A Treasury of Quotations from the Literature of Every Land and Every Age.

COMPILED BY

LOUIS KLOPSCH

PUBLISHED BY THE CHRISTIAN HERALD, Louis Klopsch, Proprietor, BIBLE HOUSE, NEW YORK.

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Copyright, 1896, By Louis Klopsch.

[Pg 3]PREFACE.

In the limited compass of this small volume, the compiler has endeavored to employ only such material as is likely to prove of service to the largest circle of readers. Nearly four hundred subjects have received consideration at his hands, and the quotations given are from standard authors of recognized ability. Upwards of twenty-five hundred extracts from the choicest literature of all ages and tongues, topically arranged, and in scope so wide as to touch on nearly every subject that engages the human mind, constitute a treasury of thought which, it is hoped, will be acceptable and helpful to all into whose hands this volume may chance to fall.

Topics Grouped by Alphabet

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Many Thoughts of Many Minds.

Ability.—No man is without some quality, by the due application of which he might deserve well of the world; and whoever he be that has but little in his power should be in haste to do that little, lest he be confounded with him that can do nothing.—Dr. Johnson.

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.—Longfellow.

Every person is responsible for all the good within the scope of his abilities, and for no more.—Gail Hamilton.

The possession of great powers no doubt carries with it a contempt for mere external show.—James A. Garfield.

The art of using moderate abilities to advantage wins praise, and often acquires more reputation than actual brilliancy.—La Rochefoucauld.

Ability is a poor man's wealth.—Matthew Wren.

The measure of capacity is the measure of sphere to either man or woman.—Elizabeth Oakes Smith.

Natural ability can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation; but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural ability.—Schopenhauer.

An able man shows his spirit by gentle words and resolute actions.—Chesterfield.[Pg 6]

Absolution.—No man taketh away sins (which the law, though holy, just and good, could not take away), but He in whom there is no sin.—Bede.

He alone can remit sins who is appointed our Master by the Father of all; He only is able to discern obedience from disobedience.—St. Clement of Alexandria.

It is not the ambassador, it is not the messenger, but the Lord Himself that saveth His people. The Lord remaineth alone, for no man can be partner with God in forgiving sins; this office belongs solely to Christ, who taketh away the sins of the world.—St. Ambrose.

It appertaineth to the true God alone to be able to loose men from their sins.—St. Cyril.

Neither angel, nor archangel, nor yet even the Lord Himself (who alone can say "I am with you"), can, when we have sinned, release us, unless we bring repentance with us.—St. Ambrose.

Action.—The thing done avails, and not what is said about it.—Emerson.

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.—Beaconsfield.

There are three sorts of actions: those that are good, those that are bad, and those that are doubtful; and we ought to be most cautious of those that are doubtful; for we are in most danger of these doubtful actions, because they do not alarm us; and yet they insensibly lead to greater transgressions, just as the shades of twilight gradually reconcile us to darkness.—A. Reed.

To the valiant actions speak alone.—Smollett.

It is well to think well: it is divine to act well.—Horace Mann.

Active natures are rarely melancholy. Activity and melancholy are incompatible.—Bovee.

Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.—Lowell.

It is not to taste sweet things, but to do noble and true things, and vindicate himself under God's heaven as a God-made man, that the poorest son of Adam dimly longs. Show him the way of doing that, the dullest day-drudge kindles into a hero.—Carlyle.

Deliberate with caution, but act with decision; and yield with graciousness, or oppose with firmness.—Colton.

When our souls shall leave this dwelling, the glory of one fair and virtuous action is above all the scutcheons on our tomb, or silken banners over us.—J. Shirley.

Our acts make or mar us,—we are the children of our own deeds.—Victor Hugo.

Man, being essentially active, must find in activity his joy, as well as his beauty and glory; and labor, like everything else that is good, is its own reward.—Whipple.[Pg 8]

Adversity.—Times of great calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm.—Colton.

In the day of prosperity we have many refuges to resort to; in the day of adversity only one.—Horatius Bonar.

Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortunes; but great minds rise above them.—Washington Irving.

The fire of my adversity has purged the mass of my acquaintance.—Bolingbroke.

If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.—Proverbs 24:10.

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant.—Horace.

[Pg 9]The lessons of adversity are often the most benignant when they seem the most severe. The depression of vanity sometimes ennobles the feeling. The mind which does not wholly sink under misfortune rises above it more lofty than before, and is strengthened by affliction.—Chenevix.

There is healing in the bitter cup.—Southey.

Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favor.—Bacon.

In all cases of heart-ache, the application of another man's disappointment draws out the pain and allays the irritation.—Lytton.

Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.—Hebrews 12:6.

The brightest crowns that are worn in heaven have been tried and smelted and polished and glorified through the furnace of tribulation.—Chapin.

Genuine morality is preserved only in the school of adversity, and a state of continuous prosperity may easily prove a quicksand to virtue.—Schiller.

Affectation.—Affectation is the wisdom of fools, and the folly of many a comparatively wise man.

We are never rendered so ridiculous by qualities which we possess, as by those which we aim at, or affect to have.—From the French.

Affectation is a greater enemy to the face than the small-pox.—St. Evremond.

All affectation is the vain and ridiculous attempt of poverty to appear rich.—Lavater.

Affectation hides three times as many virtues as charity does sins.—Horace Mann.[Pg 10]

Affection.—A loving heart is the truest wisdom.—Dickens.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.—Colossians 3:2.

Caresses, expressions of one sort or another, are necessary to the life of the affections as leaves are to the life of a tree. If they are wholly restrained love will die at the roots.—Hawthorne.

Affection is a garden, and without it there would not be a verdant spot on the surface of the globe.

Of all earthly music, that which reaches the farthest into heaven is the beating of a loving heart.—Beecher.

If there is anything that keeps the mind open to angel visits, and repels the ministry of ill, it is human love.—Willis.

Affliction.—God sometimes washes the eyes of his children with tears in order that they may read aright His providence and His commandments.—T.L. Cuyler.

The truest help we can render an afflicted man is not to take his burden from him, but to call out his best energy, that he may be able to bear the burden.—Phillips Brooks.

Every man deems that he has precisely the trials and temptations which are the hardest of all for him to bear; but they are so, because they are the very ones he needs.—Richter.

[Pg 11]Affliction is but the shadow of God's wing.—George Macdonald.

Affliction appears to be the guide to reflection; the teacher of humility; the parent of repentance; the nurse of faith; the strengthener of patience, and the promoter of charity.

Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces.—Matthew Henry.

If you would not have affliction visit you twice, listen at once to what it teaches.—Burgh.

Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.—Job 5:7.

With the wind of tribulation God separates in the floor of the soul, the chaff from the corn.—Molinos.

No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.—Hebrews 12:11.

Age.—No wise man ever wished to be younger.—Swift.

[Pg 12]I venerate old age; and I love not the man who can look without emotion upon the sunset of life, when the dusk of evening begins to gather over the watery eye, and the shadows of twilight grow broader and deeper upon the understanding.—Longfellow.

It is only necessary to grow old to become more indulgent. I see no fault committed that I have not committed myself.—Goethe.

That which is usually called dotage is not the weak point of all old men, but only of such as are distinguished by their levity.—Cicero.

We must not take the faults of our youth into our old age; for old age brings with it its own defects.—Goethe.

If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should not grow old.—James A. Garfield.

Forty is the old age of youth; fifty is the youth of old age.—Victor Hugo.

Remember that some of the brightest drops in the chalice of life may still remain for us in old age. The last draught which a kind Providence gives us to drink, though near the bottom of the cup, may, as is said of the draught of the Roman of old, have at the very bottom, instead of dregs, most costly pearls.—W.A. Newman.

Begin to patch up thine old body for heaven.—Shakespeare.

Few people know how to be old.—La Rochefoucauld.

