine love. Let not the forms of business, or the conventional arrangements of society reduce thee into falsehood. Be true to thyself. Be true to thy friend. Be true to the world.

Learn to handle and control the ignorant part of your being as you would watch and guide a child. Hold thought and expression to your highest ideal. Learn from your failure.

Self reliance is the basis of behavior, as it is the guaranty that the powers are not squandered in too much demonstration.

Difficulties may surround our path; but if the difficulties be not in ourselves, they may generally be overcome.

Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles and kindnesses and small obligations, given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart and secure comfort.

Chilo, having had the question put to him, What is difficult? said: “To be silent about secrets; to make good use of one’s leisure; and to be able to submit to injustice.”

We should every day call ourselves to an account. What infirmity have I mastered to-day? What temptation have I resisted? What virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.

The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man’s observation, not overturning it.

Revery is the Sunday of thought; and who knows which is the more important and fruitful for man, the laborious tension of the week, or the life-giving repose of the Sabbath?

[Pg 100]There is nothing ridiculous in seeming to be what you really are, but a good deal in affecting to be what you are not.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of a man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do.

The royal road to success is to obey the inner genius, to act in accordance with one’s own intuition, regardless of the fear or favor of those who are bound to the wheel of conventional consistency.

What reason have we to think any other station in the universe more sanctifying than our own? There is none, so far as we can tell, under the more immediate touch of God, none whence sublimer deeps are open to adoration, none murmuring with the whisper of more thrilling affections or ennobled as the theater of more glorious duties. Those to whom the earth is not consecrated will find their heaven profane.

Whoever can influence men should strive to make them more courageous, more enduring, more hopeful, simpler, more joyful.

It is our part in life to work with all our strength toward the realization of ideal humanity, to add one more link to the chain which joins the man-brute of the past, through the man of the present, to the man of the future. The man who is likest Him, we have chosen for our ideal.

My own experience and development deepens every day my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy.

“When opposition of any kind is necessary, drop all color of emotion out of it and let it be seen in the white light of truth.”

The true use of a man’s possessions is to help his work, and the best end of all his work is to show us what he is. The noblest workers of our world bequeath us nothing so great as the image of themselves.

“What is the secret of your life?” asked Mrs. Browning of Charles Kingsley; “tell me, that I may make mine beautiful too?” He replied, “I had a friend.”

Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness; altogether past calculation its powers of endurance.

Yea, from the table of my memory I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records, that youth and observation copied there; and thy commandment all along shall live within the book and volume of my brain, unmixed with baser matter.

I am surprised that intelligent men do not see the immense value of good temper in their homes; and am amazed that they will take such pains to have costly houses and fine furniture, and yet sometimes neglect to bring home with them good temper.

Everyone should consider his body as a priceless gift from one whom he loves above all, a marvelous work of art, of indescribable beauty, and mastery beyond human conception, and so delicate that a word, a breath, a look, nay, a thought may injure it.

Education should be full of feeling. It takes sunlight to draw out the fragrance of the violet and the perfume of the rose.

We are encompassed about by the forces that make for righteousness. All power we possess, or seem to possess, comes from our accord with these forces. There is no lasting force, except the power of God.

If one admires the patience, gentleness, sweetness and unfailing energy of another; if he finds himself renewed and invigorated and inspired by such contact,—why does he not himself so live that he may bring the same renewal and inspiration to others?

Characters are determined not by the opinions which we profess, but by those on which our thoughts habitually fasten, which recur to them most forcibly and which color our ordinary views of God and duty.

We are too busy, too encumbered, too much occupied, too active! We read too much! The one thing needful is to throw off all one’s load of cares, and to become young again, living happily and gracefully in the present hour. We must know how to put occupation aside, which does not mean that we must be idle.

The new conditions of life demand the higher spirituality of the individual. But what is this? Is it a name, a mental state of exaltation, an ecstasy? Is it an exalted hour, or is it conduct? Is it a merely theoretical thing, a vision caught in some rare hour?... If it be thus, it may have a decorative value in ethics, but is devoid of any practical bearing on our common life. Unless spirituality is the power that transforms falsehood to truth, selfishness to generosity, unless it enters into character as a pervasive force, of what use can it be?

Spirituality is not negative. It is not the mere absence of sin. It is the most positive state.

No one has any more right to go about unhappy than he has to go about ill-bred. He owes it to himself, to his friends, to society and the community in general, to live up to his best spiritual possibilities, not only now and then, but every day and every hour.

