Pearls of Thought Part 46

G.o.d's glowing covenant.--_Hosea Ballou._

~Rank.~--If it were ever allowable to forget what is due to superiority of rank, it would be when the privileged themselves remember it.--_Madame Swetchine._

I weigh the man, not his t.i.tle; 'tis not the king's stamp can make the metal better.--_Wycherley._

Of the king's creation you may be; but he who makes a count ne'er made a man.--_Southerne._

~Rashness.~--Rashness and haste make all things insecure.--_Denham._

We may outrun by violent swiftness that which we run at, and lose by overrunning.--_Shakespeare._

~Reading.~--Read, and refine your appet.i.te; learn to live upon instruction; feast your mind and mortify your flesh; read, and take your nourishment in at your eyes, shut up your mouth, and chew the cud of understanding.--_Congreve._

Deep versed in books, but shallow in himself.--_Milton._

The love of reading enables a man to exchange the wearisome hours of life, which come to every one, for hours of delight.--_Montesquieu._

There was, it is said, a criminal in Italy, who was suffered to make his choice between Guicciardini and the galleys. He chose the history. But the war of Pisa was too much for him. He changed his mind, and went to the oars.--_Macaulay._

Exceedingly well read and profited in strange concealments.--_Shakespeare._

The reader, who would follow a close reasoner to the summit of the absolute principle of any one important subject, has chosen a chamois-hunter for his guide. He cannot carry us on his shoulders; we must strain our sinews, as he has strained his; and make firm footing on the smooth rock for ourselves, by the blood of toil from our own feet.--_Coleridge._

~Reason.~--Reason lies between the spur and the bridle.--_George Herbert._

Many are destined to reason wrongly; others not to reason at all; and others to persecute those who do reason.--_Voltaire._

If reasons were as plenty as blackberries I would give no man a reason upon compulsion.--_Shakespeare._

We can only reason from what is; we can reason on actualities, but not on possibilities.--_Bolingbroke._

I do not call reason that brutal reason which crushes with its weight what is holy and sacred; that malignant reason which delights in the errors it succeeds in discovering; that unfeeling and scornful reason which insults credulity.--_Joubert._

I have no other but a woman's reason: I think him so, because I think him so.--_Shakespeare._

Reason 's progressive; instinct is complete: swift instinct leaps; slow reason feebly climbs.--_Young._

Faith evermore looks upward and descries objects remote; but reason can discover things only near,--sees nothing that's above her.--_Quarles._

How can finite grasp infinity?--_Dryden._

Let us not dream that reason can ever be popular. Pa.s.sions, emotions, may be made popular, but reason remains ever the property of the few.--_Goethe._

Reason is, so to speak, the police of the kingdom of art, seeking only to preserve order. In life itself a cold arithmetician who adds up our follies. Sometimes, alas! only the accountant in bankruptcy of a broken heart.--_Heinrich Heine._

Sure He that made us with such large discourse, looking before and after, gave us not that capability and G.o.dlike reason to rust in us unused.--_Shakespeare._

Reason may cure illusions but not suffering.--_Alfred de Musset._

~Reciprocity.~--There is one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life, that word is _reciprocity_. What you do not wish done to yourself, do not do to others.--_Confucius._

~Reconciliation.~--It is much safer to reconcile an enemy than to conquer him; victory may deprive him of his poison, but reconciliation of his will.--_Owen Feltham._

~Rect.i.tude.~--The great high-road of human welfare lies along the highway of steadfast well-doing, and they who are the most persistent, and work in the truest spirit, will invariably be the most successful.--_Samuel Smiles._

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see.--_Th.o.r.eau._

No man can do right unless he is good, wise, and strong. What wonder we fail?--_Charles Buxton._

~Refinement.~--Refinement that carries us away from our fellow-men is not G.o.d's refinement.--_Beecher._

Refinement is the lifting of one's self upwards from the merely sensual, the effort of the soul to etherealize the common wants and uses of life.--_Beecher._

~Reflection.~--We are told, "Let not the sun go down on your wrath." This, of course, is best; but, as it generally does, I would add, never act or write till it has done so. This rule has saved me from many an act of folly. It is wonderful what a different view we take of the same event four-and-twenty hours after it has happened.--_Sydney Smith._

~Reform.~--We are reformers in spring and summer; in autumn and winter we stand by the old--reformers in the morning, conservatives at night.

Reform is affirmative, conservatism is negative; conservatism goes for comfort, reform for truth.--_Emerson._

Long is the way and hard, that out of h.e.l.l leads up to light.--_Milton._

Conscious remorse and anguish must be felt, to curb desire, to break the stubborn will, and work a second nature in the soul.--_Rowe._

They say best men are moulded out of faults, and, for the most, become much more the better for being a little bad!--_Shakespeare._

~Regret.~--Why is it that a blessing only when it is lost cuts as deep into the heart as a sharp diamond? Why must we first weep before we can love so deeply that our hearts ache?--_Richter._

~Religion.~--Natural religion supplies still all the facts which are disguised under the dogma of popular creeds. The progress of religion is steadily to its ident.i.ty with morals.--_Emerson._

I endeavor in vain to give my paris.h.i.+oners more cheerful ideas of religion; to teach them that G.o.d is not a jealous, childish, merciless tyrant; that He is best served by a regular tenor of good actions, not by bad singing, ill-composed prayers, and eternal apprehensions. But the luxury of false religion is to be unhappy!--_Sydney Smith._

Nowhere would there be consolation if religion were not.--_Jacobi._

Monopolies are just as injurious to religion as to trade. With compet.i.tion religions preserve their strength, but they will never again flourish in their original glory until religious freedom, or, in other words, free trade among the G.o.ds, is introduced.--_Heinrich Heine._

A religion giving dark views of G.o.d, and infusing superst.i.tious fear of innocent enjoyment, instead of aiding sober habits, will, by making men abject and sad, impair their moral force, and prepare them for intemperance as a refuge from depression or despair.--_Channing._

Religion is the hospital of the souls that the world has wounded.--_J.

Pet.i.t Senn._

Ah! what a divine religion might be found out if charity were really made the principle of it instead of faith.--_Sh.e.l.ley._

The s.h.i.+p retains her anchorage yet drifts with a certain range, subject to wind and tide. So we have for an anchorage the cardinal truths of the gospel.--_Gladstone._

The best religion is the most tolerant.--_Emile de Girardin._

~Remembrance.~--The greatest comfort of my old age, and that which gives me the highest satisfaction, is the pleasing remembrance of the many benefits and friendly offices I have done to others.--_Cato._

Pleasure is the flower that fades; remembrance is the lasting perfume.--_Boufflers._