Wisdom

2724 quotes

Quotes

It's not the honors and the prizes and the fancy outsides of life which ultimately nourish our souls.

Fred Rogers

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.

William Morris

One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Find things beautiful as much as you can, most people find too little beautiful.

Vincent van Gogh

Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.

John Ruskin

In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.

Anne Frank

Our mission as teachers is to show the right way to those who come after us.

Antonín Dvořák

Nature is always beautiful. We need only to understand what she shows us.

Auguste Rodin

The only way to do great work is to love what you do.

Steve Jobs

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

Albert Einstein

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Life would be tragic if it weren't funny.

Stephen Hawking

Everybody in the world was once a child.

Walt Disney

Well done is better than well said.

Benjamin Franklin

If it sounds good it IS good.

Duke Ellington

I must learn how to be happy.

Oscar Wilde

Just as one of small stature can be a perfect man, so a life of small compass can be a perfect life.

Seneca

Gratitude ever feels the insignificance of its instalments; ingratitude the nothingness of the debt.William George Jordan

It will be found that men see evil in those who differ from them, good in those who agree with them.James Allen

All men are intrinsically good, but some are wiser than others, are older in experience than others.James Allen

And if thou forgivest, will not thy forgiveness find its way at last in redemption and purification?George MacDonald

There is a forgiveness which is no forgiveness—formal, constrained, from the teeth and lips outward.Hugh Black

No one ever did a designed injury to another, but at the same time he did a much greater to himself.Joseph Butler

When it is said that education is development, everything depends upon how development is conceived.John Dewey

The man has but to light the lamp within the form: his imagination is the light, it is not the form.George MacDonald

But corruption must utterly have destroyed the fabric of human society before poetry can ever cease.Percy Bysshe Shelley

Thus, as soon as our attention is fixed on gesture and not on action, we are in the realm of comedy.Henri Bergson

We cannot suppress the smile on the lip; but the tear should also stand ready to start from the eye.William Hazlitt

By this I mean that I am anxious to keep religion out of this whole subject of the conquest of fear.Basil King

And any man who puts his life in peril in a cause which is esteemed becomes the darling of all men.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The man who is weakened in well-doing by the ingratitude of others, is serving God on a salary basis.William George Jordan

God does not require that in order to be grateful to him we should be ungrateful to our fellow men.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

We ought to thank God for having made us, for if He had not we could never know the joys of Heaven.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

Let us serve God with thankfulness, both for what he has done and will do for us, if we are faithful.Paulist Fathers

God is forgiving us every day—sending from between him and us our sins and their fogs and darkness.George MacDonald

Whilst we humbly remember our own sins, and pray for pardon, let us beseech the Lord also for others.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

We cannot have bitterness or resentment in our mind without its coloring every thought and affection.Hugh Black

A whole army may be robbed of its spirit; a commander-in-chief may be robbed of his presence of mind.

Sun Tzu

Authority, obedience, liberty, can never be understood without an understanding of the group process.Mary Parker Follett

The group gets its authority through the power it has in itself of integrating ideas and interests.Mary Parker Follett

But we learn only because after the act is performed we note results which we had not noted before.John Dewey

In the case of the little child it is a question of aiding the natural evolution of voluntary action.

Maria Montessori

The teacher must be content to proceed very slowly, securing the ground under her feet as she goes.Charlotte M. Mason

Poetry is a sword of lightning, ever unsheathed, which consumes the scabbard that would contain it.Percy Bysshe Shelley

We must make a distinction, however, between the comic EXPRESSED and the comic CREATED by language.Henri Bergson

The comic character is often one with whom, to begin with, our mind, or rather our body, sympathises.Henri Bergson

It laughs through the mind, for the mind directs it; and it might be called the humour of the mind.George Meredith

Another right which the State has recognized as belonging to each man is the right to an education.

Helen Keller

And those who have yielded themselves to joy are often best equipped to get the best out of sorrow.Arthur Christopher Benson

This just serves to illustrate my point, that boys have no real discernment for what is courageous.Arthur Christopher Benson

It is really physical courage, skill, prowess, personal attractiveness which is envied and praised.Arthur Christopher Benson

Revenge is born of terror, and to think of God as vindictive is to think of Him as subject to fear.Arthur Christopher Benson

Money-fear comes occasionally; but only as the memory of pain to a wound which you know to be healed.Basil King

Every sailor who served under Nelson, and knew he was in command, shared the inspiration of the hero.Samuel Smiles

There is a sort of unconscious conspiracy existing amongst them against each other's individuality.Samuel Smiles

Learn as if you could not reach your object, and were always fearing also lest you should lose it.

Confucius

Yet too often home is the very place where we are most miserly of grateful and appreciative words.J. R. Miller

Ill-will not only never speaks, but never thinks well, of the person towards whom it is exercised.Joseph Butler

The cornerstone of this Republic, as of all free governments, is respect for and obedience to the law.Theodore Roosevelt

It is a question of guiding, where necessary, without losing local initiative or local responsibility.Mary Parker Follett

Only as in other matters, so here; with a good ruler, the government is pure; with a bad one, corrupt.Xenophon

It is useless for a dull and devitalized teacher to exhort her pupils to wake up and take an interest.William James

Now step aside, look upon life as a disinterested spectator: many a drama will turn into a comedy.Henri Bergson

However far, moreover, comic fancy may seem to go, reality at times undertakes to improve upon it.Henri Bergson

I wish it had not happened so, I wish I had been kinder, more just, more self-restrained, more strong.Arthur Christopher Benson

It strikes me as strange, on looking back, that so little attempt was made to combat fear by religion.Basil King

Away then with fear, because our first and over-ruling and all-determining relationship is to Him.Basil King

You should use what you have, and whatever you may chance to be doing, do it with all your might.Marcus Tullius Cicero

It robs those to whom gratitude is due, for it is the withholding of that which is justly theirs.J. R. Miller

How does your friend know that you are grateful, if you do not in some way tell him that you are?J. R. Miller

The saints are to give thanks to God always, and then to fulfil their duties to their fellow men.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

He who would serve God must begin by praising God, for a grateful heart is the mainspring of obedience.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

We ought also to thank God for the mercies which we do not see, as well as for those which are evident.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Feel grateful at least; say a thankful word; offer up a prayer for your benefactors now and then.Paulist Fathers

Let him have true action, consecrated service, for this is the fittest fruit of a grateful heart.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Revenge is a virus which eats into the very vitals of the mind, and poisons the entire spiritual being.James Allen

If another has done me wrong is not my hatred towards him wrong, and can one wrong right another?James Allen

Blessed is he who, turning from the evil in others exerts himself in the purification of his own heart.James Allen

There are various kinds and degrees of wrongdoing, which need varying kinds and degrees of forgiveness.George MacDonald

For love is divine, and then most divine when it loves according to needs and not according to merits .George MacDonald

I believe that Jesus Christ is our atonement; that through him we are reconciled to, made one with God.George MacDonald

If the fault of the estrangement lies with us, the burden of confession should rest upon us also.Hugh Black

When I have seen Jesus die I have not been able to understand how any sin could be difficult to remove.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Good laws in the State, like a good organization in an army, are the expressions of national character.Theodore Roosevelt

When I say work, I mean study of books, work of the hand, effort of the body, willingness of the heart.

Booker T. Washington

This pleasant earth of ours is not to be overlooked in the out-of-door education of the children.Charlotte M. Mason

The art of disposing the foldings of the drapery makes a very considerable part of the painter's study.Joshua Reynolds

In every wit there is something of a poet—just as in every good reader there is the making of an actor.Henri Bergson

The truth is, the comic character may, strictly speaking, be quite in accord with stern morality.Henri Bergson

His humour (so to speak) bubbles, sparkles, and finds its way in all directions, like a natural spring.William Hazlitt

He had by far the most wit and elegance, with less of other things, of humour, character, incident, &c.William Hazlitt

The hero of school life is one like Odysseus, who is strong, inventive, daring, full of resource.Arthur Christopher Benson

Built on fear and run by fear, fear is as essential to their existence as coal to our industries.Basil King

They will be in our next experience as they have been in this, leading us on from strength to strength.Basil King

Intellectual intrepidity is one of the vital conditions of independence and self-reliance of character.Samuel Smiles

It is energy—the central element of which is will—that produces the miracles of enthusiasm in all ages.Samuel Smiles

A grateful spirit is a blessed and yet a cheap way of honouring God, for it brings to us its own return.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

In fact thanksgiving is but the expression of an inward conscious gratitude to God for mercies received.E. M. Bounds

Gratitude and thanksgiving always looks back at the past though it may also take in the present.E. M. Bounds

Neither can happiness inhabit in that breast that is aflame with burning thoughts of resentment.James Allen

To the man who is calm, revenge is so far beneath him that he cannot reach it,—even by stooping.William George Jordan

And remember also that forgiveness does not mean merely abstaining from injuring one who has wronged us.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

The moment a sinner looks to Christ, the burden of his sin rolls from off his shoulders never to return.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Moreover, neighborhood organization gives us a definite objective for individual responsibility.Mary Parker Follett

And just as you would wish your subjects to obey you, so we must obey those who are set over us.Xenophon

We can never dominate another or be dominated by another; the group-spirit is always our master.Mary Parker Follett

What impulses are moving toward, not what they have been, is the important thing for parent and teacher.John Dewey

Let no youth have any anxiety about the upshot of his education, whatever the line of it may be.William James

Spiritual teaching, like the wafted odour of flowers, should depend on which way the wind blows.Charlotte M. Mason

I will go further; even genius, at least what generally is so called, is the child of imitation.Joshua Reynolds

The comic, we said, appeals to the intelligence, pure and simple; laughter is incompatible with emotion.Henri Bergson

Here we are in a world which holds much pain and many pleasures, oceans of tears and echoes of laughter.Agnes Repplier

Before we can laugh at a thing, its absurdity must at least be open and palpable to common apprehension.William Hazlitt

The greatest single production of wit of this period, I might say of this country, is Butler’s Hudibras.William Hazlitt

Is it not of the very essence of the Christian hope, that we shall be changed from much bad to all good?George MacDonald

Courage, for the schoolboy, is merely physical courage, aplomb, boldness, recklessness, high-handedness.Arthur Christopher Benson

I had not understood before that to the conquest of fear the hardening of the inner man is an auxiliary.Basil King

The fear of death was greatly diminished for me on grasping the principle of everlasting Growth.Basil King

Let there be only a proper husbanding of strength, and let each man proportion his efforts to his powers.Marcus Tullius Cicero

Still, the later years of life, and even old age itself, are not without their intellectual compensation.Arthur Schopenhauer

Discern of the coming on of years, and think not to do the same things still; for age will not be defied.

Francis Bacon

To a reasonable creature, the same action is both according to nature, and according to reason.

Marcus Aurelius

In justice to ourselves we should not permit the ingratitude of a few to make us condemn the whole world.William George Jordan

Give thanks to God; let not your gratitude stop short of the source from which the streams of mercy come.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

A man who gives thanks to God always for all things, must have a sense of complete reconciliation to God.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

For as God's benefits are real and great, so our thanks and joy should be in them and correspond to them.Paulist Fathers

No man can see either himself or others clearly until he ceases from hatred and practises love.James Allen

If God appeared to us, how could he say, "I forgive you," while we remained unforgiving to our neighbour?George MacDonald

Sorrow and confession and self-abasing love will make up for the evil word; suffering will not.George MacDonald

Therefore, as we must have leadership, there has been much undefined, irresponsible leadership.Mary Parker Follett

The first office of the social organ we call the school is to provide a simplified environment.John Dewey

The art of teaching grew up in the schoolroom, out of inventiveness and sympathetic concrete observation.William James

One ounce of good nervous tone in an examination is worth many pounds of anxious study for it in advance.William James

The imagination is the light which redeems from the darkness for the eyes of the understanding.George MacDonald

To be able to live a moment in an imagined world, we must see the laws of its existence obeyed.George MacDonald

Poetry is not like reasoning, a power to be exerted according to the determination of the will.Percy Bysshe Shelley

This great ideal perfection and beauty are not to be sought in the heavens, but upon the earth.Joshua Reynolds

The power of representing this mental picture on canvas is what we call invention in a Painter.Joshua Reynolds

As in Invention, so likewise in Expression, care must be taken not to run into particularities.Joshua Reynolds

As a matter of fact, exaggeration, like degradation, is only one form of one kind of the comic.Henri Bergson

What healthy exultation, what genial warmth, what loyal brotherhood of mirth, attends the friendly sound!Agnes Repplier

Falstaff himself is so great a joke, rather from his being so huge a mass of enjoyment than of absurdity.William Hazlitt

As in his labour, so shall these share in the joy of God, in the divine fruition of victorious endeavour.George MacDonald

I must build my creed on my own hopes and possibilities, not on the strength and cheerfulness of another.Arthur Christopher Benson

I must do what I can to conquer fear in myself, regardless of the attitude or opinions of men in general.Basil King

Some men seem to discount all gratitude, almost make it impossible, by the way in which they grant favors.William George Jordan

But it is not enough that we be grateful and show our gratitude to the human friends who do us kindnesses.J. R. Miller

Is not that a pretty thought, children, that the flowers are the smiles of the grateful earth?H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

God will forgive us for Christ's sake; yea, he has done so in the case of thousands around me.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

If you have not honesty in the average private citizen, or public servant, then all else goes for nothing.Theodore Roosevelt

With the great powers of the world we desire no rivalry that is not honorable to both parties.Theodore Roosevelt

A landscape may be beautiful, charming and sublime, or insignificant and ugly; it will never be laughable.Henri Bergson

But the art of the story-teller or the playwright does not merely consist in concocting jokes.Henri Bergson

The difficulty lies in giving to a joke its power of suggestion, i.e. in making it acceptable.Henri Bergson

Both are forms of satire, but irony is oratorical in its nature, whilst humour partakes of the scientific.Henri Bergson

Thus, to depict characters, that is to say, general types, is the object of high-class comedy.Henri Bergson

It may not be given us to add to the treasury of mirth; but there is considerable merit in not robbing it.Agnes Repplier

Humour is, as it were, the growth of nature and accident; wit is the product of art and fancy.William Hazlitt

The reader laughs (as well he may) in reading the passage, but he lays down the book to think.William Hazlitt

It can be called by many names, and all of them ugly names—anxiety, timidity, moral cowardice.Arthur Christopher Benson

To see how short life is, a man must have grown old, that is to say, he must have lived long.Arthur Schopenhauer

Accordingly, time goes faster and faster the longer we live, like a ball rolling down a hill.Arthur Schopenhauer

The quality of ingratitude is not changed because faithful love is not frozen in the heart by its coldness.J. R. Miller

Too often we take these gifts as a matter of course, and forget to thank God, who giveth all.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

Our voices should be used to praise God in chant, and psalm, and hymn, and to offer prayer or thanksgiving.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

And if a supernatural motive inspires one's gratitude to his friends, then a holy friendship is the result.Paulist Fathers

There is no cure for it, there is no rest for the sinful soul, except the divine forgiveness.Henry van Dyke

It stands to reason that if thy Substitute has taken thy sin and put it away, thy sin lies no more on thee.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Above all, my brethren, and with this I close, never in any way, directly or indirectly, avenge yourselves.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The noblest of all forms of government is self-government; but it is also the most difficult.Theodore Roosevelt

The man who lives simply, and justly, and honorably, whether rich or poor, is a good citizen.Theodore Roosevelt

Fossilization, of course, means death, whether to an individual, a government, or a doctrine.Theodore Roosevelt

It is out of the question to claim a right and yet shirk the responsibility for its exercise.Theodore Roosevelt

Not by being “granted” or “conferred.” Genuine control, power, authority are always a growth.Mary Parker Follett

We learn how to create the common will in our groups, and we learn here not only the process but its value.Mary Parker Follett

Since growth is the characteristic of life, education is all one with growing; it has no end beyond itself.John Dewey

A genuine work of art must mean many things; the truer its art, the more things it will mean.George MacDonald

How often has it been said that the fuller the theatre, the more uncontrolled the laughter of the audience!Henri Bergson

The comic of Jonson is a scholar’s excogitation of the comic; that of Massinger a moralist’s.George Meredith

Molière’s laughter, in his purest comedies, is ethereal, as light to our nature, as colour to our thoughts.George Meredith

Amuse! amuse! amuse! is the plea of a weariness as wide as the world, and as old as humanity.Agnes Repplier

I do not, indeed, as I have been accused of doing, employ the word “pleasure” as synonymous with amusement.Agnes Repplier

As we laugh from a spontaneous impulse, we laugh the more at any restraint upon this impulse.William Hazlitt

The fault, then, of Shakspeare’s comic Muse is, in my opinion, that it is too good-natured and magnanimous.William Hazlitt

He had the will of the Father to work out, and that will was his strength as well as his joy.George MacDonald

Our very faces will then shine with the hope of seeing him, and being taken home where he is.George MacDonald

If his faith in God take from a man his cheerfulness, how shall the face of a man ever shine?George MacDonald

It was not done by an effort, nor did I brace myself to the situation: fear simply did not come near to me.Arthur Christopher Benson

But Johnson seems never to have been afraid of poverty, nor to have ever troubled about fame.Arthur Christopher Benson

I repeat and repeat again that whatever is done toward the conquest of fear must be done by the individual.Basil King

The next time, therefore, I am the less afraid, having the definite experience to support me.Basil King

All the great reformers and martyrs were antagonistic men—enemies to falsehood and evildoing.Samuel Smiles

But those who look for all happiness from within can never think anything bad which nature makes inevitable.Marcus Tullius Cicero

We can never be absolved from the duty of being grateful. "Owe no man anything but love" is a heavenly word.J. R. Miller

Shall we not quickly start our heart-song of gratitude, calling upon every power of our being to praise God?J. R. Miller

But we are to be always praising God under some shape or other, the heart is always to be full of gratitude.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Of course, those who have done us the greatest favors are entitled to the deepest gratitude.Paulist Fathers

Have we not heard of those, thine own, taught of thee, who could easily forgive their betrayers in thy name?George MacDonald

But if it is impossible, as I believe, without love to be just, much more cannot justice co-exist with hate.George MacDonald

If we knew all, our hearts would be full of pitiful love even for those who have wronged us.Hugh Black

We may therefore love our enemy, and yet have resentment against him for his injurious behaviour towards us.Joseph Butler

What we need is a kind of government which will delegate the job but not the responsibility.Mary Parker Follett

The laws of the spirit of man must hold, alike in this world and in any world he may invent.George MacDonald

To one the sonata is a world of odour and beauty, to another of soothing only and sweetness.George MacDonald

The parts of a composition may be poetical, without the composition as a whole being a poem.Percy Bysshe Shelley

All high poetry is infinite; it is as the first acorn, which contained all oaks potentially.Percy Bysshe Shelley

The originality of a comic artist is thus expressed in the special kind of life he imparts to a mere puppet.Henri Bergson

I believe that day by day we should clear a space to live with minds that have felt, and hoped, and enjoyed.Arthur Christopher Benson

My point is that whether catastrophe overwhelms us or not, he who chooses not to fear can be free from fear.Basil King

Superfine virtues, which are above the standard of common men, may only be sources of temptation and danger.Samuel Smiles

He had to do his duty—to obey the orders of a Power higher than that of kings; and he did it at all hazards.Samuel Smiles

It is not encouraged by the cheers of the world, for it is mostly exhibited in the recesses of private life.Samuel Smiles

For can there be anything more absurd than to seek more journey money, the less there remains of the journey?Marcus Tullius Cicero

The expectation of gratitude is human; the rising superior to ingratitude is almost divine.William George Jordan

Especially is this true of gratitude; to be coldly silent, when the heart is grateful, is a sin against love.J. R. Miller

When we have shown gratitude to our human benefactors, we still owe our Heavenly Father thanks and gratitude.J. R. Miller

We can all give God worship , and we should give it in the best way possible, as a token of our thankfulness.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

Every honest man gives thanks for favors received from other men, and every upright soul gives thanks to God.Paulist Fathers

If God punish sin, it must be merciful to punish sin; and if God forgive sin, it must be just to forgive sin.George MacDonald

If we stubbornly refuse the renewing of friendship, it is an offence against religion also.Hugh Black

Therefore, brothers and sisters, if we are to forgive each other, do not let us provoke each other to offend.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The first requisite of good citizenship is that the man shall do the homely, every-day, hum-drum duties well.Theodore Roosevelt

The prime factor in securing industrial well-being is the high average of citizenship found in the community.Theodore Roosevelt

The community leader is he who can liberate the greatest amount of energy in his community.Mary Parker Follett

As soon as we see the difficulties, as soon as the responsibility is put upon us, our whole attitude changes.Mary Parker Follett

A leader must not only have a stout heart himself; he must see to it that his followers are as valiant as he.Xenophon

Psychology is a science, and teaching is an art; and sciences never generate arts directly out of themselves.William James

Constructiveness is another great instinctive tendency with which the schoolroom has to contract an alliance.William James

Comedy, we said, combines events so as to introduce mechanism into the outer forms of life.Henri Bergson

In like manner, an affectation of wit by degrees hardens the heart, and spoils good company and good manners.William Hazlitt

Body and soul are in the image of God; and the lord of life was last seen in the glorified body of his death.George MacDonald

Labour and death are for the best good of those that labour and die; they are laws of life.George MacDonald

The Castle of Joyous Gard then, which each of us can use, if we desire it, is the fortress of beauty and joy.Arthur Christopher Benson

Personal beauty soon passes; but beauty of mind and character increases in attractiveness the older it grows.Samuel Smiles

Are there then no old men's employments to be after all conducted by the intellect, even when bodies are weak?Marcus Tullius Cicero

But words of true gratitude are always to human hearts like cups of water to thirsty lips.J. R. Miller

The test of all happiness is gratitude; and I felt grateful, though I hardly knew to whom.G. K. Chesterton

O, how sacred would our temporal mercies be to us if we were always thanking God for them!Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The motto of the Christian should be “Deo gratias!” “Giving thanks always for all things.”Charles Haddon Spurgeon

How much gratitude does he owe the author of nature for having impressed on genius so many different impulses!Joseph Droz

To hate a single one of God's creatures is to harden the heart to some extent against all.Hugh Black

Such renewing of love, done with this high motive, will indeed bring an added joy, as the poets have declared.Hugh Black

The blotting out of sin seems hard till we see the cross, and then it appears easy enough.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Expectation looks for many a blessing, but pardon is a realized favour which faith holds in her hand even now.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

No adequate statement can be made in regard to leadership until it is studied in relation to group psychology.Mary Parker Follett

The complex reciprocal action, the intricate interweavings of the members of the group, is the social process.Mary Parker Follett

If he be a true man, he will imagine true things; what matter whether I meant them or not?George MacDonald

The laughter of Comedy is impersonal and of unrivalled politeness, nearer a smile; often no more than a smile.George Meredith

The Misanthrope and the Tartuffe have no audible laughter; but the characters are steeped in the comic spirit.George Meredith

Genteel comedy is the comedy of fashionable life, and of artificial character and manners.William Hazlitt

It is not that the marvel and wonder of life is less; but it is more equable, more intricate, more mysterious.Arthur Christopher Benson

That is the charm and the use of experience, that it is not at all what we expect or hope.Arthur Christopher Benson

The base element in it is the fear which dreads the opening of the door, and the quitting of what is familiar.Arthur Christopher Benson

Apart from this, he was not afraid of illness in itself, except as a prelude of mortality.Arthur Christopher Benson

As a matter of fact, in my own case the reaction against fear was from the beginning more or less instinctive.Basil King

If men and women do not possess this virtue, they have no security whatever for the preservation of any other.Samuel Smiles

Luther's courageous defence before the Diet is on record, and forms one of the most glorious pages in history.Samuel Smiles

If you really want gratitude, and must have it, be willing to make many men your debtors.William George Jordan

True prayer and gratitude lead to full consecration, and consecration leads to more praying and better praying.E. M. Bounds

The wise man understands and understanding, he ceases from all bitterness and accusation.James Allen

Forgiveness of injuries is one of the very few moral obligations which has been disputed.Joseph Butler

The leader guides the group and is at the same time himself guided by the group, is always a part of the group.Mary Parker Follett

Only it seems to me a grievous error in a ruler to quarrel with all his subjects at once.Xenophon

All words, then, belonging to the inner world of the mind, are of the imagination, are originally poetic words.George MacDonald

I am on the contrary persuaded that by imitation only, variety, and even originality of invention, is produced.Joshua Reynolds

But the humourist of high has an embrace of contrasts beyond the scope of the Comic poet.George Meredith

I have never seen any thing, in the expression of comic humour, equal to Hogarth’s pictures, but Liston’s face!William Hazlitt

He meant that the soul that was athirst could receive a draught of a spring of cool refreshment and living joy.Arthur Christopher Benson

But I cannot take such hopes on the word of another, however gallant and noble he may be.Arthur Christopher Benson

My point is that whatever there may be to struggle with there is nothing to be afraid of.Basil King

The brave man is an inspiration to the weak, and compels them, as it were, to follow him.Samuel Smiles

Spinoza remained courageous and self-reliant to the last, dying in obscurity and poverty.Samuel Smiles

Nor is the unjust intolerance displayed towards men of science in the past, without its lesson for the present.Samuel Smiles

Great evils are in some cases only to be met by resistance; they cannot be wept down, but must be battled down.Samuel Smiles

Gratitude is secret, silent, negative, passive, not showing its being till expressed in praise and thanksgiving.E. M. Bounds

Prayer turns to gratitude and praise when the things asked for have been granted by God.E. M. Bounds

Not only one, two, three sins will charity cover, but she carries a cloak which covereth a whole host of faults.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Guilt or injury then does not dispense with or supersede the duty of love and good will.Joseph Butler

For the evil is, that children get their knowledge of natural history, like all their knowledge, at second hand.Charlotte M. Mason

As a general rule, and speaking roughly, laughter doubtless exercises a useful function.Henri Bergson

The juxtaposition of the knight and squire is a Comic conception, the opposition of their natures most humorous.George Meredith

The stroke of the great humourist is world-wide, with lights of Tragedy in his laughter.George Meredith

Wit can be expressed only in language; humor can be developed sufficiently in situation.Agnes Repplier

For humor distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their earthly pedestals.Agnes Repplier

Every gain of injustice is a loss to the world; for life consists neither in length of days nor in ease of body.George MacDonald

I believe that it is a certain energy and richness of spirit, in which both mind and heart find full expression.Arthur Christopher Benson

Christianity is not a doctrine, or an organisation, or a ceremonial, or a society, but an atmosphere and a life.Arthur Christopher Benson

We must treat life in an eager, light-hearted way, not ruefully or drearily or solemnly.Arthur Christopher Benson

To me it seems basic to the getting rid of fear to know that our trials, of whatever nature, are not motiveless.Basil King

My small experience in the conquest of fear can be condensed into these four words: Calmly resting! quiet trust!Basil King

He does not take even an enemy at a disadvantage, nor strike a man when he is down and unable to defend himself.Samuel Smiles

Yet ought we not to give thanks for all that we receive and for every answered request?J. R. Miller

We can urge you to the tenderest spirit of forgiveness by pointing to God who for Christ's sake has forgiven you.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

By all means let child-study go on,—it is refreshing all our sense of the child's life.William James

All the processes of the ages are God’s science; all the flow of history is his poetry.George MacDonald

Is not the Poet, the Maker, a less suitable name for him than the Trouvère, the Finder?George MacDonald

Moreover, to touch and kindle the mind through laughter, demands more than sprightliness, a most subtle delicacy.George Meredith

The Femmes Savantes is a capital instance of the uses of comedy in teaching the world to understand what ails it.George Meredith

His humour is, in general, broader, his characters more natural, and his incidents more striking than Congreve’s.William Hazlitt

Grief, then, sorrow, pain of heart, mourning, is no partition-wall between man and God.George MacDonald

We must not fear what man can do to us, but commit our way to the Father of the Family.George MacDonald

I do not think mistakes and failures ought to trouble one much; at all events there is no fear mingled with them.Arthur Christopher Benson

Even in the midst of deadly strife such instances of generosity have not been uncommon.Samuel Smiles

For in what respect did old age steal upon manhood faster than manhood upon childhood?Marcus Tullius Cicero

Nor is it the body alone that must be supported, but the intellect and soul much more.Marcus Tullius Cicero

Gratitude is the flowering of a seed of kindness; ingratitude is the dead inactivity of a seed dropped on a stone.William George Jordan

Profuse expressions of gratitude do not cancel an indebtedness any more than a promissory note settles an account.William George Jordan

