Pearls of Thought Part 12

Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience; you will find it a calamity.--_Johnson._

That swamp [of debt] which tempts men towards it with such a pretty covering of flowers and verdure. It is wonderful how soon a man gets up to his chin there,--in a condition in which, spite of himself, he is forced to think chiefly of release, though he had a scheme of the universe in his soul.--_George Eliot._

Youth is in danger until it learns to look upon debts as furies.--_Bulwer-Lytton._

~Deceit.~--No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the mult.i.tude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.--_Hawthorne._

Idiots only may be cozened twice.--_Dryden._

It is a double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.--_Fontaine._

There is less misery in being cheated than in that kind of wisdom which perceives, or thinks it perceives, that all mankind are cheats.--_Chapin._

Like unto golden hooks that from the foolish fish their baits do hide.--_Spenser._

Libertines are hideous spiders that often catch pretty b.u.t.terflies.--_Diderot._

~Decency.~--As beauty of body, with an agreeable carriage, pleases the eye, and that pleasure consists in that we observe all the parts with a certain elegance are proportioned to each other; so does decency of behavior which appears in our lives obtain the approbation of all with whom we converse, from the order, consistency, and moderation of our words and actions.--_Steele._

Virtue and decency are so nearly related that it is difficult to separate them from each other but in our imagination.--_Tully._

~Declamation.~--Fine declamation does not consist in flowery periods, delicate allusions, or musical cadences, but in a plain, open, loose style, where the periods are long and obvious; where the same thought is often exhibited in several points of view.--_Goldsmith._

The art of declamation has been sinking in value from the moment that speakers were foolish enough to publish, and hearers wise enough to read.--_Colton._

~Deeds.~--A word that has been said may be unsaid: it is but air. But when a deed is done, it cannot be undone, nor can our thoughts reach out to all the mischiefs that may follow.--_Longfellow._

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes deeds ill done!--_Shakespeare._

Legal deeds were invented to remind men of their promises, or to convict them of having broken them,--a stigma on the human race.--_Bruyere._

Good actions enn.o.ble us, and we are the sons of our own deeds.--_Cervantes._

We should believe only in works; words are sold for nothing everywhere.--_Rojas._

~Delay.~--We do not directly go about the execution of the purpose that thrills us, but shut our doors behind us, and ramble with prepared minds, as if the half were already done. Our resolution is taking root or hold on the earth then, as seeds first send a shoot downward, which is fed by their own alb.u.men, ere they send one upwards to the light.--_Th.o.r.eau._

Time drinketh up the essence of every great and n.o.ble action, which ought to be performed! and is delayed in the execution.--_Veeshnoo Sarma._

~Democracy.~--Democracy will itself accomplish the salutary universal change from delusive to real, and make a new blessed world of us by and by.--_Carlyle._

The love of democracy is that of equality.--_Montesquieu._

~Dependence.~--The beautiful must ever rest in the arms of the sublime.

The gentle needs the strong to sustain it, as much as the rock-flowers need rocks to grow on, or the ivy the rugged wall which it embraces.--_Mrs. Stowe._

Thou shalt know by experience how salt the savor is of other's bread, and how sad a path it is to climb and descend another's stairs.--_Dante._

How beautifully is it ordered, that as many thousands work for one, so must every individual bring his labor to make the whole! The highest is not to despise the lowest, nor the lowest to envy the highest; each must live in all and by all. Who will not work, neither shall he eat. So G.o.d has ordered that men, being in need of each other, should learn to love each other and bear each other's burdens.--_G. A. Sala._

We are never without a pilot. When we know not how to steer, and dare not hoist a sail, we can drift. The current knows the way, though we do not. The s.h.i.+p of heaven guides itself, and will not accept a wooden rudder.--_Emerson._

~Desire.~--It is easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it.--_Franklin._

Lack of desire is the greatest riches.--_Seneca._

Where necessity ends, curiosity begins; and no sooner are we supplied with everything that nature can demand, than we sit down to contrive artificial appet.i.tes.--_Johnson._

The thirst of desire is never filled, nor fully satisfied.--_Cicero._

The man's desire is for the woman; but the woman's desire is rarely other than for the desire of the man.--_Coleridge._

Desires are the pulse of the soul.--_Manton._

~Despair.~--Considering the unforeseen events of this world, we should be taught that no human condition should inspire men with absolute despair.--_Fielding._

Leaden-eyed despair.--_Keats._

In the lottery of life there are more prizes drawn than blanks, and to one misfortune there are fifty advantages. Despondency is the most unprofitable feeling a man can indulge in.--_De Witt Talmage._

He that despairs limits infinite power to finite apprehensions.--_South._

It is impossible for that man to despair who remembers that his helper is omnipotent.--_Jeremy Taylor._

He that despairs measures Providence by his own little contracted model.--_South._

Juliet was a fool to kill herself, for in three months she'd have married again, and been glad to be quit of Romeo.--_Charles Buxton._

What we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.--_George Eliot._

~Despotism.~--It is difficult for power to avoid despotism. The possessors of rude health; the individualities cut out by a few strokes, solid for the very reason that they are all of a piece; the complete characters whose fibres have never been strained by a doubt; the minds that no questions disturb and no aspirations put out of breath,--these, the strong, are also the tyrants.--_Countess de Gasparin._

There is something among men more capable of shaking despotic power than lightning, whirlwind, or earthquake; that is, the threatened indignation of the whole civilized world.--_Daniel Webster._

~Destiny.~--The scape-goat which we make responsible for all our crimes and follies; a necessity which we set down for invincible, when we have no wish to strive against it.--_Mrs. Balfour._

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.--_George Eliot._

~Detention.~--Never hold any one by the b.u.t.ton or the hand, in order to be heard out; for if people are unwilling to hear you, you had better hold your tongue than them.--_Chesterfield._

~Detraction.~--Happy are they that hear their detractions, and can put them to mending.--_Shakespeare._

In some unlucky dispositions there is such an envious kind of pride that they cannot endure that any but themselves should be set forth for excellent; so that when they hear one justly praised they will either seek to dismount his virtues, or, if they be like a clear light, they will stab him with a _but_ of detraction; as if there were something yet so foul as did obnubilate even his brightest glory. When their tongue cannot justly condemn him, they will leave him suspected by their silence.--_Feltham._

~Dew.~--That same dew, which sometimes withers buds, was wont to swell, like round and orient pearls, stood now within the pretty flow'rets'

eyes, like tears, that did their own disgrace bewail.--_Shakespeare._

Earth's liquid jewelry, wrought of air.--_P. J. Bailey._