Pearls of Thought Part 52

Our immortal souls, while righteous, are by G.o.d himself beautified with the t.i.tle of his own image and similitude.--_Sir W. Raleigh._

~Specialty.~--No one can exist in society without some specialty. Eighty years ago it was only necessary to be well dressed and amiable; to-day a man of this kind would be too much like the garcons at the cafes.--_Taine._

~Speech.~--Sheridan once said of some speech, in his acute, sarcastic way, that "it contained a great deal both of what was new and what was true: but that unfortunately what was new was not true, and what was true was not new."--_Hazlitt._

G.o.d has given us speech in order that we may say pleasant things to our friends, and tell bitter truths to our enemies.--_Heinrich Heine._

The common fluency of speech in many men, and most women, is owing to a scarcity of matter and a scarcity of words; for whoever is a master of language and has a mind full of ideas, will be apt in speaking to hesitate upon the choice of both; whereas common speakers have only one set of ideas, and one set of words to clothe them in; and these are always ready at the mouth: so people come faster out of a church when it is almost empty, than when a crowd is at the door.--_Dean Swift._

Speech is like cloth of Arras, opened and put abroad, whereby the imagery doth appear in figure; whereas in thoughts they lie but as in packs.--_Plutarch._

Never is the deep, strong voice of man, or the low, sweet voice of woman, finer than in the earnest but mellow tones of familiar speech, richer than the richest music, which are a delight while they are heard, which linger still upon the ear in softened echoes, and which, when they have ceased, come, long after, back to memory, like the murmurs of a distant hymn.--_Henry Giles._

Half the sorrows of women would be averted if they could repress the speech they know to be useless--nay, the speech they have resolved not to utter.--_George Eliot._

~Sport.~--Dwell not too long upon sports; for as they refresh a man that is weary, so they weary a man that is refreshed.--_Fuller._

~Spring.~--Stately Spring! whose robe-folds are valleys, whose breast-bouquet is gardens, and whose blush is a vernal evening.--_Richter._

Fair-handed Spring unbosoms every grace.--_Thomson._

The spring, the summer, the chiding autumn, angry winter, change their wonted liveries.--_Shakespeare._

Sweet daughter of a rough and stormy sire, h.o.a.r Winter's blooming child, delightful Spring.--_Mrs. Barbauld._

Ye may trace my step o'er the wakening earth, by the winds which tell of the violet's birth.--_Mrs. Hemans._

~Stars.~--These preachers of beauty, which light the world with their admonis.h.i.+ng smile.--_Emerson._

I am as constant as the northern star; of whose true, fixed, and resting quality there is no fellow in the firmament.--_Shakespeare._

The stars are so far,--far away!--_L. E. Landon._

Day hath put on his jacket, and around his burning bosom b.u.t.toned it with stars.--_Holmes._

The evening star, love's harbinger, appeared.--_Milton._

~Statesman.~--The great difference between the real statesman and the pretender is, that the one sees into the future, while the other regards only the present; the one lives by the day, and acts on expediency; the other acts on enduring principles and for immortality.--_Burke._

The worth of a state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.--_J. Stuart Mill._

~Storms.~--When splitting winds make flexible the knees of knotted oaks.--_Shakespeare._

~Strength.~--Oh! it is excellent to have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.--_Shakespeare._

~Study.~--Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.--_Bacon._

Whatever study tends neither directly nor indirectly to make us better men and citizens is at best but a specious and ingenious sort of idleness, and the knowledge we acquire by it only a creditable kind of ignorance, nothing more.--_Bolingbroke._

There is no one study that is not capable of delighting us after a little application to it.--_Pope._

They are not the best students who are most dependent on books. What can be got out of them is at best only material: a man must build his house for himself.--_George MacDonald._

The man who has acquired the habit of study, though for only one hour every day in the year, and keeps to the one thing studied till it is mastered, will be startled to see the way he has made at the end of a twelvemonth.--_Bulwer-Lytton._

~Style.~--The style is the man.--_Buffon._

As it is a great point of art, when our matter requires it, to enlarge and veer out all sail, so to take it in and contract it is of no less praise when the argument doth ask it.--_Ben Jonson._

Not poetry, but prose run mad.--_Pope._

There is a certain majesty in plainness; as the proclamation of a prince never frisks it in tropes or fine conceits, in numerous and well-turned periods, but commands in sober natural expressions.--_South._

In the present day our literary masonry is well done, but our architecture is poor.--_Joubert._

Perhaps that is nearly the perfection of good writing which is original, but whose truth alone prevents the reader from suspecting that it is so; and which effects that for knowledge which the lense effects for the sunbeam, when it condenses its brightness in order to increase its force.--_Colton._

A temperate style is alone cla.s.sical.--_Joubert._

Obscurity and affectation are the two great faults of style. Obscurity of expression generally springs from confusion of ideas; and the same wish to dazzle, at any cost, which produces affectation in the manner of a writer, is likely to produce sophistry in his reasoning.--_Macaulay._

Style is the gossamer on which the seeds of truth float through the world.--_Bancroft._

The lively phraseology of Montesquieu was the result of long meditation.

His words, as light as wings, bear on them grave reflections.--_Joubert._

~Subordination.~--The usual way that men adopt to appease the wrath of those whom they have offended, when they are at their mercy, is humble submission; whereas a bold front, a firm and resolute bearing,--means the very opposite,--have been at times equally successful.--_Montaigne._

Reverences stand in awe of yourself.--_Sydney Smith._

He who reigns within himself, and rules pa.s.sions, desires, and fears, is more than a king.--_Milton._

~Success.~--It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failure.--_Samuel Smiles._

From mere success nothing can be concluded in favor of any nation upon whom it is bestowed.--_Atterbury._

He that would relish success to purpose should keep his pa.s.sion cool, and his expectation low.--_Jeremy Collier._

The road to success is not to be run upon by seven-leagued boots. Step by step, little by little, bit by bit,--that is the way to wealth, that is the way to wisdom, that is the way to glory. Pounds are the sons, not of pounds, but of pence.--_Charles Buxton._

The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well; and doing well whatever you do, without a thought of fame.--_Longfellow._

Nothing can seem foul to those that win.--_Shakespeare._

All the proud virtue of this vaunting world fawns on success and power, however acquired.--_Thomson._

A successful career has been full of blunders.--_Charles Buxton._

The man who succeeds above his fellows is the one who, early in life, clearly discerns his object, and towards that object habitually directs his powers. Thus, indeed, even genius itself is but fine observation strengthened by fixity of purpose. Every man who observes vigilantly and resolves steadfastly grows unconsciously into genius.--_Bulwer-Lytton._