Parents suffer unspeakably when the children for whom they have lived, suffered, and sacrificed, prove ungrateful.J. R. Miller

Nor is it alone for great and eternal benefits, but even for minor and temporary benefits we ought to give thanks.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Suppose every day my prosperity brings misery to others, how can I give thanks for it?Charles Haddon Spurgeon

To give thanks for the fruit of sin were practically to blaspheme the thrice holy God.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Appreciative men and women have neither the time nor disposition to stop and complain.E. M. Bounds

If we are thankful we do not grudge what we give, we feel that we can never do enough for Him who has redeemed us.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

So in the life of our souls we breathe in God's grace and we breathe out thanksgiving.Paulist Fathers

It is the Divine forgiveness that, originating itself, creates our forgiveness, and therefore can do so much more.George MacDonald

Hearts harden themselves in silence, and, as time goes on, it becomes more difficult to break through the silence.Hugh Black

And let it be remembered that this forgiveness which God has given us for Christ's sake is an eternal forgiveness.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The state must understand its needs, must know how those needs can best be satisfied; it must take responsibility.Mary Parker Follett

It is not my uniqueness which makes me of value to the whole but my power of relating.Mary Parker Follett

He must be an artist indeed who can, in any mode, produce a strict allegory that is not a weariness to the spirit.George MacDonald

Indifference is its natural environment, for laughter has no greater foe than emotion.Henri Bergson

When a comic scene has been reproduced a number of times, it reaches the stage of being a classical type or model.Henri Bergson

In fact, amusements which do not amuse are among the most depressing of earthly evils.Agnes Repplier

The School for Scandal is, if not the most original, perhaps the most finished and faultless comedy which we have.William Hazlitt

Ever radiating peace, they welcome love, but do not seek it; they provoke no jealousy.George MacDonald

He must exercise his own powers, think his own thoughts, and speak his own sentiments.Samuel Smiles

But though the tree of knowledge must reach its full height before it can bear fruit, the roots of it lie in youth.Arthur Schopenhauer

We must ever tower high above dependence on human gratitude or we can do nothing really great, nothing truly noble.William George Jordan

Gratitude that is extravagant in words is usually economical in all other expression.William George Jordan

We thank people for birthday presents of cigars and slippers. Can I thank no one for the birthday present of birth?G. K. Chesterton

I am most thankful that in the church there is room for such a variety of ministries.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

There is not one word in the New Testament about reconciling God to us; it is we that have to be reconciled to God.George MacDonald

The teacher, therefore, need never concern himself about inventing occasions where effort must be called into play.William James

We answer: To inquire into what God has made is the main function of the imagination.George MacDonald

And if it be to man what creation is to God, we must expect to find it operative in every sphere of human activity.George MacDonald

Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds.Percy Bysshe Shelley

Any form or formula is a ready-made frame into which the comic element may be fitted.Henri Bergson

There are many ways of being witty, almost as many as there are of being the reverse.Henri Bergson

The groaning body, wrapt in the garment of hope, will, with outstretched neck, look for its redemption, and endure.George MacDonald

It will be clear from what I have said already that I see no fundamental conquest of fear that is not based in God.Basil King

Where men of high standing have not the courage of their opinions, what is to be expected from men of low standing?Samuel Smiles

Everywhere it is the mainspring of what is called force of character, and the sustaining power of all great action.Samuel Smiles

Mental strength is as necessary for the development of woman's character as of man's.Samuel Smiles

Shall we not allow old age even the strength to teach the young, to train and equip them for all the duties of life?Marcus Tullius Cicero

Only selfishness demands repayment for help given, and is embittered by ingratitude.J. R. Miller

Few faults or injuries cause more pain and grief in tender spirits than ingratitude.J. R. Miller

To appreciate anything we must always isolate it, even if the thing itself symbolise something other than isolation.G. K. Chesterton

The fire of gratitude will help to warm us— heap on the big logs of loving memories.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Never give thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ in such a way as to dishonour the Father.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

There are some things which I must not do, for I could not give God thanks for them.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Praise and thanksgiving are so near alike that it is not easy to distinguish between them or define them separately.E. M. Bounds

We must try to show our thankfulness to God not only with our lips but in our lives.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

Again, we show our thankfulness to God by giving Him a hearty worship in His Church.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

It is hard enough to be just to our friends; and how shall our enemies fare with us?George MacDonald

And remember that forgiveness must not be measured, and stinted, but free, and full.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

The bitterest disputes in life are among those who are nearest each other in spirit.Hugh Black

If we do not know the grace of forgiveness, we do not know how gracious life may be.Hugh Black

If I know that a man does not like a certain thing, I will not thrust it in his way.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Party politics became corrupt because party government was irresponsible government.Mary Parker Follett

This is not divided responsibility but shared responsibility—a very different thing.Mary Parker Follett

Wonderful works can only nourish a faith already existent; to him who believes without it, a miracle may be granted.George MacDonald

But, hearts and souls there, Love itself, which created for love and joy, presses the demand of Righteousness first.George MacDonald

What we have to do is to make life, instantly and without delay, worthy to be lived.Arthur Christopher Benson

It is so fatally easy to think that one has been inconsiderately treated, and to mistake susceptibility for courage.Arthur Christopher Benson

Because love is the one quality which, if it reaches a certain height, can altogether despise and triumph over fear.Arthur Christopher Benson

Otherwise expressed, fear loses much of its fearfulness when we see it as the summons to putting forth new energies.Basil King

Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you're exactly the same.

Audrey Hepburn

That which often seems to us to be ingratitude, may be merely our own ignorance of the subtle phases of human nature.William George Jordan

The smoking flax may give thanks that it is not quenched, and the bruised reed may give thanks that it is not broken.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

There is the voice of praise and thanksgiving going up from singing bird, and rustling forest, and rushing waterfall.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

Moreover, the development of responsibility and self-direction will be the most effective means of raising standards.Mary Parker Follett

The very essence and substance of democracy is the creating of the collective will.Mary Parker Follett

Still more important is the fact that the human being acquires a habit of learning.John Dewey

A knowledge of the past and its heritage is of great significance when it enters into the present, but not otherwise.John Dewey

The great instrument of moral good is the imagination; and poetry administers to the effect by acting upon the cause.Percy Bysshe Shelley

By organising laughter, comedy accepts social life as a natural environment, it even obeys an impulse of social life.Henri Bergson

Mourner, hope in God, and comfort where thou canst, and the lord of mourners will be able to comfort thee the sooner.George MacDonald

I should be glad to feel that the courage which undoubtedly came had been the creation of my will; but it was not so.Arthur Christopher Benson

No doubt fear has played an enormous part in the progress of the human race itself.Arthur Christopher Benson

Such a power, exercised by men of genius, evokes courage, enthusiasm, and devotion.Samuel Smiles

Hypocrisy and timeserving above are accompanied by hypocrisy and timeserving below.Samuel Smiles

Inspired by benevolence and sustained by courage, they have been the mainstays of all social renovation and progress.Samuel Smiles

So that prayer, thanksgiving and consecration are all linked together inseparably.E. M. Bounds

The people are not an imaginary average, shorn of genius and power and leadership.Mary Parker Follett

The skilful leader then does not rely on personal force; he controls his group not by dominating but by expressing it.Mary Parker Follett

Thus the new psychology teaches us that the core of the group process is creating.Mary Parker Follett

We want the single voice but not the single note; that is the secret of the group.Mary Parker Follett

Of all his early studies, perhaps none is more important to the child as a means of education than that of arithmetic.Charlotte M. Mason

So we see that absurdity, when met with in the comic, is not absurdity IN GENERAL.Henri Bergson

So, comic absurdity gives us from the outset the impression of playing with ideas.Henri Bergson

They are as different as the two hemispheres in the time of Columbus, yet they touch and are bound in one by laughter.George Meredith

We must believe that they have a vision of beauty and delight, born of the spirit.Arthur Christopher Benson

We are fearless in proportion as we grow independent enough to know for ourselves.Basil King

The more we are freed from fear the more exultantly we feel our abundance of life.Basil King

Yet there are cases of heroic patience and endurance on the part of women which occasionally come to the light of day.Samuel Smiles

Much of the seeming ingratitude in life comes from our magnifying of our own acts, our minifying of the acts of others.William George Jordan

To give thanks sometimes is easy enough; any mill will grind when the wind blows.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Praise and thanksgiving will be our blessed employment while we remain in heaven.E. M. Bounds

We cannot, nor dare we, pray for what we already have, but must thank God for it.Martin Luther

In all our traffic with heaven, gratitude is the only coin we can mint ourselves.Paulist Fathers

When a man abandons retaliation for forgiveness he passes from darkness to light.James Allen

And so the progress goes on forever: it means life forever in the making, and the creative responsibility of every man.Mary Parker Follett

The child may learn the multiplication-table and do a subtraction sum without any insight into the rationale of either.Charlotte M. Mason

Reason is to the imagination as the instrument to the agent, as the body to the spirit, as the shadow to the substance.Percy Bysshe Shelley

So we were probably right in saying that comedy lies midway between art and life.Henri Bergson

You who have light, show yourselves the sons and daughters of Light, of God, of Hope—the heirs of a great completeness.George MacDonald

Only what other joy could keep from entering, where the God of joy already dwelt?George MacDonald

She was of a temperament which in many ways was more open to the assaults of fear than any which could well be devised.Arthur Christopher Benson

Nothing can be more certain than that the character can only be sustained and strengthened by its own energetic action.Samuel Smiles

For a man who is always living in the midst of these studies and labours does not perceive when old age creeps upon him.Marcus Tullius Cicero

Thanksgiving is just what the word itself signifies—the giving of thanks to God.E. M. Bounds

Favors done and favors gratefully remembered are the two halves of a happy life.Paulist Fathers

Few things are more talked of, and less practised, than the duty of forgiveness.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

You must forgive, not because you are forced to, but because you heartily do it.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

In any great labor disturbance not only are employer and employee interested, but also a third party—the general public.Theodore Roosevelt

But duty to one’s self and one’s family does not exclude duty to one’s neighbor.Theodore Roosevelt

If we fail to do all that in us lies to stamp out corruption we cannot escape our share of responsibility for the guilt.Theodore Roosevelt

One danger of conceiving the leader as outside is that then what ought to be group loyalty will become personal loyalty.Mary Parker Follett

Who ever has struck fire out of me, aroused me to action which I should not otherwise have taken, he has been my leader.Mary Parker Follett

A democratic community is one in which the common will is being gradually created by the civic activity of its citizens.Mary Parker Follett

Learning to read is no more than picking up, how we can, a knowledge of certain arbitrary symbols for objects and ideas.Charlotte M. Mason

It compels us to feel that which we perceive, and to imagine that which we know.Percy Bysshe Shelley

For the comic spirit has a logic of its own, even in its wildest eccentricities.Henri Bergson

You would hardly appreciate the comic if you felt yourself isolated from others.Henri Bergson

Comedy depicts characters we have already come across and shall meet with again.Henri Bergson

He is come to free us from everything that makes life less than bliss essential.George MacDonald

And thus, as I have said, our task is not to be defrauded of our interior peace.Arthur Christopher Benson

If life ought not to be perpetual drudgery, neither can it be a perpetual feast.Arthur Christopher Benson

The advantages of the fearful temperament, if it is not a mere unmanning and desolating dread, are not to be overlooked.Arthur Christopher Benson

He was not afraid of pain, or of the act of dying; it was of the unknown conditions beyond the grave that he was afraid.Arthur Christopher Benson

She was afraid of life, but she stood up to it; she was never crushed or broken.Arthur Christopher Benson

Fear dogs one of us in one way and another in another, but everyone in some way.Basil King

They march up to the scene of action, but at every step their courage oozes out.Samuel Smiles

For as I admire a young man who has something of the old man in him, so do I an old one who has something of a young man.Marcus Tullius Cicero

In fact, old age, especially when it has enjoyed honours, has an influence worth all the pleasures of youth put together.Marcus Tullius Cicero

Suppose I have gained my living by an evil trade, how can I give thanks to God for the gold as I hear it chink in my bag?Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Consideration of God’s mercies not only begets gratitude, but induces a large consecration to God of all we have and are.E. M. Bounds

If not, let us then really make this a time to atone for past neglect; a time of thanksgiving in deed as well as in name.Paulist Fathers

But in the working of the Divine Love upon the race, my enemy is doomed to cease to be my enemy, and to become my friend.George MacDonald

But anger on the contrary is much more fanned by what angry persons do and say.Plutarch

To a genuine group idea every man must contribute what is in him to contribute.Mary Parker Follett

It is very important that teachers should realize the importance of habit, and psychology helps us greatly at this point.William James

A knowledge of meanings, that is, an ample and correct vocabulary, is only arrived at in one way—by the habit of reading.Charlotte M. Mason

And the construction of any hypothesis whatever is the work of the imagination.George MacDonald

We have shown that "series of events" may become comic either by repetition, by inversion, or by reciprocal interference.Henri Bergson

This is the reason comic observation instinctively proceeds to what is general.Henri Bergson

There is a constant ebullition of gay, laughing invention, cordial good humour, and fine animal spirits, in his writings.William Hazlitt

And so the looking back on life ought never to be a mournful thing; it ought to be light-hearted, high-spirited, amusing.Arthur Christopher Benson

These are little homely things; but it is through simple use and not through large theory that one can best practise joy.Arthur Christopher Benson

The real basis for all deep-seated fear about life is the fear that one will not be dealt with either lovingly or justly.Arthur Christopher Benson

To have the feet taken out of the miry clay, and to feel them set on the rock of ages, is a subject for eternal gratitude.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

God claims His share, and our gratitude for His mercies ought to make us gladly render unto God the things that are God's.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

Let us thank him for his gracious promise of the everlasting joys of Paradise.Paulist Fathers

Thus hatred ceases by not-hatred- by forgiveness, which is very beautiful, and is sweeter and more effective than revenge.James Allen

As corn is the special gift of God to man, so is the gift of grace and pardon.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

To be reconciled to God carries with it at least a disposition of heart, which makes it easy to be reconciled to men also.Hugh Black

The first essential in determining how to deal with the great industrial combinations is knowledge of the facts—publicity.Theodore Roosevelt

The first requisite of successful self-government is unflinching enforcement of the law and the cutting out of corruption.Theodore Roosevelt

The essence of democracy is an educated and responsible citizenship evolving common ideas and willing its own social life.Mary Parker Follett

When the interests of mankind are at stake, they will obey with joy the man whom they believe to be wiser than themselves.Xenophon

For if my soldiers see that discipline means reward, all will be well with us.Xenophon

If we now consider the so-called creative faculty in man, we shall find that in no primary sense is this faculty creative.George MacDonald

All that has been said, then, tends to enforce the culture of the imagination.George MacDonald

But if we speak of direct means for the culture of the imagination, the whole is comprised in two words—food and exercise.George MacDonald

Amusement is merely one side of pleasure, but a very excellent side, against which, in truth, I have no evil word to urge.Agnes Repplier

The difficulty may go for nothing in view of the forces of that future with which this loving speculation concerns itself.George MacDonald

The road has to be travelled, every inch of it, and it is better to struggle on in feebleness than to collapse in despair.Arthur Christopher Benson

For most of us the fear of death is a subconscious rather than an active fear.Basil King

While such has been the courage of the martyrs of science, not less glorious has been the courage of the martyrs of faith.Samuel Smiles

Energy of temperament, with a moderate degree of wisdom, will carry a man further than any amount of intellect without it.Samuel Smiles

I have never met a man so ignorant that I could not learn something from him.

Galileo Galilei

For what is more charming than old age surrounded by the enthusiasm of youth?Marcus Tullius Cicero

Ingratitude, the most popular sin of humanity, is forgetfulness of the heart.William George Jordan

Bless God for his unknown benefits; extol him for favours which you do not see, always giving thanks to God for all things.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Gratitude to parents and friends is but gratitude to God, if it be properly rendered with a view to the highest benefactor.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

And true prayer corrects complaining and promotes gratitude and thanksgiving.E. M. Bounds

All we do in the service of God should be done from a motive of thankfulness.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

Those who bear it in mind, who say a word of hearty thanks, who watch a chance to do a favor in return, never lack friends.Paulist Fathers

What gratitude should we not owe that provident instruction, whose cares should indicate, and smooth our road to happiness!Joseph Droz

Christ took the shame that he might magnify his Father, and now his Father delights to magnify him by blotting out the sin.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Life can mean nothing worth meaning, unless its prime aim is the doing of duty, the achievement of results worth achieving.Theodore Roosevelt

As soon as we are given opportunities for the release of the energy there is in us, heroes and leaders will arise among us.Mary Parker Follett

No, every leader must win his own followers for himself, and the way to win them is not by violence but by loving-kindness.Xenophon

In every branch of study there are happily turned, concise, and handy formulas which in an incomparable way sum up results.William James

Yet away back in childhood we find the beginnings of purely intellectual curiosity, and the intelligence of abstract terms.William James

Exercises treated as a game, which yet teach the powers of the letters, will be better to begin with than actual sentences.Charlotte M. Mason

The most common and the monstrous defect in the education of the day is that children fail to acquire the habit of reading.Charlotte M. Mason

The highest imagination and the lowliest common sense are always on one side.George MacDonald

A fairytale is just a fairytale, as a face is just a face; and of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful.George MacDonald

In conformity to custom, I call this part of the art History Painting; it ought to be called Poetical, as in reality it is.Joshua Reynolds

Their inventions are not only the food of our infancy, but the substance which supplies the fullest maturity of our vigour.Joshua Reynolds

How profound is the comic element in the over-romantic, Utopian bent of mind!Henri Bergson

For, obviously, the comic element in a drawing is often a borrowed one, for which the text supplies all the stock-in-trade.Henri Bergson

As we hinted at the outset of this study, it would be idle to attempt to derive every comic effect from one simple formula.Henri Bergson

And so we see why action is essential in drama, but only accessory in comedy.Henri Bergson

There are questions, as well as persons, that only the Comic can fitly touch.George Meredith

Comedy, on the other hand, is an interpretation of the general mind, and is for that reason of necessity kept in restraint.George Meredith

Those who detect irony in Comedy do so because they choose to see it in life.George Meredith

In fact, as far as I know, little attempt was made to combat fear in any way.Basil King

I am convinced that absolute confidence in God's overflowing liberality of every sort is essential to the conquest of fear.Basil King

Hence, youth is the time for poetry, and age is more inclined to philosophy.Arthur Schopenhauer

Gratitude, to fulfil its gentle ministry, must find some fitting expression.J. R. Miller

As soldiers march to music, so while we walk in the paths of righteousness we should keep step to the notes of thanksgiving.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Wherever there is true prayer, there thanksgiving and gratitude stand hard by, ready to respond to the answer when it comes.E. M. Bounds

Although compelled to live among the ungrateful, we are not for that reason to fall into error nor to cease from doing good.Martin Luther

Much of our dissension is due to misunderstanding, which could be put right by a few honest words and a little open dealing.Hugh Black

It may be too late, but confession will lighten the burden on our own heart.Hugh Black

To some natures it is hard to be laid under an obligation, and the generosity of love must be shown by the offended brother.Hugh Black

Loyalty is awakened through and by the very process which creates the group.Mary Parker Follett

To ignore the directive influence of this present environment upon the young is simply to abdicate the educational function.John Dewey

In the first place, we must teach that which we know, know by the life of the soul, not with any mere knowledge of the mind.Charlotte M. Mason

Every beauty will have its word, only all beauties will be subordinated to the final beauty—that is, the unity of the whole.George MacDonald

The value and rank of every art is in proportion to the mental labour employed in it, or the mental pleasure produced by it.Joshua Reynolds

Invention, in Painting, does not imply the invention of the subject, for that is commonly supplied by the Poet or Historian.Joshua Reynolds

To read a good comedy is to keep the best company in the world, where the best things are said, and the most amusing happen.William Hazlitt

It will take the utmost joy God can give, to let men know him; and what man, knowing him, would mind losing every other joy?George MacDonald

There is not a country in which one group is not afraid of some other group.Basil King

The danger of the lone quest leading a man astray can be easily exaggerated.Basil King

Going to the Father without fear is a privilege for every minute of the day.Basil King

But moral cowardice is exhibited quite as much in public as in private life.Samuel Smiles

They have to do battle with these conditions, and if possible overcome them.Samuel Smiles

I am thankful to old age, which has increased my avidity for conversation, while it has removed that for eating and drinking.Marcus Tullius Cicero

Prayer bringing the desired answer breaks out into praise and thanksgiving.E. M. Bounds

Surely we ought supremely to thank God, as the latter part of our text enjoins, for the great blessing of his nearness to us.Martin Luther

Along with the seeing of evil in others is the desire to convert or coerce others into one’s own ways of thinking and acting.James Allen

It is in virtue of the divine essence which is in them, that pure essential humanity, that we call our enemies men and women.George MacDonald

His nature is always to forgive, and just because he forgives, he punishes.George MacDonald

And yet once more, the love of Christ is wonderful in its power of pardon .H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

It is not the crowd that idly jostle us in the street who can hurt us to the quick, but a familiar friend in whom we trusted.Hugh Black

My freedom is my share in creating, my part in the creative responsibility.Mary Parker Follett

It is at school that children should begin to learn group initiative, group responsibility—in other words social functioning.Mary Parker Follett

In so far as we obey old standards without interpenetrating them with the actual world, we are abdicating our creative power.Mary Parker Follett

Nay, the poetic relations themselves in the phenomenon may suggest to the imagination the law that rules its scientific life.George MacDonald

The region belonging to the pure intellect is straitened: the imagination labours to extend its territories, to give it room.George MacDonald

When we turn to history, however, we find probably the greatest operative sphere of the intellectuo-constructive imagination.George MacDonald

It is necessary that all should understand and imagine the good; that all should begin, at least, to follow and find out God.George MacDonald

Reason respects the differences, and imagination the similitudes of things.Percy Bysshe Shelley

On the modern stage a few only of the elements capable of expressing the image of the poet's conception are employed at once.Percy Bysshe Shelley

Indeed, transposition is to ordinary language what repetition is to comedy.Henri Bergson

Embrace them both, and you have the whole scale of laughter in your breast.George Meredith

It is only very sensible or very honest people, who laugh as freely at their own absurdities as at those of their neighbours.William Hazlitt

Keeping in comic character is consistency in absurdity; a determined and laudable attachment to the incongruous and singular.William Hazlitt

A quotation or a hackneyed phrase dextrously turned or wrested to another purpose, has often the effect of the liveliest wit.William Hazlitt

After all, verbal and accidental strokes of wit, though the most surprising and laughable, are not the best and most lasting.William Hazlitt

The Lord knew all the history of love and loss; beheld throughout the universe the winged Love discrowning the skeleton Fear.George MacDonald

It would have much, had you now what you must one day have—a heart big enough to love any life God has thought fit to create.George MacDonald

It is the fear of what may be and what must be that overshadows present happiness; and if fear is taken from us we are happy.Arthur Christopher Benson

We must not drowse and brood in our own sombre corner, when life is flowing free and full outside, as in some flashing river.Arthur Christopher Benson

Renunciation is not a wholly passive thing; it is not a mere suspicion of all that is joyful, a dull abnegation of happiness.Arthur Christopher Benson

Struggling from stage to stage upward from the slime a new danger was always to it a new incentive to finding a new resource.Basil King

Luther was as good as his word; and he set forth upon his perilous journey.Samuel Smiles

Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.

Desmond Tutu

For in fact we thank the gods for those things in which we place our good.

Epictetus

Each breath of air should inspire us with thanks, and the blood in our veins should circulate gratitude throughout our system.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Gratitude and thanksgiving forever stand opposed to all murmurings at God’s dealings with us, and all complainings at our lot.E. M. Bounds

Yes, it should be the joy of a Christian heart to see multitudes accept the offer of mercy, and praise and thank God with him.Martin Luther

Forgiveness is one of the doorways in the faultless temple of Love Divine.James Allen

But I will not, cannot believe, O my Lord, that thou wouldst not forgive thy enemy, even when he repented, and did thee right.George MacDonald

It is not the unfriendly, the unlovely, that we are told to love, but the brother, the sister, who is unkind, who is unlovely.George MacDonald

Man is not made for justice from his fellow, but for love, which is greater than justice, and by including supersedes justice.George MacDonald

We are enjoined to forgive, to be merciful, to be as our father in heaven.George MacDonald

Then, if you must be offended, dear brother, do not exaggerate an offence.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Surely it is hardly fitting that the ruler should be baser than the ruled.Xenophon

We can now see therefore that the object of group life is not to find the best individual thought, but the collective thought.Mary Parker Follett

It is because all together we have struck out a new power in the universe.Mary Parker Follett

The teachers of this country, one may say, have its future in their hands.William James

It is nonsense to suppose that every step in education can be interesting.William James

The educational error of our day is that we believe too much in mediators.Charlotte M. Mason

Geography is, to my mind, a subject of high educational value; though not because it affords the means of scientific training.Charlotte M. Mason

Any key to a work of imagination would be nearly, if not quite, as absurd.George MacDonald

The poetry of Dante may be considered as the bridge thrown over the stream of time, which unites the modern and ancient world.Percy Bysshe Shelley

Comedy, we have to admit, was never one of the most honoured of the Muses.George Meredith

The Stage is one great source of public amusement, not to say instruction.William Hazlitt

If we do indeed expect better things to come, we must let our hope appear.George MacDonald

It is the strong and courageous men who lead and guide and rule the world.Samuel Smiles

As prayer sets God to work, so answered prayer sets thanksgiving to work.E. M. Bounds

Let us not be found unthankful, and forgetful of God's infinite goodness.Martin Luther

The life of heaven will be pure joy, and its one occupation thankfulness.Paulist Fathers

Suppose it possible that he should say so, his forgiveness would be no good to us while we were uncured of our unforgivingness.George MacDonald

But when this resentment entirely destroys our natural benevolence towards him, it is excessive, and becomes malice or revenge.Joseph Butler

As societies become more complex in structure and resources, the need of formal or intentional teaching and learning increases.John Dewey

Hence education means the enterprise of supplying the conditions which insure growth, or adequacy of life, irrespective of age.John Dewey

In physical things a man may invent; in moral things he must obey—and take their laws with him into his invented world as well.George MacDonald

Contempt is a sentiment that cannot be entertained by comic intelligence.George Meredith

for wit is as infinite as love, and a deal more lasting in its qualities.Agnes Repplier

You cannot force people to laugh: you cannot give a reason why they should laugh: they must laugh of themselves, or not at all.William Hazlitt

To grow purer in heart, and stronger in the hope of at length seeing God.George MacDonald

He will not feel himself bound to crush all enjoyment, to refuse to love and be loved, to enter tamely and passively into life.Arthur Christopher Benson

She stuck to her duty and faced life with an infinity of patient courage.Arthur Christopher Benson

In my fight against fear, in as far as I made one, God was for many years of no help to me, or of no help of which I was aware.Basil King

In this present spring of 1921 we are having an exhibition of fear on a scale so colossal that the heart of man is dazed by it.Basil King

It should be plain, I think, that no one will ever be released from fear by clinging to the teachings which have inspired fear.Basil King

I speak only for myself when I say that the more I can feel round me the atmosphere of omnipotence the less I am aware of fear.Basil King

Nevertheless, a man should economize his strength even when he is young.Arthur Schopenhauer

For God to forgive is something great; for us to forgive, though some think it great, should be regarded as a very small matter.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Remember, when you have conquered yourself you have conquered the world.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Moreover, we learn responsibility for our group as well as to our group.Mary Parker Follett

Gentlemen, this is not the first time I have had occasion to observe that a good ruler differs in no respect from a good father.Xenophon

The sympathy which springs up within the group is a productive sympathy.Mary Parker Follett

Poetry strengthens the faculty which is the organ of the moral nature of man, in the same manner as exercise strengthens a limb.Percy Bysshe Shelley

Lucretius is in the highest, and Virgil in a very high sense, a creator.Percy Bysshe Shelley

The first point to which attention should be called is that the comic does not exist outside the pale of what is strictly HUMAN.Henri Bergson

It might almost be said that every fashion is laughable in some respect.Henri Bergson

Several authors, Jean Paul amongst them, have noticed that humour delights in concrete terms, technical details, definite facts.Henri Bergson

Without effort, and with no dazzling flashes of achievement, it is full of healing, the wit of good breeding, the wit of wisdom.George Meredith

Wit is born of conscious effort; humor, of the allotted ironies of fate.Agnes Repplier