Who shoots at the mid-day sun, though he be sure that he shall never hit the mark, yet as sure is he that he shall shoot higher than he who aims but at a bush.

Blessed are they who have the gift of making friends, for it is one of God’s best gifts. It involves many things, but, above all, the power of going out of one’s self, and seeing and appreciating whatever is noble and loving in another.

There is no duty the fulfillment of which will not make you happier, nor any temptation for which there is no remedy.

We must be as courteous to a man as to a picture, which we are willing to give the benefit of a good light.

The old year is fast slipping back behind us. We cannot stay it if we would. We must go on and leave our past. Let us go forth nobly. Let us go as those whom greater thoughts and greater deeds await beyond.

Opportunity is a good angel, but she deserts those who fail to recognize her. The ring of power must be worn; ... if the charm is not held to service, it slips away.

A dull day need not be a depressing day; depression always implies physical or moral weakness, and is therefore never to be tolerated so long as one can struggle against it.

I look upon that man as happy, who, when there is a question of success, looks into his work for a reply; not into the market, not into opinion, not into patronage. Work is victory. You want but one verdict; if you have your own, you are secure of the rest.

What a sublime doctrine it is that goodness cherished now, is eternal life already entered upon!

“‘This one thing I do,’ or, ‘These forty things I dabble in,’—which shall it be?”

I expect to pass through this life but once. If, therefore, there is any kindness I can show, or any good I can do to any fellow-being, let me do it now, let me not defer it, for I shall not pass this way again.

A wide-spreading, hopeful disposition is the best umbrella for this vale of tears.

He who meets life as though it meant something worth finding out, and who expresses his best self, is the one who has the permanent basis of happiness.

We prepare ourselves for sudden deeds by the reiterated choice of good or evil, that gradually determines character.

To be courteous to one’s peers is all very well, but it is fairness and courtesy and consideration to those in dependent or limited conditions that constitute the true test of the gentleman or lady.

I like not only to be loved, but to be told I am loved. The realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave.

I should count myself fortunate if my home were remembered for some inspiring quality of faith, charity, and aspiring intelligence.

Give to a gracious message a host of tongues; but let ill tidings tell themselves.

To live content with small means—to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy not respectable, and wealthy not rich—to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly, to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart—to bear all cheerfully—do all bravely, await occasions—never hurry; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.

Let us do our duty in our shop or our kitchen, the market, the street, the office, the school, the home, just as faithfully as if we stood in the front rank of some great battle, and we knew that victory for mankind depended on our bravery, strength, and skill. When we do that, the humblest of us will be serving in that great army which achieves the welfare of the world.

Opportunities correspond with almost mathematical accuracy to the ability for using them.

No man finds himself until he has created a world for his own soul; a world apart from care and weakness and the confusion of strife, in which the faiths that inspire him, and the ideals that lead him are the great and lasting verities.

Endeavor to be patient in bearing the defects and infirmities of others, of what sort soever they be; for thou thyself also hast many failings which must be borne with by others.

He who does a good deed is instantly ennobled. He who does a mean deed is by the action itself contracted. He who puts off impurity thereby puts on purity.

He that is choice of his time will be choice of his company and choice of his actions.

In all things throughout the world, the man who looks for the crooked will see the crooked, and the man who looks for the straight will see the straight.

Begin, live, aspire, realize the best ideal of the moment; and this earnest effort shall lead the way to greater achievement.

Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gayety and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good, just, and beautiful.

If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse-trap, than his neighbor, though he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

“Instead of wishing that all men were of our mind, we should account it one of the first blessings of life that there are men who do not agree with us. The currents of sea and air are not more necessary than the currents of thought.”

In looking back over our lives, we often see that what seemed at the time the worst hours and the most hopeless in their wretchedness were in reality the best of all! They developed powers within us that had heretofore slept; developed energies of which we had never dreamed.

Let your task be to render yourself worthy of love, and this even more for your own happiness than for that of another’s.

There is great danger in constant dissatisfaction. Sooner or later, it will involve the health, or finances, or both, for it destroys the mental balance, and impairs the judgment.

“Don’t nurse opportunity too long—take it into active partnership with you at once, lest it leave you for other company.”

It is my custom every night to run all over the words and actions of the past day; for why should I fear the sight of my errors when I can admonish and forgive myself? I was a little too hot in such a dispute: my opinion might have been as well spared, for it gave offense, and did no good at all. The thing was true; but all truths are not to be spoken at all times.

