I pity the man overwhelmed with the weight of his own leisure. Providence has given us hope and sleep as a compensation for the many cares of life. MME. DU DEFFAND (1697–1780) Impromptu thoughts are mental wild flowers. Heed the still small voice that so seldom leads us wrong, and never into folly. Let us strive to improve ourselves, for we cannot remain stationary; one either progresses or retrogrades. THOMAS EDWARDS (1699–1757) To rejoice in another's prosperity, is to give content to your own lot; to mitigate another's grief, is to alleviate or dispel your own. Whatever our place allotted to us by Providence, that, for us, is the post of honor and duty. God estimates us, not by the position we are in, but by the way in which we fill it. JAMES THOMSON (1700-1748) Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, And exercise of health. Loveliness needs not the foreign aid of orna ment, But is, when unadorned, adorned the most. Is there aught in sleep can charm the wise? The fleeting moments of too short a life; Truth, justice and reason, lose all their force and all their lustre when they are not accompanied by agreeable manners. JOHN DYER (1700-1758) Life is a race where some succeed, Just keep this wholesome truth in mind, JONATHAN EDWARDS (1703-1758) Resolved: To do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good of mankind in general. Resolved: Never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way. DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709-1784) Words are daughters of earth, but ideas are sons of heaven. The desires of man increase with his acquisitions. An infallible characteristic of meanness is cruelty. Disappointment seldom cures us of expectation. Don't tell me of deception; a lie is a lie, whether it be a lie to the eye, or a lie to the ear. Exert your talents, and distinguish yourself, and don't think of retiring from the world, until the world will be sorry that you retire. JEAN J. ROUSSEAU (1712-1778) Reason deceives us often, conscience, never. Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. LAURENCE STERNE (1713-1768) Trust that man in nothing, who has not a conscience in every thing. DENIS DIDEROT (1713-1784) We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates. TOBIAS SMOLLETT (1721-1771) True courage scorns to vent her prowess in a storm of words; and to the valiant, action alone speaks. The blast that blows loudest is soon overblown. SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS (1723-1792) If you have great talents, industry will improve them; if moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiencies. Nothing is denied to well-directed labor: nothing is ever to be attained without it. IMMANUEL KANT (1724-1804) A lie is the abandonment, and, as it were, the annihilation, of the dignity of man. What are the aims which are at the same time duties? They are the perfecting of ourselves, the happiness of others. LEWIS MORRIS (1726-1798) Strong souls, within the present live, They bind what shall be, to their will. Knowledge is the hill which few may hope to climb; duty is the path that all may tread. OLIVER GOLDSMITH (1728-1774) The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them. People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy after. While Selfishness joins hands with no one of the virtues, Benevolence is allied to them all. Our greatest glory consists, not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. JOHANN ZIMMERMAN (1728-1795) They that do nothing are in the readiest way to do that which is worse than nothing. EDMUND BURKE (1729-1797) There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. Is example nothing? It is every thing. Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other. WILLIAM COWPER (1731-1800) Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, Have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men; Wisdom, in minds attentive to their own. |