The Lord never did mighty work in proof of his mission; to help a growing faith in himself and his father, he would do anything!George MacDonald

We may admire and hope and love, and it is our business to do all three.Arthur Christopher Benson

I do not affirm that I have conquered fear, but only that in self-defence I have been obliged to do something in that direction.Basil King

To the conquest of fear this splendid universalism is another essential.Basil King

It gives force and impulse to effort, and does not permit it to retreat.Samuel Smiles

But that devotion to duty which marks the heroic character has more often been exhibited by women in deeds of charity and mercy.Samuel Smiles

The expectation of gratitude is the alloy of an otherwise virtuous act.William George Jordan

Gratitude and murmuring never abide in the same heart at the same time.E. M. Bounds

We are required to forgive, with the argument that our father forgives.George MacDonald

The world can teach us how to resent an injury, not how to forgive one.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

God for Christ's sake has accepted us in him, has forgiven us in him, and looks upon us with love infinite and changeless in him.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

But we are so to democratize our industrial and our political methods that all will have a share in policy and in responsibility.Mary Parker Follett

But there is a shorter way to a nobler goal, the obedience of the will.Xenophon

In the schoolroom, imitation and emulation play absolutely vital parts.William James

But we do not ask him to ‘make a note of’ this new piece of knowledge; we let it grow into him gradually, after many experiences.Charlotte M. Mason

It creates anew the universe, after it has been annihilated in our minds by the recurrence of impressions blunted by reiteration.Percy Bysshe Shelley

Menander and Molière have given the principal types to Comedy hitherto.George Meredith

Humourists touching upon History or Society are given to be capricious.George Meredith

Hazlitt is so sure that laughter is our inalienable right, that he takes no pains to soften its cadences or to justify its mirth.Agnes Repplier

Nevertheless, an understanding of the differences in nations and in epochs helps us to the enjoyment of many humorous situations.Agnes Repplier

We weep at what thwarts or exceeds our desires in serious matters: we laugh at what only disappoints our expectations in trifles.William Hazlitt

For indeed life is nobler and richer than any one interpretation of it.Arthur Christopher Benson

It did not occur to me then, nor did it, I think, occur to anyone else, what an amazing bit of physical and moral courage it was.Arthur Christopher Benson

There is not a government which is not afraid of some other government.Basil King

At the beginning of his great struggle, he stood almost entirely alone.Samuel Smiles

There is now one opinion for the chamber, and another for the platform.Samuel Smiles

As we think of mercies past, the heart is inwardly moved to gratitude.E. M. Bounds

Count up God's mercies and blessings every day, and you cannot murmur.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

Let us thank him for our afflictions—yes, even for temptations; for the pains we suffer thereby are the growing-pains of the soul.Paulist Fathers

When we have truly repented of our sins, and the words of absolution are spoken, we have the pardoning Hand of Jesus laid upon us.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

But the parable not only teaches us our need of pardon, and the fulness of God's mercy, but the necessity of forgiving each other.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

The highest forgiveness is so full and free, that it is forgetfulness.Hugh Black

The leader of a crowd dominates because a crowd wants to be dominated.Mary Parker Follett

Moreover at present representative government rests on the fallacy that when you delegate the job you delegate the responsibility.Mary Parker Follett

For what the leaders are, that, as a rule, will the men below them be.Xenophon

The test of our vitality is our power of synthesis, of life synthesis.Mary Parker Follett

An activity which brings education or instruction with it makes one aware of some of the connections which had been imperceptible.John Dewey

Education, enlarging as it does our horizon and perspective, is a means of multiplying our ideals, of bringing new ones into view.William James

The imagination of man is made in the image of the imagination of God.George MacDonald

The reasonings at which we laugh are those we know to be false, but which we might accept as true were we to hear them in a dream.Henri Bergson

The Lord would have us know that sorrow is not a part of life; that it is but a wind blowing throughout it, to winnow and cleanse.George MacDonald

His glad thought may not be one to impart to his neighbour, but he must not quench the vibration of its gladness ere it reach him.George MacDonald

Their immortality is no new faith with me, but as old as my childhood.George MacDonald

They calculate the risks, and weigh the chances, until the opportunity for effective effort has passed, it may be never to return.Samuel Smiles

Their courage, where their hearts are concerned, is indeed proverbial:Samuel Smiles

To man we are bound to render thanks in proportion as he benefits us.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

An unappreciative spirit has no standing beside gratitude and praise.E. M. Bounds

Flowers rejoice when night is done, Lift their heads to greet the sun; Sweetest looks and odours raise, In a silent hymn of praise.Henry van Dyke

Begin to love him now, and help him into the loveliness which is his.George MacDonald

Oh! my brothers, if we would find pardon for our many sins, let us ask Him who prayed for His murderers to teach us how to forgive.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

For as bodies seem greater in a mist, so do little matters in a rage.Plutarch

This government is not and never shall be government by a plutocracy.Theodore Roosevelt

A crowd is an undifferentiated mass; a group is an articulated whole.Mary Parker Follett

I should say, therefore, that constant exercise in verbal memorizing must still be an indispensable feature in all sound education.William James

God has made the world that it should thus serve his creature, developing in the service that imagination whose necessity it meets.George MacDonald

The better, however, any such word is fitted for the needs of humanity, the sooner it loses its poetic aspect by commonness of use.George MacDonald

Poetry, in a general sense, may be defined to be 'the expression of the imagination': and poetry is connate with the origin of man.Percy Bysshe Shelley

The principle now laid down, that the perfection of this art does not consist in mere imitation, is far from being new or singular.Joshua Reynolds

Now the primary necessity to the very existence of a family is peace.George MacDonald

Believe it is not by a little only that the heart of the universe is tenderer, more loving, more just and fair, than yours or mine.George MacDonald

It is delight that we must follow, everything that brims the channel of life, stimulates, freshens, enlivens, tantalises, attracts.Arthur Christopher Benson

I have certainly never seen such an exhibition of courage in my life.Arthur Christopher Benson

Fear was not overcome; I had only made a more or less hesitating stand against it; but even from doing that I got positive results.Basil King

A society that had escaped from fear would escape from their control.Basil King

I come here to a point of no small importance to the conquest of fear, the courage to release oneself from the tether of tradition.Basil King

What we do not get is relief from fear, because we do not understand that fear above all things is what He would take away from us.Basil King

But throughout my discourse remember that my panegyric applies to an old age that has been established on foundations laid by youth.Marcus Tullius Cicero

But to disregard death is a lesson which must be studied from our youth up; for unless that is learnt, no one can have a quiet mind.Marcus Tullius Cicero

Oh! how thankful we should be for the mercy and goodness of our God!Paulist Fathers

Thanksgiving is that part of our sanctification necessarily our own.Paulist Fathers

The road to heaven is open to all, but all must take what they get as they go along, and be thankful for it and make no comparisons.Paulist Fathers

How can happiness dwell in a heart that is so disturbed by ill-will?James Allen

God's love is the prime mover, ever seeking to perfect his forgiveness, which latter needs the human condition for its consummation.George MacDonald

So God forgives us through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

He not only forgave us at the first all our sins, but he continues daily to forgive, for the act of forgiveness is a continuous one.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

It is better that children should receive a few vital ideas that their souls may grow upon than a great deal of indefinite teaching.Charlotte M. Mason

We have gone over many varieties of the comic, and there is not one of them that is incapable of being volatilised into a witticism.Henri Bergson

The higher the Comedy, the more prominent the part they enjoy in it.George Meredith

Heart and mind laugh out at Don Quixote, and still you brood on him.George Meredith

Wit is the plaything of the intellectual, or the weapon of nimble minds; humor is the possession of all sorts and conditions of men.Agnes Repplier

Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food, and few things in the world are more wearying than a sarcastic attitude towards life.Agnes Repplier

The Tatler contains only half the number of volumes, and, I will venture to say, nearly an equal quantity of sterling wit and sense.William Hazlitt

No art, no literature, are worth anything at all unless they send one back to life with a renewed desire to taste it and to live it.Arthur Christopher Benson

In the Pilgrim's Progress itself, the unreality of the spirits of fear, their secrecy and leniency, is very firmly and wittily told.Arthur Christopher Benson

We shall not, in my judgment, overcome fear till we see Him as He surely must be, generous beyond all our conceptions of generosity.Basil King

He had the moral courage to brave not only the tyranny of the judges who condemned him, but of the mob who could not understand him.Samuel Smiles

Prejudices are pandered to in public, which in private are despised.Samuel Smiles

The chief result gained by experience of life is clearness of view.Arthur Schopenhauer

If you love, serve; and if you serve, serve him first, and serve his children and his people next, and you will prove your gratitude.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Very often when a man is angry he may not be the only one to blame.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The development of a truly social life takes place at the same time that the freedom and power and efficiency of its members develop.Mary Parker Follett

In practice, education meets these conditions, and hence is general, in the degree in which it takes account of social relationships.John Dewey

The fundamental ideas of geography and the meaning of a map are subjects well fitted to form an attractive introduction to the study.Charlotte M. Mason

In the former sense, whatever strengthens and purifies the affections, enlarges the imagination, and adds spirit to sense, is useful.Percy Bysshe Shelley

It is indisputably evident that a great part of every man's life must be employed in collecting materials for the exercise of genius.Joshua Reynolds

Exaggeration is always comic when prolonged, and especially when systematic; then, indeed, it appears as one method of transposition.Henri Bergson

There is much greater mixture, however, of the pathetic and sentimental with the quaint and humorous, than there ever is in Fielding.William Hazlitt

After all, our power of taking a light-hearted view of life is proportional to our interest in it, our belief in it, our hopes of it.Arthur Christopher Benson

If one questions a shy boy or girl as to what it is they are afraid of in the presence of strangers, they are quite unable to answer.Arthur Christopher Benson

To me personally it was no small help in overcoming fear when I saw the purpose of existence as expressed in the single word, Growth.Basil King

They are ready to be unprincipled and unjust rather than unpopular.Samuel Smiles

Such men have in all ages represented the moral force of the world.Samuel Smiles

Yet while love does not work for wages, nor demand an equivalent for its services, it is sorely wronged when ungrateful lips are dumb.J. R. Miller

May He grant us all more thankful hearts, for Jesus Christ's sake.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

Love is the law of our condition, without which we can no more render justice than a man can keep a straight line walking in the dark.George MacDonald

Oh, how pleasant to think that when the just God looks upon us it is through the reconciling medium, he views us through the Mediator.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The insidious power of the machine is due to its irresponsibility.Mary Parker Follett

He is a leader who gives form to the inchoate energy in every man.Mary Parker Follett

Suggestion is the law of the crowd, interpenetration of the group.Mary Parker Follett

There is no one subject in which good teaching effects more, as there is none in which slovenly teaching has more mischievous results.Charlotte M. Mason

The child, who has been allowed to think and not compelled to cram, hails the new study with delight when the due time for it arrives.Charlotte M. Mason

Perhaps Dante created imaginations of greater loveliness and energy than any that are to be found in the ancient literature of Greece.Percy Bysshe Shelley

The distinction between poets and prose writers is a vulgar error.Percy Bysshe Shelley

To realise this more fully, it need only be noted that a comic character is generally comic in proportion to his ignorance of himself.Henri Bergson

Laughter must be something of this kind, a sort of SOCIAL GESTURE.Henri Bergson

We said that repetition is the favourite method of classic comedy.Henri Bergson

Language only attains laughable results because it is a human product, modelled as exactly as possible on the forms of the human mind.Henri Bergson

Humour is the describing the ludicrous as it is in itself; wit is the exposing it, by comparing or contrasting it with something else.William Hazlitt

Serene and unquestioned strength can have nothing to do with fear.Arthur Christopher Benson

The greater part of these are never known, for they are done in private, out of the public sight, and for the mere love of doing good.Samuel Smiles

Most persons look at gratitude as a protective tariff on virtues.William George Jordan

Gratitude is an inward emotion of the soul, involuntarily arising therein, while thanksgiving is the voluntary expression of gratitude.E. M. Bounds

A consecrated life is both a prayer-life and a thanksgiving life.E. M. Bounds

To resort to the spirit and practice of forgiveness is the beginning of enlightenment; it is also the beginning of peace and happiness.James Allen

If there must be something wrong, let it be as little as you can.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The beauty may be plainer in it than the truth, but without the truth the beauty could not be, and the fairytale would give no delight.George MacDonald

A poet participates in the eternal, the infinite, and the one; as far as relates to his conceptions, time and place and number are not.Percy Bysshe Shelley

Poetry redeems from decay the visitations of the divinity in man.Percy Bysshe Shelley

Believe that idle empty laughter is the most desirable of recreations, and significant Comedy will seem pale and shallow in comparison.George Meredith

The Comic spirit is not hostile to the sweetest songfully poetic.George Meredith

Her severities of judgment—and who more severe than she?—were due to the same melancholy cause; for humor is the kindliest thing alive.Agnes Repplier

Among other things, this little piece contains an exquisite, and almost unanswerable defence of the superiority of comedy over tragedy.William Hazlitt

I do not believe in fierce rebellion, but I do believe in quiet transformation; and here comes in the faith that I have in Joyous Gard.Arthur Christopher Benson

That is what we must try to avoid—any WASTE of time and strength.Arthur Christopher Benson

Having fewer things to be afraid of my mind was clearer for work.Basil King

He must elaborate his own opinions, and form his own convictions.Samuel Smiles

Their confidence in themselves inspires the confidence of others.Samuel Smiles

The persistent man will not be baffled or repulsed by opposition.Samuel Smiles

We must offer the salt of gratitude with the sacrifice of obedience; our lives should be anointed with the precious oil of thankfulness.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Our thanksgiving is not a swallow which is gone with the summer.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Gratitude is the root of all true Christian service and worship.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

When a man's evil is thus fading out of him, and he is growing better and better, that is the forgiveness coming into him more and more.George MacDonald

Whenever we have a real group something new is actually created.Mary Parker Follett

On the other hand, every member participates in that power of a whole which is so much greater than the addition of its separate forces.Mary Parker Follett

The philosophy is eloquent about the duty of the teacher in instructing pupils; it is almost silent regarding his privilege of learning.John Dewey

The object-teaching is mainly to launch the pupils, with some concrete conceptions of the facts concerned, upon the more abstract ideas.William James

Beauty and simplicity have so great a share in the composition of a great style, that he who has acquired them has little else to learn.Joshua Reynolds

What we now call Genius begins, not where rules abstractedly taken end, but where known vulgar and trite rules have no longer any place.Joshua Reynolds

The four principal writers of this style of comedy (which I think the best) are undoubtedly Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar.William Hazlitt

Decision gives the power of standing firmly, when to yield, however slightly, might be only the first step in a downhill course to ruin.Samuel Smiles

Indeed, if it has in store any of what I may call the food of study and philosophy, nothing can be pleasanter than an old age of leisure.Marcus Tullius Cicero

Another reason why life looks so long when we are young, is that we are apt to measure its length by the few years we have already lived.Arthur Schopenhauer

The progress of life shows a man the stuff of which he is made.Arthur Schopenhauer

Especially in homes ought there to be more grateful expression.J. R. Miller

I feel grateful for the slight sprain which has introduced this mysterious and fascinating division between one of my feet and the other.G. K. Chesterton

Anyone can give God thanks when the harvests are plentiful, the stalls full of fat cattle, and the meadows covered with increasing herds.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

It should be even easier to take the initiative in such a case; for after all it is much easier to forgive than to submit to be forgiven.Hugh Black

In its higher, more intellectual form, the impulse toward completer knowledge takes the character of scientific or philosophic curiosity.William James

An effort should be made to treat the subject with the sort of sympathetic interest and freshness which attracts children to a new study.Charlotte M. Mason

We ought not to expect more than an artist intends in his work.Joshua Reynolds

Laughter must answer to certain requirements of life in common.Henri Bergson

He put his strength into his tragedies, and played with comedy.William Hazlitt

What I earnestly desire is that men and women should not thus waste precious time and pleasant life, but go straight to reality, to hope.Arthur Christopher Benson

If I look back over my own life, I can discern three distinct stages of fear and anxieties, and I expect it is the same with most people.Arthur Christopher Benson

Another way of escape from the importunities of fear is to be very resolute in fighting against our personal claims to honour and esteem.Arthur Christopher Benson

No. "God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Pardon is not a prize to be run for, but a blessing received at the first step of the race.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Under our form of government all authority is vested in the people and by them delegated to those who represent them in official capacity.Theodore Roosevelt

Democracy does not tend to suppress leadership as is often stated; it is the only organization of society which will bring out leadership.Mary Parker Follett

The members of a group are reciprocally conditioning forces none of which acts as it would act if any one member were different or absent.Mary Parker Follett

And, pari passu with his knowledge of things, his vocabulary grows; for it is a law of the mind that what we know, we struggle to express.Charlotte M. Mason

Precisely so must the mind be sustained and developed by means of the food convenient for it, the mental pabulum of assimilated knowledge.Charlotte M. Mason

But the learning of the alphabet should be made a means of cultivating the child’s observation: he should be made to see what he looks at.Charlotte M. Mason

As to his glory, let time be challenged to declare whether the fame of any other institutor of human life be comparable to that of a poet.Percy Bysshe Shelley

A Painter must compensate the natural deficiencies of his art.Joshua Reynolds

This accounts for the comic being so frequently dependent on the manners or ideas, or, to put it bluntly, on the prejudices, of a society.Henri Bergson

Such treasuries of sparkling laughter are wells in our desert.George Meredith

To explain the nature of laughter and tears, is to account for the condition of human life; for it is in a manner compounded of these two!William Hazlitt

Shall we not rather believe that the vessels of less honour, the misused, the maltreated, shall be filled full with creative wine at last?George MacDonald

Fear is the shadow of the imaginative, the resourceful, the inventive temperament, but it multiplies resource and invention a hundredfold.Arthur Christopher Benson

To the mind of to-day trust would be easier were it not for the terror lest God's plans involve us in fearful things from which we shrink.Basil King

Gratitude arises from a contemplation of the goodness of God.E. M. Bounds

I will thank him for the past, I will beg him for the future.Paulist Fathers

Don’t give occasion for offence or hurt the feelings of others, which means - be gently considerate, forgiving, and charitable towards all.James Allen

Let us seek to forgive and forget the faults of others, losing sight, to a degree, of what they are in the thought of what they may become.William George Jordan

Remember, it is of no use for you to put your money into that offering box as you go out unless you remember first to forgive your brother.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Let the parent who only knows one thing from above teach his child that one; more will come to him by the time the child is ready for more.Charlotte M. Mason

In moderate attempts there are many walks open to the artist.Joshua Reynolds

Genius will still have room enough to expatiate, and keep always at the same distance from narrow comprehension and mechanical performance.Joshua Reynolds

Picture to yourself certain characters in a certain situation: if you reverse the situation and invert the roles, you obtain a comic scene.Henri Bergson

Hence the following general rule: A COMIC MEANING IS INVARIABLY OBTAINED WHEN AN ABSURD IDEA IS FITTED INTO A WELL-ESTABLISHED PHRASE-FORM.Henri Bergson

In particular, there is in laughter a movement of relaxation which has often been noticed, and the reason of which we must try to discover.Henri Bergson

But it does not therefore follow that laughter always hits the mark or is invariably inspired by sentiments of kindness or even of justice.Henri Bergson

It enters you like fresh air into a study; as when one of the sudden contrasts of the comic idea floods the brain like reassuring daylight.George Meredith

“Hudibras,” for example, is witty; “Don Quixote” is humorous.Agnes Repplier

But humor stands on common soil, and breathes our common air.Agnes Repplier

Lamb laughs at so many people, and never once wrongs any one.Agnes Repplier

Every page presents a shower of brilliant conceits, is a tissue of epigrams in prose, is a new triumph of wit, a new conquest over dulness.William Hazlitt

Our laughing at him does not once lessen our respect for him.William Hazlitt

Our business, if we know that we are laggards, if we only dimly suspect it, is not to fear the shadow, but to seize the outstretched hands.Arthur Christopher Benson

In proportion as the individual does so now he reaps the reward of his victory; and in proportion as he reaps that reward fear is overcome.Basil King

One child of God will be as grateful and as happy, as blessed and as rejoicing, as another, if he be but satisfied still to give God thanks.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The holiest debt we owe to God or man is the debt of thanks.Paulist Fathers

In considering the different ages of life, the first sentiment I feel, is gratitude for the variety of pleasures, destined for us by nature.Joseph Droz

Have you felt the shame, the sorrow, the misery of knowing your sin, and the exquisite sense of relief when you knew that you were pardoned?H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

Psychology ought certainly to give the teacher radical help.William James

Such a complete knowledge as this of the pupil, at once intuitive and analytic, is surely the knowledge at which every teacher ought to aim.William James

Knowledge is conveyed to them by lessons and talk, but the studious habit of using books as a means of interest and delight is not acquired.Charlotte M. Mason

No one would presume to say that we are deficient in jokers.George Meredith

It seems to me that it is impossible to be these things unless we have time to consider life a little, to deliberate, to select, to abstain.Arthur Christopher Benson

Having established it with myself that Universal Presence was also Universal Thought I had made another step toward the elimination of fear.Basil King

But for their continuous antagonism to evil conditions, the world were for the most part given over to the dominion of selfishness and vice.Samuel Smiles

In age, judgment, penetration and thoroughness predominate.Arthur Schopenhauer

To desire recognition of our acts of kindness and to hunger for appreciation and the simple justice of a return of good for good, is natural.William George Jordan

The Christly spirit continues to give and bless, pouring out its love in unstinted measure, though no act or word or look tells of gratitude.J. R. Miller

Dear friends, a Christian has infinite cause for gratitude.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

There ought not to be brought into the house a loaf of bread without thanksgiving; nor should we cast a coal upon the fire without gratitude.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Gratitude is a short cut to sincere and lasting friendship.Paulist Fathers

When the man hath, with his whole nature, cast away his sin, there is no room for forgiveness any more, for God dwells in him, and he in God.George MacDonald

Then the consciousness of the solidarity of the group leads directly to a sense of responsibility, responsibility in a group and for a group.Mary Parker Follett

The caverns of the mind are obscure, and shadowy; or pervaded with a lustre, beautifully bright indeed, but shining not beyond their portals.Percy Bysshe Shelley

With the exception, however, of a few special instances to which we shall recur later, the repetition of a word is never laughable in itself.Henri Bergson

Comedy, or the Comic element, is the specific for the poison of delusion while Folly is passing from the state of vapour to substantial form.George Meredith

But if we go at times to our Joyous Gard, we can bring back into common life something of the grace and seemliness and courtesy of the place.Arthur Christopher Benson

In either case our duty and our one hope is clear; that we have got somehow, at all costs and hazards, to find our way into the light of day.Arthur Christopher Benson

Of all the obstacles to the rooting out of fear the lingering belief in such a distortion of Divine Love is to my mind the most deeply based.Basil King

In the same way a man becomes conscious that he is advancing in years when he finds that people older than himself begin to seem young to him.Arthur Schopenhauer

We are to give thanks in our spirit, feeling not only resigned, acquiescent, and content, but grateful for all that God does to us and for us.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

We are bound to show this gratitude by our actions, for obedience is at once the most sincere and the most acceptable method of giving thanks.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Thus then must we exhibit in our enmities meekness and forbearance, and in our friendships still more simplicity and magnanimity and kindness.Plutarch

For suing is not the action of one who shews his contempt, and when he that has done an injury is humble he removes all idea of slighting one.Plutarch

For nothing swells the anger more, than when a good man is detected of villainy, or one who we thought loved us falls out and jangles with us.Plutarch

The business of education is rather to liberate the young from reviving and retraversing the past than to lead them to a recapitulation of it.John Dewey

Education must take the being as he is; that a particular individual has just such and such an equipment of native activities is a basic fact.John Dewey

It is vain for painters or poets to endeavour to invent without materials on which the mind may work, and from which invention must originate.Joshua Reynolds

It is in its simplest forms, however, that humor enjoys a world-wide actuality, and is the connecting link of all times and places and people.Agnes Repplier

The essence of the laughable then is the incongruous, the disconnecting one idea from another, or the jostling of one feeling against another.William Hazlitt

With the energy of tenderest love he wills his brothers and sisters free, that he may fill them to overflowing with that essential thing, joy.George MacDonald

But I quit life as I would an inn, not as I would a home.Marcus Tullius Cicero

In youth it is the outward aspect of things that most engages us; while in age, thought or reflection is the predominating quality of the mind.Arthur Schopenhauer

No pure, true, loving human heart ever gets beyond being strengthened and warmed to nobler service by words of honest and sincere appreciation.J. R. Miller

We owe thanks to God, therefore, for all that we receive.J. R. Miller

The two obligations—gratitude for benefits received, and prayer for the preservation and growth of God's work begun in us—are properly related.Martin Luther

Say something or do something in charity and for the love of God; your neighbor's deepest gratitude and God's sure reward will amply repay you.Paulist Fathers

Repentance, restitution, confession, prayer for forgiveness, righteous dealing thereafter, is the sole possible, the only true make-up for sin.George MacDonald

Brother, the most splendid vengeance you can ever have is to do good to them that do you evil, and to speak well of them that speak ill of you.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

A possibility of continuing progress is opened up by the fact that in learning one act, methods are developed good for use in other situations.John Dewey

Whenever a method of education is stigmatized as mechanical, we may be sure that external pressure is brought to bear to reach an external end.John Dewey

Feed your imagination with food convenient for it, and exercise it, not in the contortions of the acrobat, but in the movements of the gymnast.George MacDonald

However spontaneous it seems, laughter always implies a kind of secret freemasonry, or even complicity, with other laughers, real or imaginary.Henri Bergson

The idealistic conceptions of Comedy gives breadth and opportunities of daring to Comic genius, and helps to solve the difficulties it creates.George Meredith

The one thing which we have to fear, in all this, is of lapsing into indolence and solitary enjoyment, guarding and hoarding our own happiness.Arthur Christopher Benson

Character, in a woman, as in a man, will always be found the best safeguard of virtue, the best nurse of religion, the best corrective of Time.Samuel Smiles

When we have a word of thanks in our heart, which we feel we might honestly speak, and which we do not speak, we have sorely wronged our friend.J. R. Miller

There is only one true reason for coming to Church,—the fact that we love God, and are grateful to Him for all His mercies, and want to show it.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

If Christ took thy load, thy load cannot remain on thine own back: if Christ paid thy debts, then they do not stand in God's books against thee.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

American democracy has always been afraid of leadership.Mary Parker Follett

When one thinks of one’s self as part of a group, it means keener moral perceptions, greater strength of will, more enthusiasm and zest in life.Mary Parker Follett

The same process which organizes the group energizes it.Mary Parker Follett

Our education means, in short, little more than a mass of possibilities of reaction, acquired at home, at school, or in the training of affairs.William James

In the first place, grammar, being a study of words and not of things, is by no means attractive to the child, nor should he be hurried into it.Charlotte M. Mason

Poetry is ever accompanied with pleasure: all spirits on which it falls open themselves to receive the wisdom which is mingled with its delight.Percy Bysshe Shelley

But it is precisely in this element of intrepidity that so many persons of promise fall short, and disappoint the expectations of their friends.Samuel Smiles

The penitent sinner can kneel at the Feet of Jesus, and find the grace of pardon beneath the skies of England, and India, and New Zealand, alike.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

But if men think that obedience will lead them to disaster, then nothing, neither penalties, nor persuasion, nor gifts, will avail to rouse them.Xenophon

No member of a group which is to create can be passive.Mary Parker Follett

There are excellencies in the art of painting beyond what is commonly called the imitation of Nature, and these excellencies I wish to point out.Joshua Reynolds

We then find the same connection between the comic and the witty as exists between a regular scene and the fugitive suggestion of a possible one.Henri Bergson

Molière’s wit is like a running brook, with innumerable fresh lights on it at every turn of the wood through which its business is to find a way.George Meredith

Men are heavily preoccupied with ends and aims, and the recognised values of the objects of desire and hope are often false and distorted values.Arthur Christopher Benson

I doubt if the records of intimate biography contain a finer object-lesson against fear and all its obsessions than the life of Charlotte Bronte.Arthur Christopher Benson

No such thing can happen to us; our inheritance is absolute and certain, and it is fear that keeps us away from it, and the fear of fearlessness.Arthur Christopher Benson

He must show the other his fault gently and generously, not parading his forgiveness like a virtue, but as if the favor were on his side—as it is.Hugh Black