If we would listen intently, we might hear the divine voice within, assuring us that God is our life; that spirit is the only substantial entity and that love is the only law.

Let us grow out of the idea that because we do some one a favor or render him a service, that he is thereby under some transcendent obligation to us. Let us recognize the truth—that it is we who are obliged if he will permit us to do him a favor.

Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.

Compass happiness, since happiness alone is victory. What you make of life, it will be to you. Take it up bravely, bear it on joyfully, lay it down triumphantly.

Those things that are not practicable are not desirable. There is nothing that God has judged good for us that He has not given us the means to accomplish. If we cry like children for the moon, like children we must cry on.

Do your best loyally and cheerfully, and suffer yourself to feel no anxiety nor fear. Your times are in God’s hands. He has assigned you your place: He will direct your paths; He will accept your efforts, if they be faithful.

When we cease to look upon any experience as too hard, we have made a decided step in wise adjustment to life.

A certain awkwardness marks the use of borrowed thoughts, but as soon as we have learned what to do with them, they become our own.

The choir invisible! Who are members of it, if not all those who in any way are doing the day’s work, whatever it may be, as well as they know how; who are trying to make the world happier and pleasanter for those to whom their lives are naturally bound.

There are some who want to get rid of their past, who, if they could, would begin all over again, ... but you must learn, you must let God teach you, that the only way to get rid of your past is to get a future out of it.

It is a sign that your reputation is small and sinking, if your own tongue must praise you.

There is no beautifier in form or behavior like the wish to scatter joy, and not pain, around us.

“Friend, all the world’s a little queer, excepting thee and me; and sometimes I think thee a trifle peculiar.”

We live by our enthusiasm and our exaltations. Our sympathies are our strength. Our interests are our magnetisms, and are transmuted into our working capital.

His heart was as great as the world, but there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong.

He is all truth in his words, and justice in his actions, and if the whole world should disbelieve his integrity, dispute his character, and question his happiness, he would neither take it ill in the least, nor turn aside from that path that leads to the aim of life, toward which he must move, pure, calm, well prepared—and with perfect resignation in his fate.

Observe good faith and justice toward all nations, cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it?

[Pg 123]It is well to believe that there needs but a little more thought, a little more courage, more love, more devotion to life, a little more eagerness, one day to fling open wide the portals of joy and of truth.

A man’s home is his castle, but it ought to be more. It ought to be his home. That it is his castle is his right by law. To make it a real home depends upon himself.

He who, forgetting self, makes the object of his life service, helpfulness and kindness to others, finds his whole nature growing and expanding, himself becoming large-hearted, magnanimous, kind, sympathetic, joyous and happy; his life becoming rich and beautiful.

The test of friendship is its fidelity when every charm of fortune and environment has been swept away, and the bare, undraped character alone remains; if love still holds steadfast, and the joy of companionship still survives, in such an hour, the fellowship becomes a beautiful prophecy of immortality.

We lose vigor through thinking continually the same set of thoughts. New thought is new life.

No sadder proof can be given by a man of his own littleness than disbelief in great men.

If you want knowledge, you must toil for it; if food, you must toil for it; and if pleasure, you must toil for it. Toil is the law. Pleasure comes through toil, and not by self-indulgence and indolence. When one gets to love work, his life is a happy one.

There is a class of people who are comparatively valueless to the world because of a certain morbidness which they are pleased to call sensitiveness. In reality it is nothing of the sort. It is self-love—a refined variety of it, to be sure, but none the less is it the result of a selfishly subjective state, in which they look in and not out, and down and not up, and fail to lend a hand—not from any real unwillingness, but because they are looking in, and do not see the opportunity.

It is not poverty that helps a man; it is the effort by which he throws off the yoke of poverty that enlarges the powers.

“Of all bad habits, despondency is among the least respectable, and there is no one quite so tiresome as the sad-visaged Christian who is oppressed by the wickedness and hopelessness of the world.”

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means waste of time.

There is no preservative and antiseptic, nothing that keeps one’s heart young like sympathy, like giving one’s self with enthusiasm to some worthy thing or cause.

A truly concentrated life promptly rejects every thought of past or future that would disturb its confidence in the present hour.

A man can never be idle with safety and advantage until he has been so trained by work that he makes his freedom more fruitful than his toil.

After every storm the sun will smile; for every problem there is a solution, and the soul’s indefeasible duty is to be of good cheer.