[Pg 13]When men grow virtuous in their old age, they are merely making a sacrifice to God of the devil's leavings.—Swift.

The defects of the mind, like those of the countenance, increase with age.—La Rochefoucauld.

He who would pass the declining years of his life with honor and comfort, should when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember, when he is old, that he has once been young.—Addison.

Winter, which strips the leaves from around us, makes us see the distant regions they formerly concealed; so does old age rob us of our enjoyments, only to enlarge the prospect of eternity before us.—Richter.

The easiest thing for our friends to discover in us, and the hardest thing for us to discover in ourselves, is that we are growing old.—H.W. Shaw.

Ambition.—Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions.—Longfellow.

The path of glory leads but to the grave.—Gray.

We should be careful to deserve a good reputation by doing well; and when that care is once taken, not to be over anxious about the success.—Rochester.

[Pg 14]Say what we will, you may be sure that ambition is an error; its wear and tear of heart are never recompensed,—it steals away the freshness of life,—it deadens its vivid and social enjoyments,—it shuts our souls to our own youth,—and we are old ere we remember that we have made a fever and a labor of our raciest years.—Lytton.

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself, and a mean man by one which is lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other, ambition. Ambition is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.—Beecher.

It is not for man to rest in absolute contentment. He is born to hopes and aspirations, as the sparks fly upward, unless he has brutified his nature, and quenched the spirit of immortality, which is his portion.—Southey.

Angels.—If you woo the company of the angels in your waking hours, they will be sure to come to you in your sleep.—G.D. Prentice.

The accusing spirit, which flew up to heaven's chancery with the oath, blushed as he gave it in; and the recording angel, as he wrote it down, dropped a tear upon the word and blotted it out forever.—Sterne.

Anger is implanted in us as a sort of sting, to make us gnash with our teeth against the devil, to make us vehement against him, not to set us in array against each other.

Lamentation is the only musician that always, like a screech-owl, alights and sits on the roof of an angry man.—Plutarch.

He is a fool who cannot be angry; but he is a wise man who will not.—Seneca.

Men in rage strike those that wish them best.—Shakespeare.

Men often make up in wrath what they want in reason.—W.R. Alger.

[Pg 16]Anger is the most impotent passion that accompanies the mind of man; it effects nothing it goes about; and hurts the man who is possessed by it more than any other against whom it is directed.—Clarendon.

When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.—Jefferson.

An angry man opens his mouth and shuts up his eyes.—Cato.

When a man is wrong and won't admit it, he always gets angry.—Haliburton.

Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.—Ephesians 4:26.

Anger begins with folly and ends with repentance.—Pythagoras.

Anger causes us often to condemn in one what we approve of in another.—Pasquier Quesnel.

Anxiety.—Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions than ruined by too confident a security.—Burke.

Can your solicitude alter the cause or unravel the intricacy of human events?—Blair.

Almost all men are over-anxious. No sooner do they enter the world than they lose that taste for natural and simple pleasures so remarkable in early life. Every hour do they ask themselves what progress they have made in the pursuit of wealth or honor; and on they go as their fathers went before them, till, weary and sick at heart, they look back with a sigh of regret to the golden time of their childhood.—Rogers.

Nothing in life is more remarkable than the unnecessary anxiety which we endure and generally occasion ourselves.—Beaconsfield.

Art.—The perfection of art is to conceal art.—Quintilian.

[Pg 17]Art must anchor in nature, or it is the sport of every breath of folly.—Hazlitt.

Beauty is at once the ultimate principle and the highest aim of art.—Goethe.

Art does not imitate, but interpret.—Mazzini.

Art is the gift of God, and must be used unto his glory.—Longfellow.

Associates.—Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.—1 Corinthians 15:20.

He who comes from the kitchen smells of its smoke; he who adheres to a sect has something of its cant; the college air pursues the student, and dry inhumanity him who herds with literary pedants.—Lavater.

He that walketh with wise men shall be wise.—Solomon.

If you always live with those who are lame, you will yourself learn to limp.—From the Latin.