It may be necessary to leave out a good deal, but every illustrative anecdote, every bit of description, is so much towards the child’s education.Charlotte M. Mason

Those who would quell the apparently lawless tossing of the spirit, called the youthful imagination, would suppress all that is to grow out of it.George MacDonald

Instead of treating his ideas as mere symbols, the wit sees them, he hears them and, above all, makes them converse with one another like persons.Henri Bergson

We laugh, when children, at the sudden removing of a pasteboard mask: we laugh, when grown up, more gravely at the tearing off the mask of deceit.William Hazlitt

Need and the upward look, the mood ready to believe when and where it can, the embryonic faith, is dear to Him whose love would have us trust him.George MacDonald

His example is remembered and appealed to; and his thoughts, his spirit, and his courage continue to be the inspiration of succeeding generations.Samuel Smiles

Ingratitude is some one's protest that you are no longer necessary to him; it is often the expression of rebellion at the discontinuance of favors.William George Jordan

We continue asking and asking, and God continues giving and giving; but how many of us remember always or often to give thanks for answered prayer?J. R. Miller

Whenever the salt is put on the table let us see in it a lesson to us to season our conversation with thanks, of which salt we cannot use too much.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Beloved, true gratitude always leads us to serve, and it distinctly makes our healing Lord the object of our service; it puts him in the forefront.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Evil is the negation of good, just as darkness is the negation, or absence of light, and what is there in a negation to arouse anger or resentment?James Allen

When offences do come, we may indeed use them as opportunities for growth in gracious ways, and thus turn them into blessings on the lives of both.Hugh Black

The indignation raised by cruelty and injustice, and the desire of having it punished, which persons unconcerned would feel, is by no means malice.Joseph Butler

The intermingling in the school of youth of different races, differing religions, and unlike customs creates for all a new and broader environment.John Dewey

One teacher's mind will fairly coruscate with points of connection between the new lesson and the circumstances of the children's other experience.William James

There are many beauties in our art that seem, at first, to lie without the reach of precept, and yet may easily be reduced to practical principles.Joshua Reynolds

Briefly, those conclusions were to the effect that as individuals we need difficulties to overcome, and that fear is a stimulus to overcoming them.Basil King

We are repulsed by the God of Fear when we are drawn, comforted, strengthened, and changed by Him who is never anything toward us but "the Father."Basil King

A man is only rightly judged when he is judged not from my standard or yours but from his own, and to deal with him thus is not judgment it is Love.James Allen

Before a group it is self-control, restraint, discipline which we need, we don’t “let ourselves go”; before a crowd I am sorry to say we usually do.Mary Parker Follett

In each of them there is a conception of the Comic that refines even to pain, as in the Menedemus of the Heautontimorumenus, and in the Misanthrope.George Meredith

The accidental contradiction between our expectations and the event can hardly be said, however, to amount to the ludicrous: it is merely laughable.William Hazlitt

That wit is the most refined and effectual, which is founded on the detection of unexpected likeness or distinction in things, rather than in words.William Hazlitt

And thus when the time comes for recollection, it is a very wonderful thing to look back over life, and see how eagerly gracious God has been to us.Arthur Christopher Benson

I do not believe in the elaborate organisation of life; and yet I think it is possible to live in the midst of it, and yet not to be involved in it.Arthur Christopher Benson

It is easy to slight and overlook it, but if we do that, we are deluded by the passing storm into believing that confusion and not peace is the end.Arthur Christopher Benson

There is a tendency, I am sure, in books, to shirk the whole subject of fear, as though it were a thing disgraceful, shameful, almost unmentionable.Arthur Christopher Benson

I have said that almost every man's character seems to be specially suited to some one period of life, so that on reaching it the man is at his best.Arthur Schopenhauer

Even the estrangements and misunderstandings which will arise to all could not long remain, where there is a frank and candid interchange of thought.Hugh Black

The state must be no external authority which restrains and regulates me, but it must be myself acting as the state in every smallest detail of life.Mary Parker Follett

If education is growth, it must progressively realize present possibilities, and thus make individuals better fitted to cope with later requirements.John Dewey

At the same time, let us recognise that learning to read is to many children hard work, and let us do what we can to make the task easy and inviting.Charlotte M. Mason

It is not worth while to deny or even to soften the cruel side of humor, though it is a far more grievous error to overlook its generous forbearance.Agnes Repplier

The four chief names for comic humour out of our own language are Aristophanes and Lucian among the ancients, Moliere and Rabelais among the moderns.William Hazlitt

Fear not, ye hungering and thirsting; you shall have righteousness enough, though none to spare—none to spare, yet enough to overflow upon every man.George MacDonald

It gives her capacity to deal with the affairs of life, and presence of mind, which enable her to act with vigour and effect in moments of emergency.Samuel Smiles

When someone shows you who they are, believe them.

Maya Angelou

We do not know how we hurt our friends when we treat them ungratefully, forgetting all they have done for us, and repaying their favors with coldness.J. R. Miller

Yet we should never end with gratitude to men: that were to thank the clouds for rain, instead of blessing the Lord who sends both clouds and showers.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

But if your good works are wrought with the object of securing the thanks and applause of the world, you will meet with a reception quite the reverse.Martin Luther

I only know that every day brings good above My poor deserving; I only feel that in the road of Life true Love Is leading me along and never swerving.Henry van Dyke

You have overcome everybody when you have so fully overcome your own spirit that you remain content with that which naturally would excite your wrath.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The new psychology, therefore, gives us individual responsibility as the central fact of life because it demands that we grow our own like-mindedness.Mary Parker Follett

It is we by our acts who progressively construct the moral universe; to follow some preconceived body of law—that is not for responsible moral beings.Mary Parker Follett

Reason is the enumeration of quantities already known; imagination is the perception of the value of those quantities, both separately and as a whole.Percy Bysshe Shelley

If we put these great artists in a light of comparison with each other, Raffaelle had more Taste and Fancy, Michel Angelo more Genius and Imagination.Joshua Reynolds

Now, laughter is simply the result of a mechanism set up in us by nature or, what is almost the same thing, by our long acquaintance with social life.Henri Bergson

We owe to one another all the wit and good humour we can command; and nothing so clears our mental vistas as sympathetic and intelligent conversation.Agnes Repplier

It might be made an argument of the intrinsic superiority of poetry or imagination to wit, that the former does not admit of mere verbal combinations.William Hazlitt

Those of us who are sensitive and imaginative and faint-hearted often miss our chance of better things by not forming plans and designs for our peace.Arthur Christopher Benson

A great deal of the unhappiness, and much of the vice, of the world is owing to weakness and indecision of purpose—in other words, to lack of courage.Samuel Smiles

Pretended conversions—which invariably jump with party interests are more sudden; and even hypocrisy now appears to be scarcely thought discreditable.Samuel Smiles

Mechanics have their shops to dwell in, in order to accomplish their works. The superior man learns, in order to reach to the utmost of his principles.Tsze-hsia

Christians should feel bound to maintain the unity of the Spirit, since they are all members of one body and partakers of the same spiritual blessings.Martin Luther

It can take up all our wrongs, small and great, with their righteous attendance of griefs and sorrows, and carry them away from between our God and us.George MacDonald

To increase at the same time democratic control and administrative responsibility, while not an easy thing to do, is the task of our new constitutions.Mary Parker Follett

Most of the abuses which have crept in, business corruption and political bossism alike, are due in large measure to this delegating of responsibility.Mary Parker Follett

Democratic ideals will never advance unless we are given the opportunity of constantly embodying them in action, which action will react on our ideals.Mary Parker Follett

Since in reality there is nothing to which growth is relative save more growth, there is nothing to which education is subordinate save more education.John Dewey

The great advantage of immaturity, educationally speaking, is that it enables us to emancipate the young from the need of dwelling in an outgrown past.John Dewey

The worst thing that can happen to a good teacher is to get a bad conscience about her profession because she feels herself hopeless as a psychologist.William James

We answer that the antidote to indulgence is development, not restraint, and that such is the duty of the wise servant of Him who made the imagination.George MacDonald

The most unfailing herald, companion, and follower of the awakening of a great people to work a beneficial change in opinion or institution, is poetry.Percy Bysshe Shelley

And to love Comedy you must know the real world, and know men and women well enough not to expect too much of them, though you may still hope for good.George Meredith

Each circle and section, each rank and class, has its respective customs and observances, to which conformity is required at the risk of being tabooed.Samuel Smiles

I may observe, by the way, that in old age, we are better able to prevent misfortunes from coming, and in youth better able to bear them when they come.Arthur Schopenhauer

We are beginning to realize that the redemptive power is within the social bond, that we have creative evolution only through individual responsibility.Mary Parker Follett

Whoever would have his children avoid this arid region will do well to allow no teacher to approach them—not even of mathematics—who has no imagination.George MacDonald

A word is said to be comic when it makes us laugh at the person who utters it, and witty when it makes us laugh either at a third party or at ourselves.Henri Bergson

He was unquestionably one of the greatest comic geniuses that ever lived; a man of infinite wit, gaiety, and invention—full of life, laughter, and whim.William Hazlitt

We have mourned in the twilight of our little faith, but, having sent away our sin, the glory of God's heaven over his darkening earth has comforted us.George MacDonald

God loves not sorrow, yet rejoices to see a man sorrowful, for in his sorrow man leaves his heavenward door on the latch, and God can enter to help him.George MacDonald

It is a small thing to a man whether or not his neighbour be merciful to him; it is life or death to him whether or not he be merciful to his neighbour.George MacDonald

As prayer brings things to us which beget gratitude and thanksgiving, so praise and gratitude promote prayer, and induce more praying and better praying.E. M. Bounds

When we rise from our meals let us offer a word of thanks, making at least the sign of the cross, blessing God for the health he gives us and our family.Paulist Fathers

Peace means not to have the offense ignored, but to have it pardoned: not to the punishment omitted, but to have separation from God ended and done with.Henry van Dyke

This idea of the perfect state of Nature, which the Artist calls the Ideal beauty, is the great leading principle by which works of genius are conducted.Joshua Reynolds

Incidents of a kind casting ridicule on our unfortunate nature instead of our conventional life, provoke derisive laughter, which thwarts the Comic idea.George Meredith

We must let our light shine, make our faith, our hope, our love, manifest—that men may praise, not us for shining, but the Father for creating the light.George MacDonald

If the chief feature of the earlier half of life is a never-satisfied longing after happiness, the later half is characterized by the dread of misfortune.Arthur Schopenhauer

Gratitude is thankfulness expressed in action.William George Jordan

For days after the reconciliation, we will go about with the feeling that the benediction of the peace-makers rests on our head and clings round our feet.Hugh Black

Oh charming word, how it melts us, and as it melts it seems to leave no trace of anger behind it: for Christ's sake our love suffers long and never fails.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Power is generated within the true group not by one or several assuming authority and the others “consenting,” but solely by the process of intermingling.Mary Parker Follett

So obvious, indeed, is the necessity of teaching and learning for the continued existence of a society that we may seem to be dwelling unduly on a truism.John Dewey

Plato was essentially a poet—the truth and splendour of his imagery, and the melody of his language, are the most intense that it is possible to conceive.Percy Bysshe Shelley

Wit is, in fact, a voluntary act of the mind, or exercise of the invention, shewing the absurd and ludicrous consciously, whether in ourselves or another.William Hazlitt

We need not be stoical or affectedly bright; we often cannot give those who love us greater joy than to tell them of our troubles and let them comfort us.Arthur Christopher Benson

No man sees evil in himself or his own acts except the man who is becoming enlightened, and then he abandons those acts which he has come to see are wrong.James Allen

The acute problem of municipal life is how to make us men and women of Boston feel that we are the city, directly responsible for everything concerning it.Mary Parker Follett

I would not have them cheated of their recompense, seeing that if they win nothing by their labour, I know not how I can keep them obedient to me for long.Xenophon

Thus thousands of words which were originally poetic words owing their existence to the imagination, lose their vitality, and harden into mummies of prose.George MacDonald

It is one of the French titles to honour that this quintessential comedy of the opposition of Alceste and Célimène was ultimately understood and applauded.George Meredith

Most of doubtful causes in contest are open to Comic interpretation, and any intellectual pleading of a doubtful cause contains germs of an Idea of Comedy.George Meredith

The superiority of Shakspeare’s natural genius for comedy cannot be better shewn than by a comparison between his comic characters and those of Ben Jonson.William Hazlitt

We must not think that appeal a selfish thing, because it is upon that and that alone that our power of increasing peace and hope and vital energy belongs.Arthur Christopher Benson

But it is not always easy to discover the sensitive child, because fear of displeasure will freeze him into a stupor of apparent dullness and stubbornness.Arthur Christopher Benson

Many of our fears do not correspond to any real danger; they are part of a panoply which we inherit, and have to do with the instinct of self-preservation.Arthur Christopher Benson

The great affairs of life are not performed by physical strength, or activity, or nimbleness of body, but by deliberation, character, expression of opinion.Marcus Tullius Cicero

A creative citizenship must be made the force of American political life, a trained, responsible citizenship always in control creating always its own life.Mary Parker Follett

The importance of language in gaining knowledge is doubtless the chief cause of the common notion that knowledge may be passed directly from one to another.John Dewey

When children go to school, they already have "minds"—they have knowledge and dispositions of judgment which may be appealed to through the use of language.John Dewey

Any education given by a group tends to socialize its members, but the quality and value of the socialization depends upon the habits and aims of the group.John Dewey

Yet it is by no means essential that a poet should accommodate his language to this traditional form, so that the harmony, which is its spirit, be observed.Percy Bysshe Shelley

I appeal to the greatest poets of the present day, whether it is not an error to assert that the finest passages of poetry are produced by labour and study.Percy Bysshe Shelley

Indeed, it is the peculiar characteristic of men of genius to be afraid of coldness and insipidity, from which they think they never can be too far removed.Joshua Reynolds

The ceremonial side of social life must, therefore, always include a latent comic element, which is only waiting for an opportunity to burst into full view.Henri Bergson

A similar treasury (be it reverently spoken) holds for us all the stored-up laughter of the world, and from it comes human help in hours of black dejection.Agnes Repplier

Long before it works up to man we see this amazing force stemming an uncountable number of attacks, and meeting ruinous conditions with daring contrivances.Basil King

The honest man is naturally antagonistic to fraud, the truthful man to lying, the justice-loving man to oppression, the pureminded man to vice and iniquity.Samuel Smiles

He, who from day to day recognises what he has not yet, and from month to month does not forget what he has attained to, may be said indeed to love to learn.Tsze-hsia

We should get this thought fixed in our minds when we enter Church,—I have come here to-day mainly to thank God for His great goodness to me, and to all men.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

Since God has been so generous towards us, let us not be guilty of the base ingratitude of despising his gifts, and rejecting the mercies he holds out to us!Paulist Fathers

The very words humane and humanity denote some shadow of that loving-kindness which, when perfected after the divine fashion, shall include even our enemies.George MacDonald

If thou seest that for thee to have thy sin forgiven would raise the fame of the Saviour, go and plead that argument with God, and thou shalt surely prevail.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The attention of his teachers should be fixed on two points—that he acquires the habit of reading, and that he does not fall into slipshod habits of reading.Charlotte M. Mason

The principal advantage of an Academy is, that, besides furnishing able men to direct the Student, it will be a repository for the great examples of the Art.Joshua Reynolds

So either our analysis is incorrect, or it must be capable of being stated in the following theorem: Comic absurdity is of the same nature as that of dreams.Henri Bergson

"A hunger-bitten philosophy"—is it not rather that there is creeping into the world an uneasy sense that we must, if we are to be happy, share our happiness?Arthur Christopher Benson

It may come to us as a perpetual sign that we are not forgotten, and that the joy of which it makes mention survives all interludes of strife and uneasiness.Arthur Christopher Benson

This is a point of vast importance to the individual who desires to strike out beyond the crowd, not only getting what he needs, but ridding himself of fear.Basil King

The will, which is the central force of character, must be trained to habits of decision—otherwise it will neither be able to resist evil nor to follow good.Samuel Smiles

Good temper on the other hand is useful in some circumstances, adorns and sweetens others, and gets the better of all peevishness and anger by its gentleness.Plutarch

If our present mechanical government is to turn into a living, breathing, pulsing life, it must be composed of an entire citizenship educated and responsible.Mary Parker Follett

The man who is most interested, who has the clearest view of the need and who is its most insistent champion, will naturally step forth as the leader in that.Mary Parker Follett

But here, as elsewhere, it is a matter of more or less; and, in the last resort, the teacher's own tact is the only thing that can bring out the right effect.William James

The future is before him: he may get the next sum right, and the wise teacher will make it her business to see that he does, and that he starts with new hope.Charlotte M. Mason

This essential difference between tragedy and comedy, the former being concerned with individuals and the latter with classes, is revealed in yet another way.Henri Bergson

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.William Hazlitt

In like manner, any thing we must not think of makes us laugh, by its coming upon us by stealth and unawares, and from the very efforts we make to exclude it.William Hazlitt

If we grow to believe that life and its cares and business are all, we lose the freshness of life, just as we lose the strength of life if we reject its toil.Arthur Christopher Benson

Deep truths may be perceived, but can never be excogitated—that is to say, the first knowledge of them is immediate, called forth by some momentary impression.Arthur Schopenhauer

In age the passions cool and leave a man at rest, and then forthwith his mind takes a contemplative tone; the intellect is set free and attains the upper hand.Arthur Schopenhauer

Oh! let us thank God that we have the blessings of the true religion, that he is our Father, Jesus Christ our Redeemer, and the Blessed Virgin Mary our Mother.Paulist Fathers

For every man naturally feels an indignation upon seeing instances of villany and baseness, and therefore cannot commit the same, without being self-condemned.Joseph Butler

It seems as though the comic could not produce its disturbing effect unless it fell, so to say, on the surface of a soul that is thoroughly calm and unruffled.Henri Bergson

The laugh will come again, but it will be of the order of the smile, finely tempered, showing sunlight of the mind, mental richness rather than noisy enormity.George Meredith

There is nothing more powerfully humorous than what is called keeping in comic character, as we see it very finely exemplified in Sancho Panza and Don Quixote.William Hazlitt

Cross-readings, where the blunders are designed, are wit: but if any one were to light upon them through ignorance or accident, they would be merely ludicrous.William Hazlitt

Besides the wit and ingenuity of this play, there is a genial spirit of frankness and generosity about it, that relieves the heart as well as clears the lungs.William Hazlitt

The faults of the superior man are like the eclipses of the sun and moon. He has his faults, and all men see them; he changes again, and all men look up to him.Tsze-kung

Let us conceive of gratitude in its largest, most beautiful sense, that if we receive any kindness we are debtor, not merely to one man, but to the whole world.William George Jordan

Thanksgiving, brethren, should follow after God's mercies to us, not only as a matter of justice, but in order to secure the effect of those mercies themselves.Paulist Fathers

To be hard-hearted is to suffer, is to be deprived of light and comfort; to be tender-hearted is to be serenely glad, is to receive light and be well comforted.James Allen

If you believe in prayer, you ask God for pardon every day, but is not that something like mockery, if you from your hearts do not forgive another's trespasses?H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

An offended brother is hard to win, because the very closeness of the previous intimacy brings a rankling sense of injustice and the resentment of injured love.Hugh Black

Malice or resentment towards any man hath plainly a tendency to beget the same passion in him who is the object of it, and this again increases it in the other.Joseph Butler

We have all wondered at the good sense, reasonableness, fun and resourcefulness shown by a child in his own home as compared with the same child in school life.Charlotte M. Mason

Indeed, it is not difficult to see that any PLAY OF IDEAS may afford us amusement if only it bring back to mind, more or less distinctly, the play of dreamland.Henri Bergson

But we must learn to avoid this, and to realise that if a particle of life, thus ordered and restricted, is beautiful, the thing itself is more beautiful still.Arthur Christopher Benson

I feel that I am journeying onwards into what is unknown to me, but into something which is inevitably there, and not to be altered by my own hopes and fancies.Arthur Christopher Benson

Perhaps this conviction that a man's strength lay in standing single-handed against circumstance was the first small discovery I made in my own fight with fear.Basil King

There are learning extensively, and having a firm and sincere aim; inquiring with earnestness, and reflecting with self-application:— virtue is in such a course.Tsze-hsia

What we mean to insist upon is, that in finding out the works of God, the Intellect must labour, workman-like, under the direction of the architect, Imagination.George MacDonald

Without this union, which I have so often recommended, a work can have no marked and determined character, which is the peculiar and constant evidence of genius.Joshua Reynolds

Without undervaluing other writers of Comedy, I think it may be said that Menander and Molière stand alone specially as comic poets of the feelings and the idea.George Meredith

And the cramped and restricted life is all the grander for this, that it gives us a nobler chance of conquest than the free, liberal, wealthy, unrestrained life.Arthur Christopher Benson

We must rejoice if they are making plain to other minds any interpretation of life, any enrichment of motive, any protest against things coarse and low and mean.Arthur Christopher Benson

Therefore the tendency towards an effective responsibility through the increased power of our executive does not mean that less is required of citizens, but more.Mary Parker Follett

This fact accounts for many of the apparently aimless questions of children; they are in quest, not of knowledge, but of words to express the knowledge they have.Charlotte M. Mason

ANY ARRANGEMENT OF ACTS AND EVENTS IS COMIC WHICH GIVES US, IN A SINGLE COMBINATION, THE ILLUSION OF LIFE AND THE DISTINCT IMPRESSION OF A MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENT.Henri Bergson

Every man’s deeds are in accordance with the measure of his own light or darkness, and no man can live higher than he is or act beyond the limits of his knowledge.James Allen

Forgiveness, as I have said, is not love merely, but love conveyed as love to the erring, so establishing peace towards God, and forgiveness towards our neighbour.George MacDonald

The full forgiveness is, as I have said, when a man feels that God is forgiving him; and this cannot be while he opposes himself to the very essence of God's will.George MacDonald

Even if we have cause to suspect that the offended brother will not receive us kindly, still such reparation as we can make is at least the gate to reconciliation.Hugh Black

For anger being haughty and self-willed and hard to be worked upon by another, like a fortified tyranny, must have someone born and bred within it to overthrow it.Plutarch

But when the judgement checks and suppresses at once the rising anger, it not only cures the soul for the moment, but restores its tone and balance for the future.Plutarch

For the interval of time gives a pause to passion, and a delay that mitigates it, and so judgement finds out both the fit manner and adequate amount of punishment.Plutarch

No, dear friends, as you have to forgive one another, do not take offence, and when offence is given do not exaggerate it, and, if you can, do not even observe it.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Anger also, or hatred, may be considered as another false medium of viewing things, which always represents characters and actions much worse than they really are.Joseph Butler

We must bear in mind that the social spirit itself may impose apartness on a man; the method of uniting with others is not always that of visible, tangible groups.Mary Parker Follett

But schools remain, of course, the typical instance of environments framed with express reference to influencing the mental and moral disposition of their members.John Dewey

The interest which the teacher, by his utmost skill, can lend to the subject, proves over and over again to be only an interest sufficient to let loose the effort.William James

As he that is willing to do the will of the Father, shall know of the doctrine, so, we doubt not, he that will do the will of THE POET, shall behold the Beautiful.George MacDonald

We must provide then, if we can, a certain setting for life, a sufficiency of work and sustenance, and even leisure; and then we must give that no further thought.Arthur Christopher Benson

And thus I think that the Christian has no right to be ashamed of light-heartedness; indeed I believe that he ought to cultivate and feed it in every possible way.Arthur Christopher Benson

Similarities and differences make up the differentiated reactions of the group; that is what constitutes their importance, not their likeness or unlikeness as such.Mary Parker Follett

A child has not begun his education until he has acquired the habit of reading to himself, with interest and pleasure, books fully on a level with his intelligence.Charlotte M. Mason

For this were our poets and dramatists, our painters and novelists, sent to us,—to make us lawfully happier in a hard world, to help us smilingly through the gloom.Agnes Repplier

Many of the jests and witticisms in the best comedies are moral aphorisms and rules for the conduct of life, sparkling with wit and fancy in the mode of expression.William Hazlitt

Wherever peace is growing, there of course is the live peace, counteracting disruption and disintegration, and helping the development of the true essential family.George MacDonald

If it would make you happy to think there was life beyond death for the sparrow as well as for yourself, I would gladly help you at least to hope that there may be.George MacDonald

What I believe we ought to aim at is to put interest and zest into the simplest acts, words, and relations of life, to discern the quality of work and people alike.Arthur Christopher Benson

But we are inside it all, an integral and indestructible part of it; and the shadow of fear falls when we doubt this, when we dread being overlooked or disregarded.Arthur Christopher Benson

And though we may be far from reaching the standard of our hero, we are, to a certain extent, sustained and fortified by his depicted presence constantly before us.Samuel Smiles

It teaches us to be forbearant towards those who differ from us, provided they observe patiently, think honestly, and utter their convictions freely and truthfully.Samuel Smiles

I agreed with you that to rule well and nobly was the greatest of all works, and I am of the same mind still," he went on, "whenever I think of government in itself.Xenophon

It is so much easier for some men to stoop, to bow, and to flatter, than to be manly, resolute, and magnanimous; and to yield to prejudices than run counter to them.Samuel Smiles

Human beings so often live at cross purposes with each other, when a frank word, or a simple confession of wrong, almost a look or a gesture, would heal the division.Hugh Black

We are in such a peculiar situation, with respect to injuries done to ourselves, that we can scarce any more see them as they really are, than our eye can see itself.Joseph Butler

Employers and employed cannot be exhorted to feel sympathy one for the other; true sympathy will come only by creating a community or group of employers and employed.Mary Parker Follett

It is the often-expressed opinion of Leigh Hunt that although wit and humor may be found in perfection apart from each other, yet their best work is shared in common.Agnes Repplier

I do not, in short, consider comedy as exactly an affair of the heart or the imagination; and it is for this reason only that I think Shakspeare’s comedies deficient.William Hazlitt

He has humour, character, and invention, in common with the other, with a more unaffected gaiety and spirit of enjoyment, which overflows and sparkles in all he does.William Hazlitt

We must take for granted that every one whose life shows evidence of energy, unselfishness, joyfulness, ardour, peacefulness, is truly inspired by the spirit of good.Arthur Christopher Benson

No, I believe that we must share our joy as far as we can, and that it is our duty rather to have joy to share, and to guard the quality of it, make it pure and true.Arthur Christopher Benson

My object had been to ward off fear so that it shouldn't touch me; but to let it strike and rebound because it could make no impact was an enlarging of the principle.Basil King

This ripeness is so delightful to me, that, as I approach nearer to death, I seem as it were to be sighting land, and to be coming to port at last after a long voyage.Marcus Tullius Cicero

Ask yourselves now, my brothers, whether you are truly thankful to God for this harvest: is your presence here to-day a real act of thanksgiving, or only an idle form?H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

An injury from the hand of a friend seems such a wanton thing; and the heart hardens itself with the sense of wrong, and a separation ensues like the bars of a castle.Hugh Black

Indeed as we go from groups of the lower types to groups of the higher types, we go from those with many resemblances to those with more and more striking differences.Mary Parker Follett

The kindly contagion of its mirth lifts our hearts from their personal apprehension of life’s grievances, and links us together in a bond of mutual tears and laughter.Agnes Repplier

Nor was I, in fact, ever wont to measure my enjoyment even of these banquets by the physical pleasures they gave more than by the gathering and conversation of friends.Marcus Tullius Cicero

It is the depth and intensity of this early intuitive knowledge of the external world that explain why the experiences of childhood take such a firm hold on the memory.Arthur Schopenhauer

In heaven we shall give thanks unto God always for all things, without exception, and throughout eternity we shall magnify his holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Why is it, in spite of the fact that teaching by pouring in, learning by a passive absorption, are universally condemned, that they are still so entrenched in practice?John Dewey

This principle of multiplying channels and varying associations and appeals is important, not only for teaching pupils to remember, but for teaching them to understand.William James

A story of particular facts is as a mirror which obscures and distorts that which should be beautiful: poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.Percy Bysshe Shelley

The source of his wit is clear reason: it is a fountain of that soil; and it springs to vindicate reason, common-sense, rightness and justice; for no vain purpose ever.George Meredith

I feel very differently about life now; it's a boisterous business enough, but does not molest one unduly; and a very little courage goes a long way in dealing with it!Arthur Christopher Benson

We are afraid of arousing anger, not because we expect to be assailed by blows and wounds, but because our far-off ancestors expected anger to end in an actual assault.Arthur Christopher Benson

In order to banish fear I think it necessary to train the thought to seeing God as expressing Himself in all the good and pleasant and enjoyable things that come to us.Basil King

But fear, as a rule, being connected with our struggles, it is important, I think, to be as clear as we can concerning the purport of those struggles, and their source.Basil King

And the habit of avoiding fear is, doubtless, capable of being trained like any other habit, such as the habit of attention, of diligence, of study, or of cheerfulness.Samuel Smiles

Whatever gifts and mercies to my lot may fall, I would not measure As worth a certain price in praise, or great or small; But take and use them all with simple pleasure.Henry van Dyke

I know I was forgiven when first I believed in Christ; and I am equally sure of it now: the one absolution continues to ring in my ears like joy-bells which never cease.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

If I ought not to go to my group feeling that I must give up my own ideas in order to accept the opinions of others, neither ought I to go to force my ideas upon others.Mary Parker Follett

If we reflect upon the various ideals of education that are prevalent in the different countries, we see that what they all aim at is to organize capacities for conduct.William James

Man is an organism for reacting on impressions: his mind is there to help determine his reactions, and the purpose of his education is to make them numerous and perfect.William James

The right teacher would have his pupil easy to please, but ill to satisfy; ready to enjoy, unready to embrace; keen to discover beauty, slow to say, “Here I will dwell.”George MacDonald

I would chiefly recommend that an implicit obedience to the Rules of Art, as established by the practice of the great Masters, should be exacted from the young Students.Joshua Reynolds

The humorist’s view of life is essentially genial; but he has given stout blows in his day, and the sound of his vigorous warfare rings harshly in our unaccustomed ears.Agnes Repplier

The humorous descriptions of Steele resemble loose sketches, or fragments of a comedy; those of Addison are rather comments or ingenious paraphrases on the genuine text.William Hazlitt

There may be knacks by which fear can be nipped and expedients by which it may be outwitted, but its extermination can be brought about, it seems to me, only in one way.Basil King

However that may be, youth is the period of unrest, and age of repose; and from that very circumstance, the relative degree of pleasure belonging to each may be inferred.Arthur Schopenhauer

In every one of us there is something which, if we realize it, makes us condemn ourselves as sinners, and hunger and thirst after righteousness, and long for forgiveness.Henry van Dyke

The school has the function also of coordinating within the disposition of each individual the diverse influences of the various social environments into which he enters.John Dewey

The child who gets no ideas from considering the map, say of Italy or of Russia, has no knowledge of geography, however many facts about places he may be able to produce.Charlotte M. Mason

Good Comedies are such rare productions, that notwithstanding the wealth of our literature in the Comic element, it would not occupy us long to run over the English list.George Meredith

We must not be too dainty for the work of the world, but we may thankfully believe that it is only a mortal discipline, and that our true life is elsewhere, hid with God.Arthur Christopher Benson

To be in harmony with the life-principle and the conquest-principle is to be in harmony with power; and to be in harmony with power is to be strong as a matter of course.Basil King

There are certain states of society and conditions of affairs in which a man is bound to speak out, and be antagonistic—when conformity is not only a weakness, but a sin.Samuel Smiles

Turn your wounds into wisdom.