Be sure to live on the sunny side, and even then do not expect the world to look bright, if you habitually wear gray-brown glasses.

Whenever Conscience calls a halt, it is no place for Reason to debate the question. The way ahead is no thoroughfare.

“If bitterness has crept into the heart in the friction of the busy day’s unguarded moments, be sure it steals away with the setting sun. Twilight is God’s interval for peace-making.”

“The initial need to enjoyment is not many possessions, but much appreciation.”

Just to be good, to keep life pure from degrading elements, to make it constantly helpful in little ways to those who are touched by it, to keep one’s spirit always sweet and avoid all manner of petty anger and irritability,—that is an idea as noble as it is difficult.

The best help is not to bear the troubles of others for them, but to inspire them with courage and energy to bear their burdens for themselves and meet the difficulties of life bravely.

Never tell evil of a man, if you do not know it for certainty, and if you know it for a certainty, then ask yourself, “Why should I tell it?”

Many persons might have attained to wisdom had they not assumed that they already possessed it.

Stagnation is death, whether it be physical or spiritual. A pool cannot be pure and sweet unless there is an outlet as well as an inlet. Unless you use for the service of others what God has already given you, you will find it a long weary road to Spiritual Understanding.

Make friends with your trials, as though you were always to live together, and you will find that when you cease to take thought for your own deliverance, God will take thought for you.

“God will never leave you without light enough to take one step. Don’t stop walking till the light gives out.”

We ask for long life, but ’tis deep life, or grand moments that signify. Let the measure of time be spiritual, not mechanical.

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendships in constant repair.

“Happiness does not depend on money or leisure, or society, or even on health; it depends on our relation to those we love.”

Life without endeavor is like entering a jewel-mine and coming out with empty hands.

Accustom yourself to master and overcome things of difficulty; for if you observe—the left hand for want of practice is insignificant—and not adapted to general business; yet it holds the bridle better than the right—from constant use.

Almost every moment of the day the eye is receiving impressions from outward objects, and instantly communicating these impressions to the soul. Thus the soul receives every day thousands of impressions, good or bad, according to the character of the objects presented.

Nobody has any right to find life uninteresting or unrewarding who sees within the sphere of his own activity a wrong he can help to remedy, or within himself an evil he can hope to overcome.

It is as amazing as it is sad, that we go about so largely burdening ourselves with strivings that are of no consequence, and miss the gladness and exhilaration of living. No life is successful until it is radiant. The King of Glory is always ready to come in. Why do we bar the way? We cannot all live in palaces; but we can all live in the Kingdom of Heaven, and the material luxuries of the one pale before the glow and thrill and exaltation of the other.

The prosperity of a nation depends upon the health and morals of its citizens, and the health and morals of people depend mainly upon the food they eat and the houses they live in. The time has come when we must have a science of domestic economy, and it must be worked out in the homes of our educated women. A knowledge of the elements of chemistry and physics must be applied to the daily living.

Contact with nobler natures arouses the feelings of unused power and quickens the consciousness of responsibility.

No one but yourself can make your life beautiful, no one can be pure, honorable and loving for you.

Opinions are often the very death of love. Love aright and you will come to think aright; and those who think aright, must think the same. In the meantime, it matters nothing. The thing that does matter is that whereto we have attained.

Would the face of nature be so serene and beautiful if man’s destiny were not equally so?

Some men move through life as a band of music moves down the street, flinging out pleasure on every side through the air, to every one far and near that can listen.

The nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become.

For a woman to be wise and at the same time womanly, is to wield a tremendous influence which may be felt for good in the lives of generations to come.

We never know for what God is preparing us in his schools, for what work on earth, for what work in the hereafter. Our business is to do our work well in the present place, whatever that may be.

The world is such stuff as ideas are made of. Thought possesses all things. But the world is not unreal. It extends infinitely beyond our private consciousness, because it is the world of a universal mind.

To hold one’s self in readiness for opportunity, to keep the serene, confident, hopeful, and joyful energy of mind, is to magnetize it, and draw privileges and power toward one. The concern is not whether opportunity will present itself, but as to whether we will be ready for the opportunity. It comes not to doubt and denial and disbelief. It comes to sunny expectation, eager purpose, and to noble and generous aspiration.

If we neglect to exercise any talent, power, or quality, it soon falls away from us.

What a man is inwardly that to him will the world be outwardly: his mood affects the very “quality of the day.”