If men wish to be held in esteem, they must associate with those only who are estimable.—La Bruyère.

Be very circumspect in the choice of thy company. In the society of thine equals thou shalt enjoy more pleasure; in the society of thy superiors thou shalt find more profit. To be the best in the company is the way to grow worse; the best means to grow better is to be the worst there.—Quarles.

A companion of fools shall be destroyed.—Proverbs 13:20.

Choose the company of your superiors whenever you can have it.—Lord Chesterfield.

I set it down as a maxim, that it is good for a man to live where he can meet his betters, intellectual and social.—Thackeray.

[Pg 18]Keep good company, and you shall be of the number.—George Herbert.

It is best to be with those in time that we hope to be with in eternity.—Fuller.

Astronomy.—The contemplation of celestial things will make a man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he descends to human affairs.—Cicero.

Atheism.—I should like to see a man sober in his habits, moderate, chaste, just in his dealings, assert that there is no God; he would speak at least without interested motives; but such a man is not to be found.—La Bruyère.

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.—Psalm 14:1.

Kircher, the astronomer, having an acquaintance who denied the existence of a Supreme Being, took the following method to convince him of his error. Expecting him on a visit, he placed a handsome celestial globe in a part of the room where it could not escape the notice of his friend, who, on observing it, inquired whence it came, and who was the maker.

"It was not made by any person," said the astronomer.

"That is impossible," replied the sceptic; "you surely jest."

Kircher then took occasion to reason with his friend upon his own atheistical principles, explaining to him that he had adopted this plan with a design to show him the fallacy of his scepticism.

"You will not," said he, "admit that this small body originated in mere chance, and yet you contend that those heavenly bodies, to which it bears only a faint and diminutive resemblance, came into existence without author or design."

He pursued this chain of reasoning till his friend was totally confounded, and cordially acknowledged the absurdity of his notions.

By night an atheist half believes a God.—Young.

No one is so much alone in the world as a denier of God.—Richter.

When men live as if there were no God, it becomes expedient for them that there should be none; and then they endeavor to persuade themselves so.—Tillotson.

[Pg 20]Atheism is the result of ignorance and pride, of strong sense and feeble reasons, of good eating and ill living.—Jeremy Collier.

Atheism can benefit no class of people,—neither the unfortunate, whom it bereaves of hope, nor the prosperous, whose joys it renders insipid.—Chateaubriand.

Authority.—Self-possession is the backbone of authority.—Haliburton.

Though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is oft led by the nose with gold.—Shakespeare.

Authors.—Choose an author as you choose a friend.—Earl of Roscommon.

The motives and purposes of authors are not always so pure and high, as, in the enthusiasm of youth, we sometimes imagine. To many the trumpet of fame is nothing but a tin horn to call them home, like laborers from the field, at dinner-time, and they think themselves lucky to get the dinner.—Longfellow.

It is a doubt whether mankind are most indebted to those who, like Bacon and Butler, dig the gold from the mine of literature, or to those who, like Paley, purify it, stamp it, fix its real value, and give it currency and utility.—Colton.

Twenty to one offend more in writing too much than too little.—Roger Ascham.

He who proposes to be an author should first be a student.—Dryden.

[Pg 21]Nothing is so beneficial to a young author as the advice of a man whose judgment stands constitutionally at the freezing-point.—Douglas Jerrold.

No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind.—Cervantes.

There are three difficulties in authorship—to write anything worth the publishing, to find honest men to publish it, and to get sensible men to read it.—Colton.

Never write on a subject without having first read yourself full on it; and never read on a subject till you have thought yourself hungry on it.—Richter.

The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, and familiar things new.—Thackeray.

To write well is to think well, to feel well, and to render well; it is to possess at once intellect, soul and taste.—Buffon.

Young authors give their brains much exercise and little food.—Joubert.[Pg 22]

Avarice.—It is surely very narrow policy that supposes money to be the chief good.—Johnson.

Poverty is in want of much, but avarice of everything.—Publius Syrus.