Oprah Winfrey

Only because your mother made you say ‘Thank you’ for a bun are you now able to thank Nature or chaos for those red stars of an instant or for the white stars of all time.G. K. Chesterton

Crowd on the athletic opportunities, the mental arithmetic, the verse-learning, the drawing, the botany, or what not, the moment you have reason to think the hour is ripe.William James

There is no occasion to hurry the child: let him learn one form at a time, and know it so well that he can pick out the d’s, say, big and little, in a page of large print.Charlotte M. Mason

He will teach him not to mistake fancy, either in himself or in others for imagination, and to beware of hunting after resemblances that carry with them no interpretation.George MacDonald

The delight of love and friendship, the ecstasy of the admiration of nature, the joy of the perception and still more of the creation of poetry, is often wholly unalloyed.Percy Bysshe Shelley

What monstrous absurdities and paradoxes have resisted whole batteries of serious arguments, and then crumbled swiftly into dust before the ringing death-knell of a laugh!Agnes Repplier

Hogarth was, in one sense, strictly an historical painter: that is, he represented the manners and humours of mankind in action, and their characters by varied expression.William Hazlitt

No man will carry his mourning with him into heaven—or, if he does, it will speedily be turned either into joy, or into what will result in joy, namely, redemptive action.George MacDonald

But I do not for a moment think that God will cast me off or turn His face away from me because I have sinned; and I can pray that He will lead me into light and strength.Arthur Christopher Benson

I revert, therefore, to the statement that to make the kind of spiritual progress which will overcome fear it will be often necessary to let go the thing we have outlived.Basil King

There are countless instances in which true gratitude has all the semblance of the basest ingratitude, as certain harmless plants are made by Nature to resemble poison-ivy.William George Jordan

Dissatisfaction at one’s lot, and a disposition to be discontented with things which come to us in the providence of God, are foes to gratitude and enemies to thanksgiving.E. M. Bounds

So take our thanks, dear reader of the skies, Devout astronomer, most humbly wise, For lessons brighter than the stars can give, And inward light that helps us all to live.Henry van Dyke

Self-love is a medium of a peculiar kind: in these cases it magnifies every thing which is amiss in others, at the same time that it lessens every thing amiss in ourselves.Joseph Butler

They do not perceive that no effort is permissible towards the education of children without an intelligent conception, both of children, and of what is meant by education.Charlotte M. Mason

Inadvertently to say or do what we have no intention of saying or doing, as a result of inelasticity or momentum, is, as we are aware, one of the main sources of the comic.Henri Bergson

Strive as we may, we cannot put a new construction on those vigorous old jokes, and to be simply and barefacedly amusing is no longer considered a sufficient raison d’être.Agnes Repplier

Hogarth, on the contrary, is essentially a comic painter; his pictures are not indifferent, unimpassioned descriptions of human nature, but rich, exuberant satires upon it.William Hazlitt

The best thought of man has always been centred on trying to devise some sort of future hope which could encourage him to live eagerly, to endure patiently, to act rightly.Arthur Christopher Benson

Life is complicated, not because its issues are not simple enough, but because we are most of us so afraid of a phantom which we create—the criticism of other human beings.Arthur Christopher Benson

I know several people who have had their lives blighted, have been made suspicious, cynical, crafty, and timid, by severe usage and bullying and open contempt in childhood.Arthur Christopher Benson

I say again that I know of no instance among the most intimate records of the human heart, in which life was faced with such splendid courage as it was by Charlotte Bronte.Arthur Christopher Benson

More's daughter, Margaret Roper, on the contrary, encouraged her father to stand firm in his principles, and dutifully consoled and cheered him during his long confinement.Samuel Smiles

We should give God thanks when our wealth increases, and also when it melts away, when it flows in and when it ebbs out,— we must bless him in success, and also in disaster.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Is not forgiveness the taking back of one’s anger, the giving up of one’s resentment; and if anger and resentment are good and necessary why repent of them and give them up?James Allen

To think kindly once more of a separated friend, to soften the heart toward an offending brother, will bring the blessing of the Peace-maker, the blessing of the Reconciler.Hugh Black

You may count whether you have yet reached that amount, and if you have you will now be glad to begin again, still forgiving, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

I ask, then, that our people feel quickened within them indignation against wrong in every shape, and condemnation of that wrong, whether found in private or in public life.Theodore Roosevelt

Our officials in their campaign speeches say that they are the “servants of the people.” But we do not want “servants” any more than we want bosses; we want genuine leaders.Mary Parker Follett

But the wise education takes the tide at the flood, and from the kindergarten upward devotes the first years of education to training in construction and to object-teaching.William James

What they want is graphic details concerning events and persons upon which imagination goes to work; and opinions tend to form themselves by slow degrees as knowledge grows.Charlotte M. Mason

The best way with music, I imagine, is not to bring the forces of our intellect to bear upon it, but to be still and let it work on that part of us for whose sake it exists.George MacDonald

Between these two stand Shakespeare and Cervantes, with the richer laugh of heart and mind in one; with much of the Aristophanic robustness, something of Molière’s delicacy.George Meredith

Rest thy hope on no excuse thy love would make for him, neither upon any quibble theological or sacerdotal; hope on in him who created him, and who loves him more than thou.George MacDonald

As long as we are young, people may tell us what they please! we look upon life as endless and use our time recklessly; but the older we become, the more we practice economy.Arthur Schopenhauer

I do not intend to speak specially, just now, of gratitude to God; but between man and man gratitude is one of those gentle virtues that increase our fondness for each other.Paulist Fathers

It would be only simple justice if we looked on gratitude as we do on a just debt; for gratitude pays debts, first in good-will, and before long in a more substantial manner.Paulist Fathers

With our forgiveness to our neighbour, in flows the Consciousness of God's forgiveness to us; or even with the effort, we become capable of believing that God can forgive us.George MacDonald

This world is darkened by the stinging hail of spite, and vindictive bitterness, just because people who have been wronged by others will not be reconciled, will not forgive.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

This mighty and free Republic should ever deal with all other states, great or small, on a basis of high honor, respecting their rights as jealously as it safeguards its own.Theodore Roosevelt

Our problem is how all the separate community sense and community loyalty and community responsibility can be gathered up into larger community sense and loyalty and control.Mary Parker Follett

The imagination in us, whose exercise is essential to the most temporary submission to the imagination of another, immediately, with the disappearance, of Law, ceases to act.George MacDonald

Now, to look about us in the present time, I think it will be acknowledged that in neglecting the cultivation of the Comic idea, we are losing the aid of a powerful auxiliar.George Meredith

In an age when everybody is writing Reminiscences, and when nothing is left untold, we hear a great deal about the wit and brilliancy of former days and former conversations.Agnes Repplier

But no one can remove danger or regret from us, or relieve us of the necessity of facing our own troubles; the most that they can do, indeed, is to encourage us to try again.Arthur Christopher Benson

For by the end of life characters have come out in their true light, actions have borne fruit, achievements have been rightly appreciated, and all shams have fallen to pieces.Arthur Schopenhauer

If we do give thanks he multiplies his favors; for he is determined to keep us in his debt, and as fast as we return thanks so much the faster does he lavish his love upon us.Paulist Fathers

The work is what counts, and if a man does his work well and it is worth doing, then it matters but little in which line that work is done; the man is a good American citizen.Theodore Roosevelt

And that, because, as none can appreciate more fully than the ‘Darwinian,’ the attitude of thought and feeling in which you place a child is the vital factor in his education.Charlotte M. Mason

To understand laughter, we must put it back into its natural environment, which is society, and above all must we determine the utility of its function, which is a social one.Henri Bergson

We may salve our own conscience by trying to do so, we may even level an immediate difficulty; but a free and generous desire to be different is the only hope of vital change.Arthur Christopher Benson

But there is one thing which seems to me to have always and invariably hampered and maimed me, whenever I have yielded to it, and I have often yielded to it; and that is Fear.Arthur Christopher Benson

There were three great men of the nineteenth century of whom we know more than we know of most men, Carlyle, Ruskin, and Tennyson, in whose lives fear was a prominent element.Arthur Christopher Benson

When the fig-tree blossoms and the fruit is in the vines, when the labour of the olive fails not, and the fields yield abundance of meat, then it is but natural to give thanks.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Let us give thanks, too, in our fervent morning prayers that we have escaped the dangers of the night, and in our night prayers that we have been saved from the noon-day demon.Paulist Fathers

For when we gladly eat our daily bread, we bless The Hand that feeds us; And when we tread the road of Life in cheerfulness, Our very heart-beats praise the Love that leads us.Henry van Dyke

And throughout our participation in the group process we must be ever on our guard that we do not confuse differences and antagonisms, that diversity does not arouse hostility.Mary Parker Follett

Cultivate the mere intellect as you may, it will never reduce the passions: the imagination, seeking the ideal in everything, will elevate them to their true and noble service.George MacDonald

Perhaps Shakespeare, from the variety and comprehension of his genius, is to be considered, on the whole, as the greatest individual mind, of which we have specimens remaining.Percy Bysshe Shelley

But, to give thanks to God always is another matter; to bless the Lord in all winds and weathers, and praise him for losses and pains, this is a work of quite another character.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Now pretty nearly all the pay that God asks for his favors is that we shall give him thanks, and if we will not do that much he can hardly think us worthy of his further bounty.Paulist Fathers

If we knew all the facts, the things which produced the petulance, the soreness which caused the irritation, we would be ready to pardon; for we would understand the temptation.Hugh Black

For it is not so graceful to do a friend a service, as disgraceful to refuse to do so at his request; and not to revenge oneself on an enemy when opportunity offers is generous.Plutarch

If met with a sincere desire to act fairly by one another, and if there is, furthermore, power by each to appreciate the other’s standpoint, the chance for trouble is minimized.Theodore Roosevelt

In your neighborhood group show the clearness of your mind, the strength of your grip, your power to elicit and to guide coöperative action, and you emerge as the leader of men.Mary Parker Follett

therefore, if the business of teaching be to furnish the child with ideas, any teaching which does not leave him possessed of a new mental image has, by so far, missed its mark.Charlotte M. Mason

Of course, his teacher will take care that, in giving words, she gives idioms also, and that as he learns new words, they are put into sentences and kept in use from day to day.Charlotte M. Mason

Every seminary of learning may be said to be surrounded with an atmosphere of floating knowledge, where every mind may imbibe somewhat congenial to its own original conceptions.Joshua Reynolds

I do not know that the fly in amber is of any particular use, but the Comic idea enclosed in a comedy makes it more generally perceptible and portable, and that is an advantage.George Meredith

What I grow impatient of are the censures of rigid people, who desire to limit the hopes and possibilities of others by the little foot-rule which they have made for themselves.Arthur Christopher Benson

What would one feel about Odysseus if, instead of contriving a way out of the Cyclops' cave, he had set himself to consider of what forgotten sin his danger was the consequence?Arthur Christopher Benson

A great and successful commonwealth like ours in the long run works under good laws, because a people endowed with honest and practical common-sense ultimately demands good laws.Theodore Roosevelt

Emulation becomes suicidal when it is used as the incentive to intellectual effort, because the desire for knowledge subsides in proportion as the desire to excel becomes active.Charlotte M. Mason

It is, therefore, that faculty in man which is likest to the prime operation of the power of God, and has, therefore, been called the creative faculty, and its exercise creation.George MacDonald

So wit is often the more forcible and pointed for being dry and serious, for it then seems as if the speaker himself had no intention in it, and we were the first to find it out.William Hazlitt

Tennyson's art suffered from the consciousness of his enormous responsibility, and where he failed was from his dread of unpopularity, or his fear of alienating the ordinary man.Arthur Christopher Benson

But they are not like the demons of sin that can hamper and wound; they are just little gnomes and elves that can make a noise, and their strength is a spiteful and a puny thing.Arthur Christopher Benson

Yet within the most obnoxious to our hate, lies that which, could it but show itself as it is, and as it will show itself one day, would compel from our hearts a devotion of love.George MacDonald

Other republics have fallen because of the unscrupulous rich or the unscrupulous poor who gained ascendancy, who substituted loyalty to class for loyalty to the people as a whole.Theodore Roosevelt

The case is somewhat like that of the head of a business undertaking, who makes the men under him responsible for their own work and still the final responsibility rests with him.Mary Parker Follett

But my views are different: I hold that the ruler should be marked out from other men, not by taking life easily, but by his forethought and his wisdom and his eagerness for work.Xenophon

But we gradually find that our problem can be solved, not indeed by mechanical aggregation, but by the subtle process of the intermingling of all the different ideas of the group.Mary Parker Follett

Since a democratic society repudiates the principle of external authority, it must find a substitute in voluntary disposition and interest; these can be created only by education.John Dewey

If education is to secure the step-by-step progress of the individual and the race, it must mean something over and above the daily plodding at small tasks which goes by the name.Charlotte M. Mason

How delicate the touch which puts everything before us with a certain gentle, loving malice, winning us to laughter, without for a moment alienating our sympathies from the right.Agnes Repplier

His mighty works were to rouse the love, and strengthen the faith of the meek and lowly in heart, of such as were ready to come to the light, and show that they were of the light.George MacDonald

And this brings me back to my first point, which is that it is good for us to try to realise the hidden life of the world, and to rejoice in it even though it has no truth for us.Arthur Christopher Benson

I am sure that we ought rather to welcome with all our might any evidence of strength and energy and joy, even if they seem to spring from principles entirely opposite to our own.Arthur Christopher Benson

There have been many attempts in the history of mankind to escape from the dominion of fear; the essence of fear, that which prompts it, is the consciousness of our vulnerability.Arthur Christopher Benson

We may pray for courage, but we must practise it; and the best way of meeting particular fears is to cultivate interests, distractions, amusements, which may serve to dispel them.Arthur Christopher Benson

One must add the courage which springs from a partial knowledge of the truth to the patience one gets from the understanding that as yet our knowledge of the truth is but partial.Basil King

In childhood our relations with others are limited, our wants are few,—in a word, there is little stimulus for the will; and so our chief concern is the extension of our knowledge.Arthur Schopenhauer

We must not desire to have our own way; we must be content to say, “Not my will, but thine be done.” I cannot give thanks to God always for all things till my old self is put down.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Hence it comes to pass, that the first offence, even when so slight as presently to be dropt and forgotten, becomes the occasion of entering into a long intercourse of ill offices.Joseph Butler

We have founded our Republic upon the theory that the average man will, as a rule, do the right thing, that in the long run the majority will decide for what is sane and wholesome.Theodore Roosevelt

We used to think, “I must do right no matter what anyone else does.” Now we know how little that exhausts our duty; we must feel an equally keen responsibility for our whole group.Mary Parker Follett

The great secret of morals is love; or a going out of our own nature, and an identification of ourselves with the beautiful which exists in thought, action, or person, not our own.Percy Bysshe Shelley

In turning over the pages of the best comedies, we are almost transported to another world, and escape from this dull age to one that was all life, and whim, and mirth, and humour.William Hazlitt

He does not recognise it as courage if a sensitive, conscientious, and right-minded boy risks unpopularity by telling a master of some evil practice which is spreading in a school.Arthur Christopher Benson

The younger we are, then, the more does every individual object represent for us the whole class to which it belongs; but as the years increase, this becomes less and less the case.Arthur Schopenhauer

It is plain that, since God has done his part in bestowing the benefits in such abundant measure, we should do ours in returning thanks, for gratitude is the correlative of benefit.Paulist Fathers

In learning an action, instead of having it given ready-made, one of necessity learns to vary its factors, to make varied combinations of them, according to change of circumstances.John Dewey

Thus, certain professions have a technical vocabulary: what a wealth of laughable results have been obtained by transposing the ideas of everyday life into this professional jargon!Henri Bergson

Hazlitt’s definition of wit and humor is perhaps as good as any definition is ever likely to be; that is, it expresses a half-truth with a great deal of reasonableness and accuracy.Agnes Repplier

Lastly, there is a wit of sense and observation, which consists in the acute illustration of good sense and practical wisdom, by means of some far-fetched conceit or quaint imagery.William Hazlitt

Fear should then rather show us that we are being confronted with experience; and that our duty is to disregard it, to march forward through it, to come out on the other side of it.Arthur Christopher Benson

“Do you give thanks for this?—or that?” No, God be thanked I am not grateful In that cold, calculating way, with blessings ranked As one, two, three, and four,—that would be hateful.Henry van Dyke

Then there are petty offences, little spites and passing slights, which, while of a less serious nature than deep-seated hatreds and revenges, dwarf the character and cramp the soul.James Allen

Many people talk as if the collective will were lying round loose to be caught up whenever we like, but the fact is we must go to our group and see that it is brought into existence.Mary Parker Follett

We know no more of cause and effect than a constant conjunction of events: poetry is ever found to coexist with whatever other arts contribute to the happiness and perfection of man.Percy Bysshe Shelley

The knowledge that there is in the world an inflexible order, and that we shall see what we shall see, and not what we would like to believe, is infinitely refreshing and sustaining.Arthur Christopher Benson

The highest happiness is not a matter of possessions and material gains, but has its source in a heart at peace; and thus it is that the renewing of friendship has a spiritual result.Hugh Black

That the child should be taken daily, if possible, to scenes—moor or meadow, park, common, or shore—where he may find new things to examine, and so add to his store of real knowledge.Charlotte M. Mason

In this art, as in others, there are many teachers who profess to show the nearest way to excellence; and many expedients have been invented by which the toil of study might be saved.Joshua Reynolds

When we have had continually before us the great works of Art to impregnate our minds with kindred ideas, we are then, and not till then, fit to produce something of the same species.Joshua Reynolds

It is difficult, at any time, to deprive wit of its social or political surroundings; it is impossible to drive it back to those deeper, simpler sources whence humor springs unveiled.Agnes Repplier

It is the active motive power of character; and if combined with sagacity and self-possession, will enable a man to employ his powers to the best advantage in all the affairs of life.Samuel Smiles

It is only when presented to the child for the first time in the form of stale knowledge and foregone conclusions that the facts taught in such lessons appear dry and repulsive to him.Charlotte M. Mason

It is fulness of life, after all, that he is aiming at, and not vacuity; and thus renunciation becomes not a feeble withdrawal from life, but a vigorous affirmation of the worth of it.Arthur Christopher Benson

We are assuredly meant to believe that the coward is to learn the beauty of courage, that the laggard is to perceive the worth of energy, that the selfish man is to be taught sympathy.Arthur Christopher Benson

When through doubt and anxiety I was not sure of my pardon, yet it was still true; for he that believeth on him is not condemned, even though he may write bitter things against himself.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Therefore administrative responsibility and expert service are as necessary a part of genuine democracy as popular control is a necessary accompaniment of administrative responsibility.Mary Parker Follett

But set him face to face with a thing, and he is twenty times as quick as you are in knowing all about it; knowledge of things flies to the mind of a child as steel filings to a magnet.Charlotte M. Mason

For exaggeration to be comic, it must not appear as an aim, but rather as a means that the artist is using in order to make manifest to our eyes the distortions which he sees in embryo.Henri Bergson

We must aim then at fulness of life; not at husbanding our resources with meagre economy, but at spending generously and fearlessly, grasping experience firmly, nurturing zest and hope.Arthur Christopher Benson

The essence of happy living is never to find life dull, never to feel the ugly weariness which comes of overstrain; to be fresh, cheerful, leisurely, sociable, unhurried, well-balanced.Arthur Christopher Benson

Yet after all the style of speech suitable to an old man is the quiet and unemotional, and it often happens that the chastened and calm delivery of an old man eloquent secures a hearing.Marcus Tullius Cicero

In the same way, alas! we all go on every day, unless we are continually goading ourselves into gratitude and humility, seeing less and less of the significance of the sky or the stones.G. K. Chesterton

Revenge seems sweet only to the mind that is unacquainted with the spirit of forgiveness; but when the sweetness of forgiveness is tasted then the extreme bitterness of revenge is known.James Allen

Narrating is an art, like poetry-making or painting, because it is there, in every child’s mind, waiting to be discovered, and is not the result of any process of disciplinary education.Charlotte M. Mason

A poet, as he is the author to others of the highest wisdom, pleasure, virtue and glory, so he ought personally to be the happiest, the best, the wisest, and the most illustrious of men.Percy Bysshe Shelley

What has been, and what can be done in the art, is sufficiently difficult; we need not be mortified or discouraged at not being able to execute the conceptions of a romantic imagination.Joshua Reynolds

These excellencies were, heretofore, considered merely as the effect of genius; and justly, if genius is not taken for inspiration, but as the effect of close observation and experience.Joshua Reynolds

The more exactly these two images, that of a person and that of a machine, fit into each other, the more striking is the comic effect, and the more consummate the art of the draughtsman.Henri Bergson

Sometimes, on the contrary, we describe with scrupulous minuteness what is being done, and pretend to believe that this is just what ought to be done; such is often the method of HUMOUR.Henri Bergson

Children are grateful when Santa Claus puts in their stockings gifts of toys or sweets. Could I not be grateful to Santa Claus when he put in my stockings the gift of two miraculous legs?G. K. Chesterton

Truly, then, we should now render to God heartfelt thanks for the great favor and blessing of restored light and understanding in Scripture, and the right conception of doctrinal matters.Martin Luther

When, therefore, we behold the wonderful works of God in our behalf our hearts should swell with thankfulness to him who gives so abundantly unto us, above all that we could ask or think.Paulist Fathers

There is a terrible waste of human friendship, a waste of power which might be used to bless all our lives, through our sinful separations, our selfish exclusiveness, our resentful pride.Hugh Black

In the second place, it is the business of the school environment to eliminate, so far as possible, the unworthy features of the existing environment from influence upon mental habitudes.John Dewey

In learning 'by heart,' there are, however, efficient and inefficient methods; and, by making the pupil skilful in the best method, the teacher can both interest him and abridge the task.William James

Therefore his progress must be carefully graduated; but there is no subject in which the teacher has a more delightful consciousness of drawing out from day to day new power in the child.Charlotte M. Mason

The ancient philosophers also abounded in the same kind of wit, in telling home truths in the most unexpected manner.—In this sense Æsop was the greatest wit and moralist that ever lived.William Hazlitt

It may be that we shall have to build it slowly, and we may have to change the design many times; but it will be all built out of our own mind and hope, as the nautilus evolves its shell.Arthur Christopher Benson

The strong attitude is to face that torment, our self, to take it with all its implications, all its obligations, all its responsibilities, and be ourselves to the fullest degree possible.Mary Parker Follett

And a knowledge of such psychology as this which I am recalling can no more make a good teacher than a knowledge of the laws of perspective can make a landscape painter of effective skill.William James

And the dread of being obscure and unacceptable is what haunts the minds of boys brought up on these ambitious and competitive lines, rather than the fear which is the beginning of wisdom.Arthur Christopher Benson

If I state the results it is once more not because I consider them important to anyone but myself, but only because they became the starting-point of a new advance in the conquest of fear.Basil King

I don't wish to depreciate life, as many men and good philosophers have often done; nor do I regret having lived, for I have done so in a way that lets me think that I was not born in vain.Marcus Tullius Cicero

For as a person puts out a fire by bringing no fuel to it, so with respect to anger, he that does not in the beginning fan it, and stir up its rage in himself, keeps it off and destroys it.Plutarch

And as to the love of our enemies: Resentment cannot supersede the obligations to universal benevolence, unless they are in the nature of the thing inconsistent, which they plainly are not.Joseph Butler

It is certain that most schoolroom work, till it has become habitual and automatic, is repulsive, and cannot be done without voluntarily jerking back the attention to it every now and then.William James

Imagination or mind employed in prophetically imaging forth its objects, is that faculty of human nature on which every gradation of its progress, nay, every, the minutest, change, depends.Percy Bysshe Shelley

We laugh, but even in our laughter we know that not for the space of a passing breath does Goldsmith yield his own sympathy, or divert ours, away from the just cause of innocence and truth.Agnes Repplier

The consequence of this is that, as compared with the earlier, the later half of life, like the second part of a musical period, has less of passionate longing and more restfulness about it.Arthur Schopenhauer

Time itself seems to go at a much slower pace when we are young; so that not only is the first quarter of life the happiest, it is also the longest of all; it leaves more memories behind it.Arthur Schopenhauer

None of us know what joy and strength we could impart to others, if only we would train ourselves to give fitting, delicate, and thoughtful expression to the gratitude that is in our hearts.J. R. Miller

We are not worthy his favors, but his glory is worthy of our recognition, and we are to honor him because he gratuitously lavishes his blessings upon us, that his name alone may be hallowed.Martin Luther

Especially after receiving Holy Communion let us give long and heartfelt thanks for all God's dealing with us; for we have then received the greatest of all his gifts, his only-begotten Son.Paulist Fathers

Be grateful that this is a certain fact, without exception, that every child of God who has been healed has some ministry which he can render to Christ, and which he ought to render at once.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

These then are the lessons which we hope group activities will teach—solidarity, responsibility and initiative,—how to take one’s place worthily in a self-directed, self-governing community.Mary Parker Follett

As formal teaching and training grow in extent, there is the danger of creating an undesirable split between the experience gained in more direct associations and what is acquired in school.John Dewey

If the environment, in school and out, supplies conditions which utilize adequately the present capacities of the immature, the future which grows out of the present is surely taken care of.John Dewey

Laughter, then, does not belong to the province of esthetics alone, since unconsciously (and even immorally in many particular instances) it pursues a utilitarian aim of general improvement.Henri Bergson

