Quote of the day archive

People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy after.

The axis of the earth sticks out visibly through the centre of each and every town or city.

Trust him little who praises all, him less who censures all, and him least who is indifferent about all.

A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature.

No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.

Pride is a vice which pride itself inclines every man to find in others and overlook in himself.

Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.

The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.

Children think not of what is past, nor what is to come, but enjoy the present time, which few of us do.

Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change.

He who comes up to his own ideal of greatness must always have had a very low standard of it in his mind.

A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give no peace.

Hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule.

There is no man so friendless but that he can find a friend sincere enough to tell him disagreeable truths.

There never was in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity.

His imagination resembled the wings of an ostrich. It enabled him to run, though not to soar.

You find people ready enough to do the Samaritan, without the oil and twopence.

Even popularity can be overdone. In Rome, along at first, you are full of regrets that Michelangelo died; but by and by you only regret that you didn’t see him do it.

Great men are more distinguished by range and extent than by originality.

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.

Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.

True fortitude I take to be the quiet possession of a man’s self, and an undisturbed doing his duty, whatever evil besets him or danger lies in his way.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.

The world is a wheel, and it will all come round right.

Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.

How blessings brighten as they take their flight!

When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion—kind, unassuming persuasion—should ever be adopted.

I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.

Decadence can find agents only when it wears the mask of progress.

The secret of success in society is a certain heartiness and sympathy.

Man is, properly speaking, based upon Hope, he has no other possession but Hope; this world of his is emphatically the Place of Hope.

There is an old-time toast which is golden for its beauty. “When you ascend the hill of prosperity may you not meet a friend.”

A man should live with his superiors as he does with his fire: not too near, lest he burn; nor too far off, lest he freeze.

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things.

Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.

There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed.

We do not count a man’s years until he has nothing else to count.

A life spent worthily should be measured by a nobler line,—by deeds, not years.

The true University of these days is a Collection of Books.

Diligence is the mother of good fortune.

There’s no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.

Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company, and reflection must finish him.

Which is the best government? That which teaches us to govern ourselves.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it.

One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.

The course of true love never did run smooth.

Travel in the younger sort is a part of education; in the older, a part of experience.

I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.

If you have given way to anger, be sure that over and above the evil involved therein, you have strengthened the habit, and added fuel to the fire.

I shall try to correct errors, when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views, so fast as they shall appear to be true views.

How much lies in laughter, the cipher-key wherewith we decipher the whole man.

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.

Gentleness does more than violence.

In the woods, we return to reason and faith.

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

Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.

The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes.

True modesty avoids everything that is criminal; false modesty everything that is unfashionable.

Men might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.

Everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait.

Industry need not wish, and he that lives upon hope will die fasting.

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

Love is life in its fulness like the cup with its wine.

The soul’s calm sunshine and the heartfelt joy.

Never look for birds of this year in the nests of the last.

Formerly we used to canonise our heroes. The modern method is to vulgarise them. Cheap editions of great books may be delightful, but cheap editions of great men are absolutely detestable.

Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.

Enthusiasm is the height of man; it is the passing from the human to the divine.

There is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in work. Were he ever so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works.

His own character is the arbiter of every one’s fortune.

Love gives greater pleasure than marriage for the same reason that romances are more amusing than history.

The only amaranthine flower on earth is virtue; the only lasting treasure, truth.