I would say to all: use your gentlest voice at home. Watch it day by day, as a pearl of great price; for it will be worth to you in days to come more than the best pearl hid in the sea. A kind voice is joy, like a lark’s song, to a hearth at home. It is a light that sings as well as shines. Train it to sweet tones now, and it will keep in tune through life.

In a world in which so many people wear the same clothes, live in the same house, eat the same dinner, and say the same things, blessed are the individuals who are not lost in the mob, who have their own thoughts, and live their own lives.

There are people who go about the world looking for slights and they are necessarily miserable, for they find them at every turn.

Be happy, peaceful and satisfied just as you stand, having sufficient steadiness and independence to hold your own against the eddies and rapids about you. Apply practically that which you perceive spiritually.

Accept your position as it is, and make the very best of it till it passes. Work with it, knowing that Infinite Wisdom is guiding you: and so cease all anxious thought, and rest.

Glory be to Thee in the highest heavens, O Thou God of our salvation. Thou hast proclaimed peace on earth and infinite good will to men. Unto us has been born a Guide and Deliverer. We hail the morning which commemorates His birth. We thank Thee that we may unite in the joyful commemoration which makes us one with millions of Thy children in all parts of the world.

Lift up yourselves to the great meaning of the day, and dare to think of your humanity as something so divinely precious that it is worthy of being an offering to God. Count it a privilege to make that offering as complete as possible, keeping nothing back, and then go out to the pleasures and duties of your life, having been born anew into His divinity, as He was born into our humanity on Christmas Day.

There are two times in a man’s life when he should not speculate; when he can’t afford it, and when he can.

A man may get to his journey’s end by the light of a lantern, but he is less secure than the man who travels by daylight, and he loses the landscape.

As our ideal becomes loftier, so does it become more real; and the nobler our soul, the less does it dread that it meet not a soul of its stature; for it must have drawn near unto truth, in whose neighborhood all things must take of its greatness.

The importance of a home it is impossible to exaggerate. What is liberty without it? What is education in schools without it? The greatness of no nation can be secure that is not based upon a pure home life.

When a beautiful soul harmonizes with a beautiful form, and the two are cast in one mould, that will be the fairest of sights to him who has the eye to contemplate the vision.

It is only to the finest natures that age gives an added beauty and distinction; for the most persistent self has then worked its way to the surface, having modified the expression, and to some extent, the features, to its own likeness.

Give not thy tongue too great liberty, lest it take thee a prisoner. A word unspoken is like the sword in the scabbard—thine: if vented, thy sword is in another’s hand.

Reputation is in itself only a farthing candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out; but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.

The making of friends, who are real friends, is the best token we have of a man’s success in life.

There is only one way to have good servants; that is, to be worthy of being well served. Only let it be remembered that “kindness” means, as with your child, so with your servant, not indulgence, but care.

But it is a question as to whether Saadi is wise when he prefers to dwell alone. Living on earth, is it not one’s duty to hear many voices that ring in its air? Is one’s life for mere acquirement, or to show results and flower into influence and deed?

The mountain top must be reached no matter how many times we fall in reaching it. The fall is not counted, it does not register; the picking up and going on counts in life.

Success in life is a matter not so much of talent or opportunity as of concentration and perseverance.

To be honest, to be kind, to earn a little, and to spend a little less, to make upon the whole, a family happier for his presence, to renounce when that shall be necessary and not to be embittered, to keep a few friends, but these without capitulation; above all, on the same condition, to keep friends with himself, here is a task for all a man has of fortitude and delicacy.

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		PAGE
A New Year Motto	J. M. C. Bouchard.	28
Come Up Higher	James G. Clarke.	9
Good in Thought	James Russell Lowell.	34
Infinite Love		37
My Soul and I	Laura Barker.	82
Old Friends	Gerald Massey.	117
Opportunity	James Russell Lowell.	113
Prayer	Canon Farrar.	17
Santa Teresa’s Book Mark		143
The Mountain and the Squirrel	Ralph Waldo Emerson.	75
To Know and Do His Will	Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.	129
Truth by Majority	Edward Rowland Sill.	43
Wouldst Shape a Noble Life?	Goethe.	67
You Can Never Tell What Your Thoughts Will Do		11

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Thoughts: Selected from the writings of favorite authors

THOUGHTS
Selected from the Writings of Favorite Authors

INDEX TO POEMS

INDEX TO AUTHORS

Transcriber’s Notes