It is indeed a pleasing thought that what we are called upon to do on earth, to praise and give thanks, the angels in heaven and the redeemed disembodied spirits of the saints are doing also.E. M. Bounds

It behooves the Christian who recognizes the grace and goodness of God expressed in the Gospel, first of all to manifest his thankfulness therefor; toward God—his highest duty—and toward men.Martin Luther

Just as, in our bodily life, in order to get the benefit of fresh air, breathing in must be followed by breathing out , so the giving of thanks must follow the reception of all divine favors.Paulist Fathers

If there be any of you who have got into a bad state of heart and have said you never will forgive a rebellious son, do not say so again till you have looked at the matter, for Christ's sake.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Men are plainly restrained from injuring their fellow-creatures by fear of their resentment; and it is very happy that they are so, when they would not be restrained by a principle of virtue.Joseph Butler

And as the psychic coherence of the group can be obtained only by the full contribution of every member, so we see that a readiness to compromise must be no part of the individual’s attitude.Mary Parker Follett

It is clear then that we do not go to our group—trade-union, city council, college faculty—to be passive and learn, and we do not go to push through something we have already decided we want.Mary Parker Follett

The frequent recurrence of the poetical power, it is obvious to suppose, may produce in the mind a habit of order and harmony correlative with its own nature and its effects upon other minds.Percy Bysshe Shelley

They must, therefore, be told again and again, that labour is the only price of solid fame, and that whatever their force of genius may be, there is no easy method of becoming a good Painter.Joshua Reynolds

Every one knows how easily the comic spirit exercises its ingenuity on social actions of a stereotyped nature, from an ordinary prize-distribution to the solemn sitting of a court of justice.Henri Bergson

They quicken the mind through laughter, from coming out of the mind; and the mind accepts them because they are clear interpretations of certain chapters of the Book lying open before us all.George Meredith

Great corporations exist only because they are created and safeguarded by our institutions; and it is therefore our right and our duty to see that they work in harmony with these institutions.Theodore Roosevelt

For when the schools depart from the educational conditions effective in the out-of-school environment, they necessarily substitute a bookish, a pseudo-intellectual spirit for a social spirit.John Dewey

It is true that a grown-up adult keeps gaining well into middle age a great knowledge of details, and a great acquaintance with individual cases connected with his profession or business life.William James

The most astonishing combinations of poetry, the subtlest deductions of logic and mathematics, are no other than combinations which the intellect makes of sensations according to its own laws.Percy Bysshe Shelley

A witty saying makes us at least smile; consequently, no investigation into laughter would be complete did it not get to the bottom of the nature of wit and throw light on the underlying idea.Henri Bergson

But while we would gladly keep the perfected forms of the higher animals, we may hope that those of many other kinds are as transitory as their bodies, belonging but to a stage of development.George MacDonald

We have already seen that fear is diminished in proportion as we understand that our trials are not motiveless, and perhaps this is the point at which to consider briefly what the motives are.Basil King

Hence, unless the imagination be held under strict discipline, we are prone to meet evils more than halfway—to suffer them by forestalment, and to assume the burdens which we ourselves create.Samuel Smiles

God’s presence begets singing and thanksgiving, while the absence of God from our congregations is the death of song, or, which amounts to the same, makes the singing lifeless, cold and formal.E. M. Bounds

That mankind is a community, that we all stand in a relation to each other, that there is a public end and interest of society which each particular is obliged to promote, is the sum of morals.Joseph Butler

Least of all need you, merely as teachers, deem it part of your duty to become contributors to psychological science or to make psychological observations in a methodical or responsible manner.William James

This process should go on side by side with the other—the learning of the powers of the letters; for the more variety you can throw into his reading lessons, the more will the child enjoy them.Charlotte M. Mason

But although the human imagination has no choice but to make use of the forms already prepared for it, its operation is the same as that of the divine inasmuch as it does put thought into form.George MacDonald

Or, to use another more philosophical, and certainly not less poetic figure, the world is a sensuous analysis of humanity, and hence an inexhaustible wardrobe for the clothing of human thought.George MacDonald

Absentmindedness, indeed, is not perhaps the actual fountain-head of the comic, but surely it is contiguous to a certain stream of facts and fancies which flows straight from the fountain-head.Henri Bergson

I cannot help thinking, for instance, that Moliere was as great, or a greater comic genius than Shakspeare, though assuredly I do not think that Racine was as great, or a greater tragic genius.William Hazlitt

We use life best when we live it eagerly, exulting in its fulness and its significance, casting ourselves into strong relations with others, drinking in beauty, making high music in our hearts.Arthur Christopher Benson

In other words, having to some degree worked my own way out of fear I must tell how I came to feel that I know the Unknowable, doing it with the inexact phraseology which is all I find to hand.Basil King

So it may be said that in childhood, life looks like the scenery in a theatre, as you view it from a distance; and that in old age it is like the same scenery when you come up quite close to it.Arthur Schopenhauer

Perhaps the most doubtful form of praising God is that which is performed by the tongue, and the most sure and truthful way of giving thanks is that which is found in the actions of common life.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

If you were to fall into poverty, and some one were to restore you to your former position in trade, you would be very grateful; should you not be grateful that you have not fallen into poverty?Charles Haddon Spurgeon

A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own.Percy Bysshe Shelley

What is here called WIT is a gift for dashing off comic scenes in a few strokes—dashing them off, however, so subtly, delicately and rapidly, that all is over as soon as we begin to notice them.Henri Bergson

And if God gave the creatures to us, that a new phase of love might be born in us toward another kind of life from the same fountain, why should the new life be more perishing than the new love?George MacDonald

Sorrow, loss, pain, evil, are simply to be as shadows through which he passes, and if they have any meaning at all for him, they are to be opportunities for testing the strength of his emotions.Arthur Christopher Benson

The worlds in which co-operation is essential, from that of governmental politics to that of offices and homes, are centres of animosities and suspicions, and therefore breeding-grounds of fear.Basil King

One flash of truth towards me would destroy my enmity at once; one hearty confession of wrong, and our enmity passes away; from each comes forth the brother who was inside the enemy all the time.George MacDonald

We can get good government only upon condition that we keep true to the principles upon which this Nation was founded, and judge each man not as a part of a class, but upon his individual merits.Theodore Roosevelt

It is in the infinitely little we must study the infinitely great; and the vast possibilities, and the right direction of education, are indicated in the open book of the little child’s thoughts.Charlotte M. Mason

But the danger she must be especially alive to, is the substitution of any other natural desire for that of knowledge, which is equally natural, and is adequate for all the purposes of education.Charlotte M. Mason

For any ceremony, then, to become comic, it is enough that our attention be fixed on the ceremonial element in it, and that we neglect its matter, as philosophers say, and think only of its form.Henri Bergson

We said that wit often consists in extending the idea of one's interlocutor to the point of making him express the opposite of what he thinks and getting him, so to say, entrapt by his own words.Henri Bergson

In manner, the extreme simplicity and graceful uniformity of modern dress, however favourable to the arts, has certainly stript comedy of one of its richest ornaments and most expressive symbols.William Hazlitt

The distinguishing mark of our age is that we are coming to a keen sense of personal responsibility, that we are taking upon ourselves the blame for all our evils, the charge for all our progress.Mary Parker Follett

The bulk of our soldiers, I take it, are of the type to follow a given lead: they will seek after nobleness and valour if their leaders are valiant and noble, but after baseness if these are base.Xenophon

An inductive theory of education is, on the other hand, arrived at by means of long, slow, various, and laborious experiments which disclose, here a little, and there a little, of universal truth.Charlotte M. Mason

The imagination is that faculty which gives form to thought—not necessarily uttered form, but form capable of being uttered in shape or in sound, or in any mode upon which the senses can lay hold.George MacDonald

Herein, too, we proceed in the hope to show how much more than is commonly supposed the imagination has to do with human endeavour; how large a share it has in the work that is done under the sun.George MacDonald

Now, if comic illusion is similar to dream illusion, if the logic of the comic is the logic of dreams, we may expect to discover in the logic of the laughable all the peculiarities of dream logic.Henri Bergson

And we ought too to nourish a fine life of our own, to look into the lives of other people, which can be done perhaps best in large books, fine biographies, great works of imagination and fiction.Arthur Christopher Benson

I wrote a book called The Child of the Dawn, the point of which was to represent, in an allegory, my sincere belief that the after-life of man must be a life of effort, and experience, and growth.Arthur Christopher Benson

I think there is more promise in that, rough and even rude as the statement is, because it opens up a real hope for something that is coming, and is not a mere lamentation over a star that is set.Arthur Christopher Benson

Our instinctive fears, such as our fear of darkness and solitude, and our suspicion of strangers, seem to date from a time when such conditions were really dangerous, though they are so no longer.Arthur Christopher Benson

In childhood all the things and circumstances of life are novel; and that is sufficient to awake us to the full consciousness of existence: hence, at that age, the day seems of such immense length.Arthur Schopenhauer

As the group lesson includes not only my responsibility to my group but my responsibility for my group, so I learn not only my duty to my neighborhood but that I am responsible for my neighborhood.Mary Parker Follett

All education forms character, mental and moral, but formation consists in the selection and coordination of native activities so that they may utilize the subject matter of the social environment.John Dewey

Though system is highly useful as an instrument of education, a ‘system of education’ is mischievous, as producing only mechanical action instead of the vital growth and movement of a living being.Charlotte M. Mason

Definitely, what is it we propose in teaching a child to read? (a) that he shall know at sight, say, some thousand words; (b) that he shall be able to build up new words with the elements of these.Charlotte M. Mason

In a comedy, we feel any other situation might equally well have been chosen for the purpose of introducing the character; he would still have been the same man though the situation were different.Henri Bergson

We dress, and eat, and follow fashion, though it may be at the risk of debt, ruin, and misery; living not so much according to our means, as according to the superstitious observances of our class.Samuel Smiles

There surely are many who carry in their hearts, undimmed for long years, the memory of benefits and kindnesses received from friends, and who never cease to be grateful and to show their gratitude.J. R. Miller

Because in war it is the first business of a commander not to be behindhand in knowing what ought to be done and seeing that it is done, and the general who is seldom seen is apt to let things slip.Xenophon

The busy mother says she has no leisure to be that somebody, and the child will run wild and get into bad habits; but we must not make a fetish of habit; education is a life as well as a discipline.Charlotte M. Mason

Having got a word fixed on the sure peg of the idea it conveys, the child will use his knowledge of the sounds of the letters to make up other words containing the same elements with great interest.Charlotte M. Mason

It is the imagination that suggests in what direction to make the new inquiry—which, should it cast no immediate light on the answer sought, can yet hardly fail to be a step towards final discovery.George MacDonald

From such visions as these the imagination reaps the best fruits of the earth, for the sake of which all the science involved in its construction, is the inferior, yet willing and beautiful support.George MacDonald

Surely, to express a truth humorously is to rob that truth of all offensive qualities, and Lucian himself would be prepared to admit that, in a case like this, it is almost as pleasant as falsehood.Agnes Repplier

We must not turn our whole minds and hearts to literature or art or work, or even to religion; but we must go deeper, and look close at life itself, which these interpret and out of which they flow.Arthur Christopher Benson

These pages will contain, then, no recipe for the conquest of fear; they will offer, with much misgiving and diffidence, no more than the record of what one individual has done toward conquering it.Basil King

To the offended it may be an occasion for patience and forgiveness; to the offender, an occasion for humility and frank confession; and to both, a renewing of love less open to offence in the future.Hugh Black

There is more evil from such a state of discord than the mere loss it is to both; it influences the whole heart-life, creating sometimes bitterness, sometimes universal suspicion, sometimes cynicism.Hugh Black

This is perhaps enough to show us at least one cause of the endless triumph of humor over wit,—a triumph due to its closer affinity with the simple and elementary conditions of human nature and life.Agnes Repplier

It is exactly the opposite; it is to show us that we are worth testing, worth developing, and that we are to have the glory of going on; the very fear of death is the last test of our belief in Love.Arthur Christopher Benson

Schools are, indeed, one important method of the transmission which forms the dispositions of the immature; but it is only one means, and, compared with other agencies, a relatively superficial means.John Dewey

Our eyes and ears grow quickened to discern in the child before us processes similar to those we have read of as noted in the children,—processes of which we might otherwise have remained inobservant.William James

That the child’s observation should be directed to flower or boulder, bird or tree; that, in fact, he should be employed in gathering the common information which is the basis of scientific knowledge.Charlotte M. Mason

One excellent test of the civilization of a country, as I have said, I take to be the flourishing of the Comic idea and Comedy; and the test of true Comedy is that it shall awaken thoughtful laughter.George Meredith

Misunderstandings, ( malentendus ) where one person means one thing, and another is aiming at something else, are another great source of comic humour, on the same principle of ambiguity and contrast.William Hazlitt

We must not shrink, in fear of the judgment of men, from doing openly what we hold right; or at all acknowledge as a law-giver what calls itself Society, or harbour the least anxiety for its approval.George MacDonald

The defence of Lathom House by Charlotte de la Tremouille, the worthy descendant of William of Nassau and Admiral Coligny, was another striking instance of heroic bravery on the part of a noble woman.Samuel Smiles

It hath been shown, that mankind naturally feel some emotion of mind against injury and injustice, whoever are the sufferers by it, and even though the injurious design be prevented from taking effect.Joseph Butler

That is, I can learn through my neighborhood group that I am the city, I am the nation, and that fatal transference of responsibility to an invisible and non-existent “they” can be blotted out forever.Mary Parker Follett

Poetry ever communicates all the pleasure which men are capable of receiving: it is ever still the light of life; the source of whatever of beautiful or generous or true can have place in an evil time.Percy Bysshe Shelley

We turn with an incredulous smile from a story that staggers our belief: and we are ready to split our sides with laughing at an extravagance that sets all common sense and serious concern at defiance.William Hazlitt

Wit hovers round the borders of the light and trifling, whether in matters of pleasure or pain; for as soon as it describes the serious seriously, it ceases to be wit, and passes into a different form.William Hazlitt

And in our own time the lives of such men as Clarkson and Granville Sharpe, Father Mathew and Richard Cobden, inspired by singleness of purpose, have shown what highminded social antagonism can effect.Samuel Smiles

I am, besides, studying hard at Greek, and after the manner of the Pythagoreans—to keep my memory in working order—I repeat in the evening whatever I have said, heard, or done in the course of each day.Marcus Tullius Cicero

But malice and revenge meditates evil itself; and to do mischief, to be the author of misery, is the very thing which gratifies the passion: this is what it directly tends towards, as its proper design.Joseph Butler

In general, there are very few instances of enmity carried to any length, but inadvertency, misunderstanding, some real mistake of the case, on one side however, if not on both, has a great share in it.Joseph Butler

The aim of all proper training is not rigid adherence to a crystallized right (since in ethics, economics or politics there is no crystallized right), but the power to make a new choice at every moment.Mary Parker Follett

We are to give thanks for the dark things, the cutting things, the things which plague and vex us, and disquiet our spirits, for these are among the all things for which we ought to praise and bless God.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

And yet there is something esthetic about it, since the comic comes into being just when society and the individual, freed from the worry of self-preservation, begin to regard themselves as works of art.Henri Bergson

Thus, as might have been expected and may be seen from the foregoing, the comic in words follows closely on the comic in situation and is finally merged, along with the latter, in the comic in character.Henri Bergson

Men of this stamp, inspired by a high sense of duty, have in past times exhibited character in its most heroic aspects, and continue to present to us some of the noblest spectacles to be seen in history.Samuel Smiles

The public enunciation of wholesome because disagreeable truths is avoided; and, to win their favour, sympathy is often pretended for views, the carrying out of which in practice is known to be hopeless.Samuel Smiles

But to my mind nothing seems even long in which there is any "last," for when that arrives, then all the past has slipped away—only that remains to which you have attained by virtue and righteous actions.Marcus Tullius Cicero

But man never rises to the dignity of true living until he has the courage that dares to face ingratitude calmly, and to pursue his course unchanged when his good works meet with thanklessness or disdain.William George Jordan

I do still believe that there is a spirit that mingles with our hopes and dreams, something personal, beautiful, fatherly, pure, something which is unwillingly tied to earth and would be free if it could.Arthur Christopher Benson

Boys in fact are still educated under a system which seems to anticipate a combative and disturbed sort of life to follow, in which strength and agility, violence and physical activity, will have a value.Arthur Christopher Benson

But I have known many of them who never said a word of complaint against old age; for they were only too glad to be freed from the bondage of passion, and were not at all looked down upon by their friends.Marcus Tullius Cicero

Let us, then, my dear brethren, on this happy Easter day elevate our hearts to God in humble thanksgiving for all his benefits, and let us unite with the holy church in the prayer of the office for to-day.Paulist Fathers

That ingenuity in meeting and pursuing the pupil, that tact for the concrete situation, though they are the alpha and omega of the teacher's art, are things to which psychology cannot help us in the least.William James

The only distinction between the selfish man and the virtuous man is, that the imagination of the former is confined within a narrow limit, whilst that of the latter embraces a comprehensive circumference.Percy Bysshe Shelley

Assuming that the stage is both a magnified and a simplified view of life, we shall find that comedy is capable of furnishing us with more information than real life on this particular part of our subject.Henri Bergson

They are not afraid of anything that will be said or done; and yet they will have become intensely conscious of their own appearance and movements and dress, and will be quite unable to command themselves.Arthur Christopher Benson

It is the individual man who must feel himself the unit of city government, of state government: he has not delegated his responsibility to his neighborhood group; he has direct relation with larger wholes.Mary Parker Follett

Likewise if every member of a group has the same thought, that is not a group idea: when all respond simultaneously to the same stimulus, it cannot be assumed that this is in obedience to a collective will.Mary Parker Follett

Yea, more than this: we dare to claim for the true, childlike, humble imagination, such an inward oneness with the laws of the universe that it possesses in itself an insight into the very nature of things.George MacDonald

It is better that these teachings be rare and precious, than too frequent and slightly valued; better not at all, than that the child should be surfeited with the mere sight of spiritual food, rudely served.Charlotte M. Mason

The power of drawing, modelling, and using colours is very properly called the Language of the Art; and in this language, the honours you have just received prove you to have made no inconsiderable progress.Joshua Reynolds

So let us claim our experience bravely and accept it firmly, never daunted by it, never utterly despairing, leaping back into life and happiness as swiftly as we can, never doubting that it is assured to us.Arthur Christopher Benson

One need not fear the world more than is necessary—but my only dream of peace was the escape to the delights of home, and the thought of the larger world was only a thing that I shrank from and shuddered at.Arthur Christopher Benson

And in order to arrive at this naturally, I will begin by asking what the human forgiveness means; for, if there be any meaning in the Incarnation, it is through the Human that we must climb up to the Divine.George MacDonald

This is the kind of doctrine which Christ himself preached, and therefore, since he preached continually this love to our neighbour, and forgiveness of our enemies, we ought both to preach and to practise it.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The untaught mind finds a vast gulf between its own powers and those works of complicated art, which it is utterly unable to fathom; and it supposes that such a void can be passed only by supernatural powers.Joshua Reynolds

Modern French comedy is commendable for the directness of the study of actual life, as far as that, which is but the early step in such a scholarship, can be of service in composing and colouring the picture.George Meredith

I know of no reason why I should not look for the animals to rise again, in the same sense in which I hope myself to rise again—which is, to reappear, clothed with another and better form of life than before.George MacDonald

One must not be afraid of breaking with social custom, if one finds that it leads one into dreary and useless formalities, stupid and expensive entertainments, tiresome gatherings, dull and futile assemblies.Arthur Christopher Benson

Intentional education signifies, as we have already seen, a specially selected environment, the selection being made on the basis of materials and method specifically promoting growth in the desired direction.John Dewey

In this kind, then, the best must be set before the learner, that he may eat and not be satisfied; for the finest products of the imagination are of the best nourishment for the beginnings of that imagination.George MacDonald

Especially must he endeavour to show the spiritual scaffolding or skeleton of any work of art; those main ideas upon which the shape is constructed, and around which the rest group as ministering dependencies.George MacDonald

The poets, orators, and rhetoricians of antiquity are continually enforcing this position,—that all the arts receive their perfection from an ideal beauty, superior to what is to be found in individual nature.Joshua Reynolds

Now, comic fancy is indeed a living energy, a strange plant that has nourished on the stony portions of the social soil, until such time as culture should allow it to vie with the most refined products of art.Henri Bergson

You must, as I have said, believe that our state of society is founded in common-sense, otherwise you will not be struck by the contrasts the Comic Spirit perceives, or have it to look to for your consolation.George Meredith

The delight in life is clearly indicated, and the only sort of self-denial that is taught is the self-denial that ends in simplicity of life, and in the joyful and courageous shouldering of inevitable burdens.Arthur Christopher Benson

To diminish fear we should have it, I think, clearly before us that the human race has done as yet only part of its work, and put us in possession of only part of the resources which will one day belong to us.Basil King

I shall keep myself to the two points of view which have helped me, as an individual, to overcome, to some degree, the fear of death, considering them in reverse order from that in which I have mentioned them.Basil King

Therefore, the selection of their first lesson-books is a matter of grave importance, because it rests with these to give children the idea that knowledge is supremely attractive and that reading is delightful.Charlotte M. Mason

On the other hand, how often has the remark been made that many comic effects are incapable of translation from one language to another, because they refer to the customs and ideas of a particular social group!Henri Bergson

The whole creation is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God—that is, the redemption of their body, the idea of which extends to their whole material envelopment, with all the life that belongs to it.George MacDonald

Those are conceded to us, to tempt us to live, to make us desire to remain in the world; and we need not be afraid to take them, to use them, to enjoy them; because all things alike help to make us what we are.Arthur Christopher Benson

Experience has proved that women can be as enduring as men, under the heaviest trials and calamities; but too little pains are taken to teach them to endure petty terrors and frivolous vexations with fortitude.Samuel Smiles

That is the peace of being divinely forgiven,—a peace which recognizes sin, and triumphs over it,—a peace which not merely saves us from death but welcomes us home to the divine love from which we have wandered.Henry van Dyke

Men put an end to their enmity and hatred, either if persuaded they have not been wronged, or if they come round to the view that those they hated are good men and not bad, or thirdly if they receive a kindness.Plutarch

Neighborhood organization, brought into existence largely by the growing feeling of each individual that he is responsible for the life around him, itself then increases and focuses this sense of responsibility.Mary Parker Follett

The principal works of modern art are in Fresco, a mode of painting which excludes attention to minute elegancies: yet these works in Fresco are the productions on which the fame of the greatest masters depends.Joshua Reynolds

But a remarkable instinct, on the contrary, impels the comic poet, once he has elaborated his central character, to cause other characters, displaying the same general traits, to revolve as satellites round him.Henri Bergson

If amusement can help us so materially in our daily life, which is a daily struggle as well, how much more pleasure!—pleasure which is the rightful goal of art, just as knowledge is the rightful goal of science.Agnes Repplier

Thy highest reward is thy purest gift; thou didst make me for it from the first; thou, the eternal life, hast been labouring still to fit me for receiving it—the vision, the knowledge, the possession of thyself.George MacDonald

If we have no sense of eager adventure, but are afraid of life, overshadowed by doubts and anxieties, with no great spring of pleasure, no passionate emotions, no very definite ambitions, what are we then to do?Arthur Christopher Benson

The discovery—that is, discovery for myself—that God is Universal, which is not so obvious as it sounds, was, I think, the first great step I made in finding that within that Universal fear should be impossible.Basil King

If we are revengeful, censorious, judging others harshly, always putting the worst construction on a word or an act, uncharitable, unforgiving, we certainly cannot claim kinship with the spirit of the Lord Jesus.Hugh Black

I go to a committee meeting in order that all together we may create a group idea, an idea which will be better than any one of our ideas alone, moreover which will be better than all of our ideas added together.Mary Parker Follett

We are very sure that the beauty of form, the expression of the passions, the art of composition, even the power of giving a general air of grandeur to a work, is at present very much under the dominion of rules.Joshua Reynolds

Accordingly, in later years, we, or, at least, the more prudent amongst us, are more intent upon eliminating what is painful from our lives and making our position secure, than on the pursuit of positive pleasure.Arthur Schopenhauer

We have cause to suspect our religion, if it does not make us gentle, and forbearing, and forgiving; if the love of our Lord does not so flood our hearts as to cleanse them of all bitterness, and spite, and wrath.Hugh Black

We say a man deserves punishment; but when we forgive and do not punish him, we do not always feel that we have done wrong; neither when we do punish him do we feel that any amends has been made for his wrongdoing.George MacDonald

We are gradually putting him in his right place, and the kindlier future will have little need of him; because a sense is gradually shaping itself in the world that life is best lived on peaceful and orderly lines.Arthur Christopher Benson

The deep interest of this experience is that it was endured by one who was not only intellectually endowed beyond most women of her time, but whose sanity, reasonableness, and moral force were conspicuously strong.Arthur Christopher Benson

Sometimes we credit ourselves with a longing to be in some distant spot, whereas, in truth, we are only longing to have the time back again which we spent there—days when we were younger and fresher than we are now.Arthur Schopenhauer

Turn to Him in weeping, in praying, and He will give you wine, which maketh glad the heart of man, even the wine of pardon; and oil to make you a cheerful countenance, even the oil of comfort to your wounded spirit.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

But the gratification of resentment, if it be not conducive to the end for which it was given us, must necessarily contradict, not only the general obligation to benevolence, but likewise that particular end itself.Joseph Butler

If we could place ourselves at a due distance, i. e. be really unprejudiced, we should frequently discern that to be in reality inadvertence and mistake in our enemy, which we now fancy we see to be malice or scorn.Joseph Butler

But by whatever strides criticism may gain ground, we need be under no apprehension that invention will ever be annihilated or subdued; or intellectual energy be brought entirely within the restraint of written law.Joshua Reynolds

Menander, then; with him, through the affinity of sympathy, Terence; and Shakespeare and Molière have this beautiful translucency of language: and the study of the comic poets might be recommended, if for that only.George Meredith

She never gave way to feeble or morbid self-accusation, and therefore the fact that she could thus have suffered is a sign that this unnamed terror can coexist with a dauntless courage and an essential self-command.Arthur Christopher Benson

In a world which was to any noticeable degree freed from the spectre of fear most of our existing systems of government, religion, business, law, and national and international politics, would have to be remodelled.Basil King

Therefore, we need to pray because of the limitations that bind our earthly life, until we go yonder where prayer is unnecessary, and all is happiness, purity of life and one eternal song of thanks and praise to God.Martin Luther

But do catch at this hope—it is not a straw, it is a good substantial life-buoy—if thou canst ask forgiveness for the sake of Jesus, God will do anything for Jesus, and he will do anything for thee for his dear sake.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The abler a man is, the more dexterous, the shrewder, the bolder, why, the more dangerous he is if he has not the root of right living and right thinking in him—and that in private life, and even more in public life.Theodore Roosevelt

But a person has other uses in the world, and mother or teacher who regards him as a plant and herself as the gardener, will only be saved from grave mistakes by the force of human nature in herself and in her child.Charlotte M. Mason

If the comic poet's object is to offer us types, that is to say, characters capable of self-repetition, how can he set about it better than by showing us, in each instance, several different copies of the same model?Henri Bergson

The first and most obvious cause of laughter is to be found in the simple succession of events, as in the sudden shifting of a disguise, or some unlooked-for accident, without any absurdity of character or situation.William Hazlitt

We may have then our private fancies, our happy pursuits, our sweet delights; we may practise them, sure that the best proof of their energy is that they obviously and plainly increase and multiply our own happiness.Arthur Christopher Benson

There is no rest for him who broods over slights and injuries and wrongs; no quiet repose of mind for him who feels that he has been unjustly treated, and who schemes how best to act for the discomfiture of his enemy.James Allen

In a word, what we hope neighborhood organization will do for the development of responsibility is this: that men will learn that they are not to influence politics through their local groups, they are to be politics.Mary Parker Follett

Leaving this aside, however, and turning to the embodiment or revelation of thought, we shall find that a man no more creates the forms by which he would reveal his thoughts, than he creates those thoughts themselves.George MacDonald

An observation of the regular mode of the recurrence of harmony in the language of poetical minds, together with its relation to music, produced metre, or a certain system of traditional forms of harmony and language.Percy Bysshe Shelley

For we are contending not with God, but with the fear which hides Him from our shrinking eyes; and our prayer should be the undaunted prayer of Moses in the clefts of the mountain, "I beseech Thee, show me Thy Glory!"Arthur Christopher Benson

For some are too proud to forgive themselves, till the forgiveness of God has had its way with them, has drowned their pride in the tears of repentance, and made their heart come again like the heart of a little child.George MacDonald

Our brother may be so offended that he is harder to be won than a strong city, but he is far more worth winning; and even if the effort be unsuccessful, it is better than the cowardice which suffers a bloodless defeat.Hugh Black

Therefore the precepts to forgive, and to love our enemies, do not relate to that general indignation against injury and the authors of it, but to this feeling, or resentment, when raised by private or personal injury.Joseph Butler

That is, Shakspeare was a greater poet than wit: his imagination was the leading and master-quality of his mind, which was always ready to soar into its native element: the ludicrous was only secondary and subordinate.William Hazlitt

There are, it is true, troubled and anxious hours when the beauty round us seems a cruel and intrusive thing, mocking us with a peace which we cannot realise, and torturing us with the reminder of the joy we have lost.Arthur Christopher Benson

That was a very courageous thing to do, because most people are ashamed of insanity, no doubt from the old sad ignorant tradition that it was the work of demoniacal agencies, and not a mere disease like other diseases.Arthur Christopher Benson

Seeing and observing all this, it occurs to me to take it as a matter of fact, and record it for my own general use, that if it is good to keep the tongue soft and smooth in a fever, it is better to keep it so in anger.Plutarch

Now when I contemplated the origin of anger itself, I observed that, though different persons fell into it for different reasons, yet in nearly all of them was the idea of their being despised and neglected to be found.Plutarch

Some of the advocates of guild socialism oppose function to authority and liberty, but we can have function and liberty and authority: authority of the whole through the liberty of all by means of the functions of each.Mary Parker Follett

There is, accordingly, a marked difference between the education which every one gets from living with others, as long as he really lives instead of just continuing to subsist, and the deliberate educating of the young.John Dewey

Language, colour, form, and religious and civil habits of action, are all the instruments and materials of poetry; they may be called poetry by that figure of speech which considers the effect as a synonym of the cause.Percy Bysshe Shelley

But poetry in a more restricted sense expresses those arrangements of language, and especially metrical language, which are created by that imperial faculty; whose throne is curtained within the invisible nature of man.Percy Bysshe Shelley

The gratification of the fancy, ‘and furnishing matter for innocent mirth,’ are, therefore, the chief object of this and other characters like it, rather than reforming the moral sense, or indulging our personal spleen.William Hazlitt

Suffering and disaster come to us to develop our inventiveness and our courage, not to daunt and dismay us; and we ought therefore to approach experience with a sense of humour, if possible, and with a lively curiosity.Arthur Christopher Benson

I dare not say that I regret it all, for we are all of us, whether small or great, being taught a mighty truth, whether we wish it or know it; and all that we can do to hasten it is to put our will into the right scale.Arthur Christopher Benson

One of the grievous fears of life is the fear of seeing ourselves as we really are, in all our baseness and pettiness; yet that will assuredly be shown us in no vindictive spirit, but that we may learn to rise and soar.Arthur Christopher Benson

On the same principle, let him learn ‘weights and measures’ by measuring and weighing; let him have scales and weights, sand or rice, paper and twine, and weigh, and do up, in perfectly made parcels, ounces, pounds, etc.Charlotte M. Mason

When the Artist is once enabled to express himself with some degree of correctness, he must then endeavour to collect subjects for expression; to amass a stock of ideas, to be combined and varied as occasion may require.Joshua Reynolds

But the truth is, that the degree of excellence which proclaims Genius is different, in different times and different places; and what shows it to be so is, that mankind have often changed their opinion upon this matter.Joshua Reynolds

If men of real wit have been more numerous in the world than men of real humor, it is because discernment and lenity, mirth and conciliation, are qualities which do not blend easily with the natural asperity of our race.Agnes Repplier

It is even possible that although we may find “Don Quixote” dull, and “The Excursion” vapid, another reader, no whit cleverer, we are sure, than ourselves, may enjoy them both, with honest laughter and with keen delight.Agnes Repplier

The principle of contrast is, however, the same in all the stages, in the simply laughable, the ludicrous, the ridiculous; and the effect is only the more complete, the more durably and pointedly this principle operates.William Hazlitt

But when thou sayest in thine heart, “I am perfectly resigned to the will of God, my will consents to his will,” then shall thy praise be as the continual sacrifice, and thy thanksgiving shall smoke before him as incense.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Then thank God who gives you strength to bear your present temptations; who, to retain you, presents what is best for you, admonishing you, through his Word, to be on your guard against falling yet deeper into temptation.Martin Luther

We should learn to know and value this richness of heart, this pure goodness, this power to love, to console, to hope, this joyful giving up of self, this persistence in sweetness and forgiveness even toward the unworthy.Charles Wagner

Schools require for their full efficiency more opportunity for conjoint activities in which those instructed take part, so that they may acquire a social sense of their own powers and of the materials and appliances used.John Dewey

Poets, according to the circumstances of the age and nation in which they appeared, were called, in the earlier epochs of the world, legislators, or prophets: a poet essentially comprises and unites both these characters.Percy Bysshe Shelley

O brethren, for whom Christ died, for whose sake He went about with sad eyes, and weary feet, seeking to save the lost, how can we look to Him for mercy if we never show mercy, how can we ask forgiveness unless we forgive?H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

And so an empty ship in a storm at open sea would sooner admit on board a pilot from without, than a man in a tempest of rage and anger would listen to another's advice, unless his own reason was first prepared to hearken.Plutarch

Resentment is not inconsistent with good will; for we often see both together in very high degrees, not only in parents towards their children, but in cases of friendship and dependence, where there is no natural relation.Joseph Butler

We need to-day: (1) an active citizenship, (2) a responsible citizenship, (3) a creative citizenship—a citizenship building its own world, creating its own political and social structure, constructing its own life forever.Mary Parker Follett

It is indeed true that with so much crystallized conservatism and chaotic radicalism we need leadership and a constructive leadership, but the doctrine of true democracy is that every man is and must be a creative citizen.Mary Parker Follett

And so everywhere the teaching must agree with the psychology, but need not necessarily be the only kind of teaching that would so agree; for many diverse methods of teaching may equally well agree with psychological laws.William James

Once the habit of reading his lesson-books with delight is set up in a child, his education is—not completed, but—ensured; he will go on for himself in spite of the obstructions which school too commonly throws in his way.Charlotte M. Mason

Comedy naturally wears itself out—destroys the very food on which it lives; and by constantly and successfully exposing the follies and weaknesses of mankind to ridicule, in the end leaves itself nothing worth laughing at.William Hazlitt

It is of no use then to imitate Robinson Crusoe, and to make a list of one's blessings on a piece of paper; that only increases our fear, because it is just the chance of forfeiting such blessings of which we are in dread!Arthur Christopher Benson

Children should be encouraged to watch, patiently and quietly, until they learn something of the habits and history of bee, ant, wasp, spider, hairy caterpillar, dragon-fly, and whatever of larger growth comes in their way.Charlotte M. Mason

Carefully graduated teaching and daily mental effort on the child’s part at this early stage may be the means of developing real mathematical power, and will certainly promote the habits of concentration and effort of mind.Charlotte M. Mason

He who recognizes such grace and blessing cannot but love and thank God and conduct himself aright toward his neighbor; and when he finds himself falling short in this he will, by admonition and the Word of God, make amends.Martin Luther

The teacher can formulate his function to himself therefore in terms of 'association' as well as in terms of 'native and acquired reaction.' It is mainly that of building up useful systems of association in the pupil's mind.William James

Not merely in literature does poetry come first, and prose afterwards, but poetry is the source of all the language that belongs to the inner world, whether it be of passion or of metaphysics, of psychology or of aspiration.George MacDonald

Who, then, has not felt that sudden lifting of the spirits, that quick purging of black, melancholy vapors from the brain, as wise old Burton would express it, when some fine jest appeals irresistibly to one’s sense of humor!Agnes Repplier

For this reason we should, with a thankful heart and serious mind, pray, as Paul here does for his Corinthians, that God would keep us steadfast in the possession of his gifts and blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.Martin Luther

There are men who do not divide actions merely into those that are honest and those that are not, but create a third subdivision—that of law honesty; of that kind of honesty which consists in keeping clear of the penitentiary.Theodore Roosevelt

But much work in school consists in setting up rules by which pupils are to act of such a sort that even after pupils have acted, they are not led to see the connection between the result—say the answer—and the method pursued.John Dewey

We believe, therefore, that nothing will do so much for the intellect or the imagination as being good —we do not mean after any formula or any creed, but simply after the faith of Him who did the will of his Father in heaven.George MacDonald

We want the creative faculty to imagine that which we know; we want the generous impulse to act that which we imagine; we want the poetry of life: our calculations have outrun conception; we have eaten more than we can digest.Percy Bysshe Shelley

A mind enriched by an assemblage of all the treasures of ancient and modern art will be more elevated and fruitful in resources, in proportion to the number of ideas which have been carefully collected and thoroughly digested.Joshua Reynolds

While respecting the personality of others, it preserves its own individuality and independence; and has the courage to be morally honest, though it may be unpopular, trusting tranquilly to time and experience for recognition.Samuel Smiles

The main difference between youth and age will always be that youth looks forward to life, and old age to death; and that while the one has a short past and a long future before it, the case is just the opposite with the other.Arthur Schopenhauer

Probably the commonest delusion in which men are involved is that of thinking that what they themselves believe and think and do is good, and all that is otherwise is evil, and therefore to be powerfully condemned and resisted.James Allen

Nor are those supreme poets, who have employed traditional forms of rhythm on account of the form and action of their subjects, less capable of perceiving and teaching the truth of things, than those who have omitted that form.Percy Bysshe Shelley

Poetry, as has been said, differs in this respect from logic, that it is not subject to the control of the active powers of the mind, and that its birth and recurrence have no necessary connexion with the consciousness or will.Percy Bysshe Shelley

This amounts to saying that the comic in speech should correspond, point by point, with the comic in actions and in situations, and is nothing more, if one may so express oneself, than their projection on to the plane of words.Henri Bergson

The Comic poet is in the narrow field, or enclosed square, of the society he depicts; and he addresses the still narrower enclosure of men’s intellects, with reference to the operation of the social world upon their characters.George Meredith

We must always hopefully and gladly remember that the great movements, doctrines, thoughts, which have affected the life of the world most deeply, are those which are most truly based upon the best and truest needs of humanity.Arthur Christopher Benson

The things we did in years gone by, the events that happened long ago, are like those objects on the coast which, to the seafarer on his outward voyage, become smaller every minute, more unrecognizable and harder to distinguish.Arthur Schopenhauer

Never, on the other hand, if you desire a quiet mind, seek the favor of important people, and never expect gratitude for condescension to the humble, but count the love they have for you as precious as you do your love for them.Carl Hilty

You can force a moral code on people from above yet this will change them very little, but by a system of self-governing clubs with leaders who know how to lead, we can make real progress in educating people to higher standards.Mary Parker Follett

What conscious, deliberate teaching can do is at most to free the capacities thus formed for fuller exercise, to purge them of some of their grossness, and to furnish objects which make their activity more productive of meaning.John Dewey

Hence the vanity of translation; it were as wise to cast a violet into a crucible that you might discover the formal principle of its colour and odour, as seek to transfuse from one language into another the creations of a poet.Percy Bysshe Shelley

It is this sort of solemn egotism which makes us overvalue our anxieties quite out of all proportion to their importance, because they all appear to us as integral elements of a dignified drama in which we enact the hero's part.Arthur Christopher Benson

For the things which are of greatest moment we should always be grateful: for the new birth, for pardon of sin, for the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, for all covenant mercies, for all the blessings of the cross, and of the crown.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Beloved, the Lord give us evermore a thankful spirit, and when we talk to each other, let it not be our habit as it is ordinarily with Englishmen— to complain of this and of that, but let us thank God and testify of his goodness.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

And, as the most general elements and workings are just those parts of psychology which the teacher finds most directly useful, it follows that the amount of this science which is necessary to all teachers need not be very great.William James

This operation of the imagination in choosing, gathering, and vitally combining the material of a new revelation, may be well illustrated from a certain employment of the poetic faculty in which our greatest poets have delighted.George MacDonald

All liberty must of course consist in the realization of the ideal harmony between the creative will and the created life; in the correspondence of the creature's active being to the creator's idea, which is his substantial soul.George MacDonald

Verily here is a sore fault of love, this keeping sealed up in the heart the generous feeling, the tender gratitude, which we ought to speak, and which would give so much comfort if it were spoken in the ear that ought to hear it.J. R. Miller

One such I knew,—and had the grace To thank my God for knowing: The beauty of her quiet life Was like a rose in blowing, So fair and sweet, so all-complete And all unconscious, as a flower, That light and fragrance were her dower.Henry van Dyke

In this country of ours the average citizen must devote a good deal of thought and time to the affairs of the State as a whole or those affairs will go backward; and he must devote that thought and time steadily and intelligently.Theodore Roosevelt

When such forms are new embodiments of old truths, we call them products of the Imagination; when they are mere inventions, however lovely, I should call them the work of the Fancy: in either case, Law has been diligently at work.George MacDonald

For my own reading, I like Vanbrugh’s City Wives’ Confederacy as well, or (‘not to speak it profanely’) better than the Merry Wives of Windsor, and Congreve’s Way of the World as well as the Comedy of Errors or Love’s Labour Lost.William Hazlitt

Cowley’s Essays are among the most agreeable prose-compositions in our language, being equally recommended by sense, wit, learning, and interesting personal history, and written in a style quite free from the faults of his poetry.William Hazlitt

We must realise then that elasticity and sympathy are the first of duties, and that if we embark upon the crusade of joy, we must do it expecting to find many kinds of joy at work in the world, and some which we cannot understand.Arthur Christopher Benson

Where my life was like a dark and crooked lane in which I might easily be lost, it has now become as an easy and open highway; where money-fear was the very air I breathed, it is now no more than a nebulous shred on a far horizon.Basil King

Certainly it would be a poor description of the Imagination which omitted the one element especially present to the mind that invented the word Poet.—It can present us with new thought-forms—new, that is, as revelations of thought.George MacDonald

Comedy is an exhibition of their battle with men, and that of men with them: and as the two, however divergent, both look on one object, namely, Life, the gradual similarity of their impressions must bring them to some resemblance.George Meredith

Love is the one bond of the universe, the heart of God, the life of his children: if animals can be loved, they are loveable; if they can love, they are yet more plainly loveable: love is eternal; how then should its object perish?George MacDonald

A man begins to understand what “seeing no evil” is when, putting away all personal desires in his judgments of others, he considers them from their own standpoint, and judges their actions not from his own standard but from theirs.James Allen

The thoughtfulness of love will suggest the appropriate means, but some emphasis may rightly be given to the phrase in Christ's counsel, "between thee and him alone." Let there be an opportunity for a frank and private conversation.Hugh Black

Ah, then that means that if you have to forgive to-day, it is very likely that you will yourself need to be forgiven to-morrow for it is "forgiving one another." It is turn and turn about, a mutual operation, a co-operative service.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

This is what we wish to do for children in teaching them to draw—to cause the eye to rest, not unconsciously, but consciously, on some object of beauty which will leave in their minds an image of delight for all their lives to come.Charlotte M. Mason

His world once invented, the highest law that comes next into play is, that there shall be harmony between the laws by which the new world has begun to exist; and in the process of his creation, the inventor must hold by those laws.George MacDonald

Laughter is open to perversion, like other good things; the scornful and the brutal sorts are not unknown to us; but the laughter directed by the Comic spirit is a harmless wine, conducing to sobriety in the degree that it enlivens.George Meredith

Our light must shine in cheerfulness, in joy, yea, where a man has the gift, in merriment; in freedom from care save for one another, in interest in the things of others, in fearlessness and tenderness, in courtesy and graciousness.George MacDonald

As life goes on, we ought not to find relief from tedium only in a swift interchange and multiplication of sensations; we ought rather to attain a simple and sustained joyfulness which can find nurture in homely and familiar things.Arthur Christopher Benson

One may pray as whole-heartedly as one will against the tendency to fear; but it is a great help to realise that the very experiences which seem now so overwhelming had little or no effect upon one in youthful and high-hearted days.Arthur Christopher Benson

We can test our group in this way: do we come together to register the results of individual thought, to compare the results of individual thought in order to make selections therefrom, or do we come together to create a common idea?Mary Parker Follett

Invention is one of the great marks of genius; but if we consult experience, we shall find that it is by being conversant with the inventions of others, that we learn to invent; as by reading the thoughts of others we learn to think.Joshua Reynolds

There is, in fact, no greater school of effort than the steady struggle to attend to immediately repulsive or difficult objects of thought which have grown to interest us through their association as means, with some remote ideal end.William James

One of the clearly discernible laws of life is that we can both check and contract habits; and when we begin our day, we can begin it if we will by prayer and aspiration and resolution, as much as we can begin it with bath and toilet.Arthur Christopher Benson

Translated into its educational equivalents, that means (i) that the educational process has no end beyond itself; it is its own end; and that (ii) the educational process is one of continual reorganizing, reconstructing, transforming.John Dewey

But this is enough to show you how, so far from being listless and sluggish, old age is even a busy time, always doing and attempting something, of course of the same nature as each man's taste had been in the previous part of his life.Marcus Tullius Cicero

Much of the evil of our political and social life comes from the fact that we crave personal recognition and personal satisfaction; as soon as our greatest satisfaction is group satisfaction, many of our present problems will disappear.Mary Parker Follett

Because the secret lies hid in this, that we must observe life intently, grapple with it eagerly; and if we have a hundred lives before us, we can never conquer life till we have learned to ride above it, not welter helplessly below it.Arthur Christopher Benson

For myself, owing to the pleasure I take in conversation, I enjoy even banquets that begin early in the afternoon, and not only in company with my contemporaries—of whom very few survive—but also with men of your age and with yourselves.Marcus Tullius Cicero

Sometimes a man's heart is so full of thankfulness that he cannot speak, and in the very intensity of his appreciation, mere words seem to him paltry, petty, and inadequate, and the depth of the eloquence of his silence is misunderstood.William George Jordan

But, looking upon forgiveness, then, as the perfecting of a work ever going on, as the contact of God's heart and ours, in spite and in destruction of the intervening wrong, we may say that God's love is ever in front of his forgiveness.George MacDonald

Let any man seek him—not in curious inquiry whether the story of him may be true or cannot be true—in humble readiness to accept him altogether if only he can, and he shall find him; we shall not fail of help to believe because we doubt.George MacDonald

The unforgiving and resentful spirit is a source of great suffering and sorrow, and he who harbours and encourages it, who does not overcome and abandon it, forfeits much blessedness, and does not obtain any measure of true enlightenment.James Allen

Often there are strained relations among men, who, at the bottom of their hearts, have sincere respect for each other, and smouldering affection also, which only needs a little coaxing of the spark to burst out again into a dancing flame.Hugh Black

The drama being that form under which a greater number of modes of expression of poetry are susceptible of being combined than any other, the connexion of poetry and social good is more observable in the drama than in whatever other form.Percy Bysshe Shelley

Invention, strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory: nothing can come of nothing: he who has laid up no materials can produce no combinations.Joshua Reynolds

The more extensive, therefore, your acquaintance is with the works of those who have excelled, the more extensive will be your powers of invention; and what may appear still more like a paradox, the more original will be your conceptions.Joshua Reynolds

Perhaps it might be defined as follows: A situation is invariably comic when it belongs simultaneously to two altogether independent series of events and is capable of being interpreted in two entirely different meanings at the same time.Henri Bergson

The cure for all this, it seems to me, is a resolute avoidance of complications and intricacies, a determination to live life more on our own terms, and to open our eyes to the simpler pleasures which lie waiting in our way on every side.Arthur Christopher Benson

Still I think that if one is on the right track, and if beauty has its due place and value in life, there will be less and less impulse to go far afield for it, in search of something to thrill the dull perception and quicken it into life.Arthur Christopher Benson

At the same time it was to a small detail in my religious training—or to be more exact in the explanation of the Bible given me as a boy—that I harked back when it became plain to me that either I must conquer fear or fear must conquer me.Basil King

As for men who are utterly undisciplined, I should be astonished if any speech, however splendid, did one whit more to encourage valour in their hearts than a song well sung could do to make a musician of a man who had no music in his soul.Xenophon

It is needless to repeat what has already been said on this subject; but, indeed, the future of the man or woman depends very largely on the store of real knowledge gathered, and the habits of intelligent observation acquired, by the child.Charlotte M. Mason

The errors of genius, however, are pardonable, and none even of the more exalted painters are wholly free from them; but they have taught us, by the rectitude of their general practice, to correct their own affected or accidental deviation.Joshua Reynolds

On the other hand, we are told that Miss Austen owed her lively sense of humor to her habit of dissociating the follies of mankind from any rigid standard of right and wrong; which means, I suppose, that she never dreamed she had a mission.Agnes Repplier

The fear then that I felt was an instinctive thing, and was experienced in the inner nature and not in the rational mind; and the perplexity of the situation arises from the fact that such fear cannot be combated by rational considerations.Arthur Christopher Benson

Or, to take another example: as in a revolving disc, the further a point lies from the centre, the more rapid is its rate of progression, so it is in the wheel of life; the further you stand from the beginning, the faster time moves for you.Arthur Schopenhauer

No man who will not forgive his neighbour, can believe that God is willing, yea, wanting to forgive him, can believe that the dove of God's peace is hovering over a chaotic heart, fain to alight, but finding no rest for the sole of its foot.George MacDonald

The leader must have the instinct to trace every evil to its cause, but, equally valuable, he must be able to see the relative value of the cause to each one of his group—in other words, to see the total relativity of the cause to the group.Mary Parker Follett

Every word so employed with a new meaning is henceforth, in its new character, born of the spirit and not of the flesh, born of the imagination and not of the understanding, and is henceforth submitted to new laws of growth and modification.George MacDonald

One of the reasons that must have given rise to many erroneous or unsatisfactory theories of laughter is that many things are comic de jure without being comic de facto, the continuity of custom having deadened within them the comic quality.Henri Bergson

The more that such a man loves life, the less is he likely to be deceived by the shows of life; the more wisely will he judge what part of it is worth keeping, and the less will he be tempted by anything which distracts him from life itself.Arthur Christopher Benson

I'll say the loyal, helpful things that make life sweet and fair, I'll pay the gratitude I owe for human love and care. Perhaps I've been at fault sometimes—I'll ask to be forgiven, And make this little room of mine seem like a bit of heaven.Henry van Dyke

Consequently as soon as a community depends to any considerable extent upon what lies beyond its own territory and its own immediate generation, it must rely upon the set agency of schools to insure adequate transmission of all its resources.John Dewey

Particularly is it true that a society which not only changes but-which has the ideal of such change as will improve it, will have different standards and methods of education from one which aims simply at the perpetuation of its own customs.John Dewey

The older pedagogic method of learning things by rote, and reciting them parrot-like in the schoolroom, rested on the truth that a thing merely read or heard, and never verbally reproduced, contracts the weakest possible adhesion in the mind.William James

A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds; his auditors are as men entranced by the melody of an unseen musician, who feel that they are moved and softened, yet know not whence or why.Percy Bysshe Shelley

I have thought this the obstacle that has stopped the progress of many young men of real genius; and I very much doubt whether a habit of drawing correctly what we see will not give a proportionable power of drawing correctly what we imagine.Joshua Reynolds

But what the will can do is to try certain experiments, and the one province where its function seems to be clear, is where it can discover that we have often a reserve of unsuspected strength, and more courage and power than we had supposed.Arthur Christopher Benson

Resentment is a mental fever which burns up the wholesome energies of the mind, and “taking offence” is a form of moral sickness which saps the healthy flow of kindliness and good-will, and from which men and women should seek to be delivered.James Allen

Unless we continue to keep a quick and lively sense of the great fundamental truth that our concern is with the individual worth of the individual man, this Government can not permanently hold the place which it has achieved among the nations.Theodore Roosevelt

In the learning of all matters, we have to start with some one deep aspect of the question, abstracting it as if it were the only aspect; and then we gradually correct ourselves by adding those neglected other features which complete the case.William James

Method, with the end of education in view, presses the most unlikely matters into service to bring about that end; but with no more tiresome mechanism than the sun employs when it makes the winds to blow and the waters to flow only by shining.Charlotte M. Mason

Yet of course there is an inevitable sadness when we find the old certainties dissolving in mist; and we must be very careful to substitute for them, if they slip from our grasp, some sort of principle which will give us freshness and courage.Arthur Christopher Benson

And yet when I curb myself, when I force myself to read them, when I force myself to read them sympathetically and with a good wish in my heart, my mental atmosphere grows wider and I am in a stronger, surer, steadier, and more fearless world.Basil King

Further, in old age there comes an increased depth in the knowledge that was acquired in youth; a man has now many more illustrations of any ideas he may have attained; things which he thought he knew when he was young, he now knows in reality.Arthur Schopenhauer

It is a piece of good fortune if the old man retains some of his love of study or of music or of the theatre,—if, in general, he is still somewhat susceptible to the things about him; as is, indeed, the case with some people to a very late age.Arthur Schopenhauer

The best blessing which can be promised is that last blessing of Moses for Asher: “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.” Better than this one should not desire, and if one has this he should be thankful.Carl Hilty

So in the world at large the nation which is of use in the progress of mankind is that nation which combines strength of character, force of character and insistence upon its own rights, with a full acknowledgment of its own duties toward them.Theodore Roosevelt

We cannot assume that we possess a body of achieved ideas stamped in some mysterious way with the authority of reason and justice, but even were it true, the reason and justice of the past must give way to the reason and justice of the present.Mary Parker Follett

I hope that here in America more and more the ideal of the well-trained and vigorous body will be maintained neck by neck with that of the well-trained and vigorous mind as the two coequal halves of the higher education for men and women alike.William James

It is better to keep the word creation for that calling out of nothing which is the imagination of God; except it be as an occasional symbolic expression, whose daring is fully recognized, of the likeness of man’s work to the work of his maker.George MacDonald

Time, which destroys the beauty and the use of the story of particular facts, stripped of the poetry which should invest them, augments that of poetry, and for ever develops new and wonderful applications of the eternal truth which it contains.Percy Bysshe Shelley

Raffaelle, who stands in general foremost of the first painters, owes his reputation, as I have observed, to his excellence in the higher parts of the art; his works in Fresco, therefore, ought to be the first object of our study and attention.Joshua Reynolds

In giving instances of different sorts of wit, or trying to recollect good things of this kind, they are the first which stand ready in the memory; and they are those which furnish the best tests and most striking illustrations of what we want.William Hazlitt

Life has been by no means a scene of untroubled happiness since then; but there came to me that day, walking along the fragrant garden-paths, very clearly and distinctly, the knowledge that one would not wish one's life to have been untroubled!Arthur Christopher Benson

Surely, considering what we are and what we have done, the pains and crosses bear no proportion to the benefits, and we have cause even in present labors to be thankful and in every word and work to give him praise through Jesus Christ our Lord.Paulist Fathers

Now, there is an apprehension and presentiment natural to mankind, that we ourselves shall one time or other be dealt with, as we deal with others; and a peculiar acquiescence in, and feeling of the equity and justice of this equal distribution.Joseph Butler

In his early years the child is all eyes; he observes, or, more truly, he perceives, calling sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing to his aid, that he may learn all that is discoverable by him about every new thing that comes under his notice.Charlotte M. Mason

Whether or not the Lord was here thinking specially of the mourners for the dead, as I think he was, he surely does not limit the word of comfort to them, or wish us to believe less than that his father has perfect comfort for every human grief.George MacDonald

Can we not find some medicine to revive the fading emotion, to renew the same sort of delight in new thoughts and problems which we found in childhood in all unfamiliar things, to battle with the dreariness, the daily use, the staleness of life?Arthur Christopher Benson

Why, what blessings are these—that the soul, having served its time, so to speak, in the campaigns of desire and ambition, rivalry and hatred, and all the passions, should live in its own thoughts, and, as the expression goes, should dwell apart!Marcus Tullius Cicero

Wherever an activity is broad in scope (that is, involves the coordinating of a large variety of sub-activities), and is constantly and unexpectedly obliged to change direction in its progressive development, general education is bound to result.John Dewey

One may learn by doing something which he does not understand; even in the most intelligent action, we do much which we do not mean, because the largest portion of the connections of the act we consciously intend are not perceived or anticipated.John Dewey

There are proper seasons when there must be no holding back of the most terrible truth; but, for all that, let the general current of your life, the natural outflow of your entire being, be a thankfulness to God which makes you loving towards men.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Also there is another factor in the theory, and that is unbelief—incapacity to accept the freedom of God's forgiveness; incapacity to believe that it is God's chosen nature to forgive, that he is bound in his own divinely willed nature to forgive.George MacDonald

From all these facts there emerges a very simple abstract programme for the teacher to follow in keeping the attention of the child: Begin with the line of his native interests, and offer him objects that have some immediate connection with these.William James

And as to keeping to that which is known and leaving the rest—how many affairs of this world are so well-defined, so capable of being clearly understood, as not to leave large spaces of uncertainty, whose very correlate faculty is the imagination?George MacDonald

Every original language near to its source is in itself the chaos of a cyclic poem: the copiousness of lexicography and the distinctions of grammar are the works of a later age, and are merely the catalogue and the form of the creations of poetry.Percy Bysshe Shelley

The exquisite pleasure of interchanging ideas, of awakening to suggestions, of finding sympathy and companionship, is as remote from the languid amusement yielded by story-telling as a good play is remote from the bald diversion of the music hall.Agnes Repplier

When you give them some water, or when God sends a shower of rain upon them, they give forth a sweet smell; I think that the flowers are speaking then, I think that they are saying, "thank you." Let us listen to the preaching of the flowers to-day.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

Perhaps we ought even to carry simplification still farther, and, going back to our earliest recollections, try to discover, in the games that amused us as children, the first faint traces of the combinations that make us laugh as grown-up persons.Henri Bergson

For, in general, a man's memory is as imperfect as his intellect; and he must make a practice of reflecting upon the lessons he has learned and the events he has experienced, if he does not want them both to sink gradually into the gulf of oblivion.Arthur Schopenhauer

Thus, love to our enemies, and those who have been injurious to us, is so far from being a rant, as it has been profanely called, that it is in truth the law of our nature, and what everyone must see and own, who is not quite blinded with self-love.Joseph Butler

If we are to avoid the dark onset of fear, we must at all costs simplify life, because the more complicated and intricate our life is, and the more we multiply our defences, the more gates and posterns there are by which the enemy can creep upon us.Arthur Christopher Benson

We have sometimes been so overcome by the devout emotion of gratitude to God for his mercy that we could not help but weep; and strange it is that the same sluices which furnish vent for our sorrows also supply a channel for the overflow of our joys.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Self-government in the Centres then means not only the election of officers and the making of a constitution, but a real management of club and Centre affairs, the opportunity to take initiative, to make choices and decisions, to take responsibility.Mary Parker Follett

How much greater enhancement comes from that life foreshadowed by the new psychology where each one is to go forth from his group a richer being because each one has taken and put into its right membership all the vital differences of all the others.Mary Parker Follett

If we could make up our minds to spare our friends all details of ill health, of money losses, of domestic annoyances, of altercations, of committee work, of grievances, provocations, and anxieties, we should sin less against the world’s good-humour.Agnes Repplier

And after all, my friend, When the tale of our years shall end, Be it long or short, or lowly or great, as God may will, What better praise could we hear, Than this of the child so dear: You have made my life more sweet, on the edge of Claremont Hill?Henry van Dyke

We walk on starry fields of white And do not see the daisies; For blessings common in our sight We rarely offer praises. We sigh for some supreme delight To crown our lives with splendor, And quite ignore our daily store Of pleasures sweet and tender.Ella Wheeler Wilcox

We live in an age when the best results can only be achieved, if to individual self-help, we add the mutual self-help which comes by combination, both of citizens in their individual capacity and of citizens working through the State as an instrument.Theodore Roosevelt

Our particularism—our laissez-faire, our every-man-for-his-own-interests—has little to do with true individualism, that is, with the individual as consciously responsible for the life from which he draws his breath and to which he contributes his all.Mary Parker Follett

We must breed through the group process the kind of man who is not fossilized by habit, but whose eye is intent on the present situation, the present moment, present values, and can decide on the forms which will best express them in the actual world.Mary Parker Follett

Perhaps one reason for the scanty tolerance that humor receives at the hands of the disaffected is because of the rather selfish way in which the initiated enjoy their fun; for there is always a secret irritation about a laugh in which we cannot join.Agnes Repplier

That is what we need to be assured of—our own significance, our own share in the inheritance of joy; and a poet can teach us to wait, to expect, to arise, to adore, when the circumstances of our lives are wrapped in mist and soaked with dripping rain.Arthur Christopher Benson

The fear of life, the frame of mind which says, "This attractive and charming thing captivates me, but I will mistrust it and keep it at arm's length, because if I lose it, I shall experience discomfort," seems to me a poor and timid handling of life.Arthur Christopher Benson

Shall we not rather say, "With my love at least shalt thou be compassed about, for thou hast not thy own lovingness to infold thee; love shall come as near thee as it may; and when thine comes forth to meet mine, we shall be one in the indwelling God"?George MacDonald

The aim and business of the Comic poet are misunderstood, his meaning is not seized nor his point of view taken, when he is accused of dishonouring our nature and being hostile to sentiment, tending to spitefulness and making an unfair use of laughter.George Meredith

The endless day will at length dawn whose every throbbing moment will heave our hearts Godward; we shall scarce need to lift them up: now, there are two door-keepers to the house of prayer, and Sorrow is more on the alert to open than her grandson Joy.George MacDonald

The natural function of the mind, in the early years of life, is to gather the material of knowledge with a view to that very labour of generalisation which is proper to the adult mind; a labour which we should all carry on to some extent for ourselves.Charlotte M. Mason

But no man could be thought in earnest who should assert, that though indignation against injury, when others are the sufferers, is innocent and just, yet the same indignation against it, when we ourselves are the sufferers, becomes faulty and blameable.Joseph Butler

So there is a logic of the imagination which is not the logic of reason, one which at times is even opposed to the latter,—with which, however, philosophy must reckon, not only in the study of the comic, but in every other investigation of the same kind.Henri Bergson

But one of the truest excellencies of a spirit of perpetual thanksgiving is this, that it calms us when we are glad and it cheers us when we are sorrowful— a double benefit; it allays the feverish heat at the same time that it mitigates the rigorous cold.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

In a word, all these cautions concerning anger and self-love, are no more than desiring a man, who was looking through a glass which either magnified or lessened, to take notice, that the objects are not in themselves what they appear through that medium.Joseph Butler

Consequently, while a careful study of the native aptitudes and deficiencies of an individual is always a preliminary necessity, the subsequent and important step is to furnish an environment which will adequately function whatever activities are present.John Dewey

I say moreover that you make a great, a very great mistake, if you think that psychology, being the science of the mind's laws, is something from which you can deduce definite programmes and schemes and methods of instruction for immediate schoolroom use.William James

I hope that my readers will train their children in the art of recitation; in the coming days, more even than in our own, will it behove every educated man and woman to be able to speak effectively in public; and, in learning to recite you learn to speak.Charlotte M. Mason

Children are more ready to appropriate lessons that are not directly levelled at themselves; while the teacher makes the teaching her own by the interest with which she reads, the pictures and other illustrations she shows, and her conversational remarks.Charlotte M. Mason

As with the singing of the sky-lark out of sight, you must love the bird to be attentive to the song, so in this highest flight of the Comic Muse, you must love pure Comedy warmly to understand the Misanthrope: you must be receptive of the idea of Comedy.George Meredith

The natural object or occasion of settled resentment, then, being injury, as distinct from pain or loss, it is easy to see, that to prevent and to remedy such injury, and the miseries arising from it, is the end for which this passion was implanted in man.Joseph Butler

The glory of existence is to take up its burden, and exist for Existence eternal and supreme—for the Father who does his divine and perfect best to impart his glad life to us, making us sharers of that nature which is bliss, and that labour which is peace.George MacDonald

The man who lives thus, is in danger of over-valuing the raptures and thrills of life, of being fitful and moody and fretful; what he has to do is to spread serenity over his days, and above all to be ready to combine, to minister, to sympathise, to serve.Arthur Christopher Benson

Yet if one believes, as I for one believe, that the secret of the world is somehow hidden in love, and can be interpreted through love alone, then one must run the risks of love, and seek for strength to bear the inevitable suffering which love must bring.Arthur Christopher Benson

"But though mankind is the natural object of benevolence, yet may it not be lessened upon vice, i. e. injury?" Allowed: but if every degree of vice or injury must destroy that benevolence, then no man is the object of our love; for no man is without faults.Joseph Butler

If words were always made on a given pattern in English, if the same letters always represented the same sounds, learning to read would be an easy matter; for the child would soon acquire the few elements of which all words would, in that case, be composed.Charlotte M. Mason

Unsubstantial, however, as these rules may seem, and difficult as it may be to convey them in writing, they are still seen and felt in the mind of the artist; and he works from them with as much certainty, as if they were embodied, as I may say, upon paper.Joshua Reynolds

But the text means more than that: we are to give thanks to the Father in the name of Jesus, that is, because Jesus bids us to do so, and we are commanded and commissioned by Christ; we have his example as well as his precept for blessing God for all things.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

To appeal to an estranged friend before witnesses induces to special pleading, making the witnesses the jury, asking for a verdict on either side; and the result is that both are still convinced they have right on their side, and that they have been wronged.Hugh Black

In other words, no matter how long ago we may have learned a poem, and no matter how complete our inability to reproduce it now may be, yet the first learning will still show its lingering effects in the abridgment of the time required for learning it again.William James

On the one hand, indeed, we find there is no essential difference between a word that is comic and one that is witty; on the other hand, the latter, although connected with a figure of speech, invariably calls up the image, dim or distinct, of a comic scene.Henri Bergson

Best of all, the story of him who is himself the good news, the gospel of God, becomes not only more and more believable to his heart, but more and more ministrant to his life of conflict, and his assurance of a living father who hears when his children cry.George MacDonald

If their passion grow to a despairing sense of the unattainable, a hopelessness of ever gaining that without which life were worthless, let them remember that the Lord congratulates the hungry and thirsty, so sure does he know them of being one day satisfied.George MacDonald

We ought to make the moments notes Of happy, glad Thanksgiving; The hours and days a silent phrase Of music we are living. And so the theme should swell and grow As weeks and months pass o'er us, And rise sublime at this good time, A grand Thanksgiving chorus.Ella Wheeler Wilcox

This is abundantly confirmed by observing, what it is which heightens or lessens resentment; namely, the same which aggravates or lessens the fault; friendship and former obligations, on one hand; or inadvertency, strong temptations, and mistake, on the other.Joseph Butler

The consistent policy of the National Government, so far as it has the power, is to hold in check the unscrupulous man, whether employer or employee; but to refuse to weaken individual initiative or to hamper or cramp the industrial development of the country.Theodore Roosevelt

The practice is indeed convenient and popular, and to be preferred, especially in such composition as includes much action: but every great poet must inevitably innovate upon the example of his predecessors in the exact structure of his peculiar versification.Percy Bysshe Shelley

How many more principles may be fixed and ascertained we cannot tell; but as criticism is likely to go hand in hand with the art which is its subject, we may venture to say, that as that art shall advance, its powers will be still more and more fixed by rules.Joshua Reynolds

Those girlish confidences of Jane Austen to Cassandra, so frank and gay, so full of jokes and laughter, and country gossip, and sisterly affection, what a contrast they afford to the attitude of unbroken reserve which Miss Austen always presented to the world!Agnes Repplier

It is rather a vigorous discrimination between pleasure and joy, an austerity which is not deceived by selfish, obvious, apparent pleasure, but sees what sort of pleasure is innocent, natural, social, and what sort of pleasure is corroding, barren, and unreal.Arthur Christopher Benson

Goldsmith’s Good-natured Man is inferior to She Stoops to Conquer; and even this last play, with all its shifting vivacity, is rather a sportive and whimsical effusion of the author’s fancy, a delightful and delicately managed caricature, than a genuine comedy.William Hazlitt

I daily examine myself on three points:— whether, in transacting business for others, I may have been not faithful;— whether, in intercourse with friends, I may have been not sincere;— whether I may have not mastered and practised the instructions of my teacher.Zengzi (Master Tsang)

Moreover the life in common would help the men to know each other, and it is only by such knowledge, as a rule, that a common conscience is engendered; those who live apart, unknowing and unknown, seem far more apt for mischief, like those who skulk in the dark.Xenophon

It is all a command to recognise unseen greatness, to take every least experience we can, and crush from it all its savour; not to be afraid of the great emotions of the world, love and sorrow and loss; but only to be afraid of what is petty and sordid and mean.Arthur Christopher Benson

This kind of thanksgiving and sacrifices are acceptable to God, for he says in Psalms 110, 3, "Thy people shall be willing"; and in Second Corinthians 9, 7, "God loveth a cheerful giver." The knowledge of the Gospel should inspire us with gratitude of this order.Martin Luther

The child has truly a great deal to do before he is in a condition to ‘believe his own eyes’; but Nature teaches so gently, so gradually, so persistently, that he is never overdone, but goes on gathering little stores of knowledge about whatever comes before him.Charlotte M. Mason

You may estimate your capacity for Comic perception by being able to detect the ridicule of them you love, without loving them less: and more by being able to see yourself somewhat ridiculous in dear eyes, and accepting the correction their image of you proposes.George Meredith

The prophecy had gone before that he should save his people from their sins; he brings an announcement they will better understand: he is come, he says, to deliver men from sorrow and pain, ignorance and oppression, everything that makes life hard and unfriendly.George MacDonald

Although the ready memory is a great blessing to its possessor, the vaguer memory of a subject, of having once had to do with it, of its neighborhood, and of where we may go to recover it again, constitutes in most men and women the chief fruit of their education.William James

In dealing with business interests, for the Government to undertake by crude and ill-considered legislation to do what may turn out to be bad, would be to incur the risk of such far-reaching national disaster that it would be preferable to undertake nothing at all.Theodore Roosevelt

One thing more: a single idea may be a possession so precious in itself, so fruitful, that the parent cannot fitly allow the child’s selection of ideas to be a matter of chance: his lessons should furnish him with such ideas as shall make for his further education.Charlotte M. Mason

We may thus surmise that a phrase is likely to become comic if, though reversed, it still makes sense, or if it expresses equally well two quite independent sets of ideas, or, finally, if it has been obtained by transposing an idea into some key other than its own.Henri Bergson

Johnson supplies the clearest proof, if proof were needed, that no robustness of temperament, no genius of common sense, no array of rationality, no degree of courage, can save a man from the assaults of fear, and even of fear which the sufferer knows to be unreal.Arthur Christopher Benson

When we were young, we were completely absorbed in our immediate surroundings; there was nothing to distract our attention from them; we looked upon the objects about us as though they were the only ones of their kind, as though, indeed, nothing else existed at all.Arthur Schopenhauer

To say that education is a social function, securing direction and development in the immature through their participation in the life of the group to which they belong, is to say in effect that education will vary with the quality of life which prevails in a group.John Dewey

But if an isolated phrase is to be comic in itself, when once separated from the person who utters it, it must be something more than ready-made, it must bear within itself some sign which tells us, beyond the possibility of doubt, that it was uttered automatically.Henri Bergson

Not only are we entitled to say that comedy gives us general types, but we might add that it is the ONLY one of all the arts that aims at the general; so that once this objective has been attributed to it, we have said all that it is and all that the rest cannot be.Henri Bergson

The public are, after all, not the worst judges.—Farquhar’s Letters, prefixed to the collection of his plays, are lively, good humoured, and sensible; and contain, among other things, an admirable exposition of the futility of the dramatic unities of time and place.William Hazlitt

There appears to have been in Sterne a vein of dry, sarcastic humour, and of extreme tenderness of feeling; the latter sometimes carried to affectation, as in the tale of Maria, and the apostrophe to the recording angel: but at other times pure, and without blemish.William Hazlitt

Nor indeed would a farmer, however old, hesitate to answer any one who asked him for whom he was planting: "For the immortal gods, whose will it was that I should not merely receive these things from my ancestors, but should also hand them on to the next generation."Marcus Tullius Cicero

Moreover to keep the tongue well under control, no small factor in moral excellence, and to make it always obedient and submissive to reason, is not possible, unless by practice and attention and painstaking a man has subdued his worst passions, as for example anger.Plutarch

This government is based upon the fundamental idea that each man, no matter what his occupation, his race, or his religious belief, is entitled to be treated on his worth as a man, and neither favored nor discriminated against because of any accident in his position.Theodore Roosevelt

By literary comedies, I mean comedies of classic inspiration, drawn chiefly from Menander and the Greek New Comedy through Terence; or else comedies of the poet’s personal conception, that have had no model in life, and are humorous exaggerations, happy or otherwise.George Meredith

We must know, many of us, that strange shadow which falls upon us when we say, "I feel so happy to-day that some evil must be going to befal me!" It is true that afflictions must come, but they are not to spoil our joy; they are rather to refine it and strengthen it.Arthur Christopher Benson

Let me admit that I have more than once in life made grave mistakes through this timidity and indolence, or through an imaginativeness which could see in a great opportunity nothing but a sea of troubles, which would, I do not doubt, have melted away as one advanced.Arthur Christopher Benson

And let us not flatter ourselves, we who live in countries where the people rule, that it is ultimately possible for the people to cast upon any but themselves the responsibilities for the shape the government and the social and political life of the community assume.Theodore Roosevelt

When it comes to rendering service, that which counts chiefly with a college graduate, as with any other American citizen, is not intellect so much as what stands above mere power of body, or mere power of mind, but must in a sense include them, and that is, character.Theodore Roosevelt

Some thinkers would feel sorely hampered if at liberty to use no forms but such as existed in nature, or to invent nothing save in accordance with the laws of the world of the senses; but it must not therefore be imagined that they desire escape from the region of law.George MacDonald

They are to be studied as works of science as well as of amusement; they satisfy our love of truth; they fill up the void in the mind; they form a series of plates in natural history, and of that most interesting part of natural history, the history of our own species.William Hazlitt

Now, what we all have to do, if we can, is to regard life steadily and generously, to see that life, experience, emotion, are the real gifts; not things to be hurried through, thrust aside, disregarded, as a man makes a hasty meal before some occasion that excites him.Arthur Christopher Benson

Let us see the awful cowardice and the injustice of ingratitude, not to take it too seriously in others, not to condemn it too severely, but merely to banish it forever from our own lives, and to make every hour of our living the radiation of the sweetness of gratitude.William George Jordan

The work of thanksgiving does not belong to the man of large utterance, for he who can hardly put two words together can give thanks; nor is it confined to the man of large possessions, for the woman who had but two mites— which make a farthing— gave substantial thanks.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

In consequence of all this my experience, and the assistance of the deity, has made me form the view, that courtesy and gentleness and kindliness are not so agreeable, and pleasant, and delightful, to any of those we live with as to ourselves, that have those qualities.Plutarch

Who does not know the frame of mind when perhaps for a day, perhaps for days together, the mind is oppressed and uneasy, scenting danger in the air, forecasting calamity, recounting all the possible directions in which fate or malice may have power to wound and hurt us?Arthur Christopher Benson

Every good and perfect gift, no matter how it reaches us, through what messenger, in what form, "cometh down from above, from the Father of lights." All the blessings of Providence, all the tender things that come to us through human love and friendship, are God's gifts.J. R. Miller

There's not a day in all the year But holds some hidden pleasure, And looking back, joys oft appear To brim the past's wide measure. But blessings are like friends, I hold, Who love and labor near us. We ought to raise our notes of praise While living hearts can hear us.Ella Wheeler Wilcox

There are many people who conscientiously go to their group thinking it their duty to impose their ideas upon others, but the time is coming soon when we are going to see that we have no more right to get our own way by persuading people than by bullying or bribing them.Mary Parker Follett

Eventually, he learns to read, somehow, by mere dint of repetition; but consider what an abuse of his intelligence is a system of teaching which makes him undergo daily labour with little or no result, and gives him a distaste for books before he has learned to use them.Charlotte M. Mason

Even in modern times, no living poet ever arrived at the fullness of his fame; the jury which sits in judgement upon a poet, belonging as he does to all time, must be composed of his peers: it must be impanelled by Time from the selectest of the wise of many generations.Percy Bysshe Shelley

No man with faith, hope, love, alive in his soul, could make the divine possessions a show to gain for himself the admiration of men: not the less must they appear in our words, in our looks, in our carriage—above all, in honourable, unselfish, hospitable, helpful deeds.George MacDonald

What would one not give to interpret life thus, to flash the loveliness of perception into desirous minds, to set love and hope and yearning to music, to inspire anxious hearts with the sense that there is something immensely large, tender, and significant behind it all!Arthur Christopher Benson

But we are doubtless far from realizing the potential efficacy of education as a constructive agency of improving society, from realizing that it represents not only a development of children and youth but also of the future society of which they will be the constituents.John Dewey

I know so many good people who are anxious to increase happiness, but only on their own conditions; they feel that they estimate exactly what the quantity and quality of joy ought to be, and they treat the joy which they do not themselves feel as an offence against truth.Arthur Christopher Benson

A Student is not always advancing because he is employed; he must apply his strength to that part of the art where the real difficulties lie; to that part which distinguishes it as a liberal art; and not by mistaken industry lose his time in that which is merely ornamental.Joshua Reynolds

The Comic poet dares to show us men and women coming to this mutual likeness; he is for saying that when they draw together in social life their minds grow liker; just as the philosopher discerns the similarity of boy and girl, until the girl is marched away to the nursery.George Meredith

This is a broad statement; yet to endure life smilingly is no ignoble task; and if the humors of mankind are inseparably blended with all their impulses and actions, it is worth while to consider bravely the value of qualities so subtle and far-reaching in their influences.Agnes Repplier

Nay, if some god should grant me to renew my childhood from my present age and once more to be crying in my cradle, I would firmly refuse; nor should I in truth be willing, after having, as it were, run the full course, to be recalled from the winning—crease to the barriers.Marcus Tullius Cicero

Temptations, long and wearisome poverty, ill-health, unpleasant companions in the household—these and other such trials are the bitter pills of the soul; when we fairly realize that God means them for our spiritual good we can bear them with patience, even with thankfulness.Paulist Fathers

It behoves him to live only in that which is good: therefore if a man condemn me, I will not condemn him in return; if he revile me I will give him kindness; if he slander me I will speak of his good qualities, if he hate me then he greatly needs, and shall receive, my love.James Allen

The tragedies of the Athenian poets are as mirrors in which the spectator beholds himself, under a thin disguise of circumstance, stript of all but that ideal perfection and energy which every one feels to be the internal type of all that he loves, admires, and would become.Percy Bysshe Shelley

The cultivation of poetry is never more to be desired than at periods when, from an excess of the selfish and calculating principle, the accumulation of the materials of external life exceed the quantity of the power of assimilating them to the internal laws of human nature.Percy Bysshe Shelley

Sometimes the consciousness of his inability to repay, develops a strange pride—genuine gratitude it may be, though unwise in its lack of expression—a determination to say nothing, until the opportunity for which he is waiting to enable him to make his gratitude an actuality.William George Jordan

The theme of God's forgiving love is so fascinating that we may linger awhile, and a long while too, upon that bright example of forgiveness which God has set before us, but from it all I hope we shall be gathering grace by which to forgive others even to seventy times seven.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The true Kindergärtnerin is the artist amongst teachers; she is filled with the inspiration of her work, and probably most sincere teachers have caught something from her fervour, some sense of the beauty of childhood, and of the enthralling delight of truly educational work.Charlotte M. Mason

In the scientific region of her duty of which we speak, the Imagination cannot have her perfect work; this belongs to another and higher sphere than that of intellectual truth—that, namely, of full-globed humanity, operating in which she gives birth to poetry—truth in beauty.George MacDonald

There is a general law, the first example of which we have just encountered, and which we will formulate in the following terms: when a certain comic effect has its origin in a certain cause, the more natural we regard the cause to be, the more comic shall we find the effect.Henri Bergson

The one question, therefore, as to any family is, whether peace or strife be on the increase in it; for peace alone makes it possible for the binding grass-roots of life—love, namely, and justice—to spread throughout what were else but a wind-blown heap of still drifting sand.George MacDonald

But the most curious fact is that it is also only towards the close of life than a man really recognizes and understands his own true self,—the aims and objects he has followed in life, more especially the kind of relation in which he has stood to other people and to the world.Arthur Schopenhauer

For this end I will show him all the kindness I can, not forcing it upon him, but seizing every fit opportunity; not, I hope, from a wish to make myself great through bounty to him, but because I love him so much that I want to love him more in reconciling him to his true self.George MacDonald

Back of the laws, back of the administration, back of the system of government lies the man, lies the average manhood of our people, and in the long run we are going to go up or go down accordingly as the average standard of citizenship does or does not wax in growth and grace.Theodore Roosevelt

Boasting and blustering are as objectionable among nations as among individuals, and the public men of a great nation owe it to their sense of national self-respect to speak courteously of foreign powers just as a brave and self-respecting man treats all around him courteously.Theodore Roosevelt

Teachers, and even parents, who are careful enough about their children’s diet, are so reckless as to the sort of mental aliment offered to them, that I am exceedingly anxious to secure consideration for this question, of the lessons and literature proper for the little people.Charlotte M. Mason

We need not fear turning people's heads by genuine expressions of thankfulness; on the other hand, nothing inspires such humility, such reverent praise to God, as the knowledge which such gratitude brings,—that one has been used of God to help, or bless, or comfort another life.J. R. Miller

True, we did repent, and did believe, but repentance and faith he gave us, so that he did not forgive us for the sake of them, but purely of his own dear love, because he delighteth in mercy, and is never more like himself than when he passeth by transgression, iniquity, and sin.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

If a writer’s aim be logical conviction, he must spare no logical pains, not merely to be understood, but to escape being misunderstood; where his object is to move by suggestion, to cause to imagine, then let him assail the soul of his reader as the wind assails an aeolian harp.George MacDonald

To give thanks to God aright a man must believe that there is a God; he must go further than that, he must feel that God is the author of the good things which he receives; and to give thanks always he must advance yet further and believe that even in seeming evil love is at work.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The reason why mathematics are a great study is because there exists in the normal mind an affinity and capacity for this study; and too great an elaboration, whether of teaching or of preparation, has, I think, a tendency to take the edge off this manner of intellectual interest.Charlotte M. Mason

Poetry enlarges the circumference of the imagination by replenishing it with thought of ever new delight, which have the power of attracting and assimilating to their own nature all other thoughts, and which form new intervals and interstices whose void for ever craves fresh food.Percy Bysshe Shelley

If any man shall be master of such a transcendent, commanding, and ductile genius, as to enable him to rise to the highest, and to stoop to the lowest, flights of art, and to sweep over all of them, unobstructed and secure, he is fitter to give example than to receive instruction.Joshua Reynolds

The greatest natural genius cannot subsist on its own stock: he who resolves never to ransack any mind but his own, will be soon reduced, from mere barrenness, to the poorest of all imitations; he will be obliged to imitate himself, and to repeat what he has before often repeated.Joshua Reynolds

Beloved, after all it is but a light thing to render to our heavenly Father our poor thanks, after he has given us our lives, maintained us in being, saved us our souls through the precious redemption of Jesus Christ, given us to be his children, and made us heirs of eternal glory.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

If any deed that I ever did Lightened a sad heart's sorrow, If I have lifted a drooping lid Up to the bright to-morrow, Though the world knows not, nor gives me a thought, Nor ever can know, nor praise me. Yet still I shall say, to my heart alway, That my life, and labor repays me.Ella Wheeler Wilcox

People are apt to overlook the fact that mind must have its aliment—we learn that we may know, not that we may grow; hence the parrot-like saying of lessons, the cramming of ill-digested facts for examinations, all the ways of taking in knowledge which the mind does not assimilate.Charlotte M. Mason

Of the teaching of Natural Philosophy, I will only remind the reader of what was said in an earlier chapter—that there is no part of a child’s education more important than that he should lay, by his own observation, a wide basis of facts towards scientific knowledge in the future.Charlotte M. Mason

Hence the language of poets has ever affected a certain uniform and harmonious recurrence of sound, without which it were not poetry, and which is scarcely less indispensable to the communication of its influence, than the words themselves, without reference to that peculiar order.Percy Bysshe Shelley

And this is true with respect to poetry in its most extended sense: all language, institution and form, require not only to be produced but to be sustained: the office and character of a poet participates in the divine nature as regards providence, no less than as regards creation.Percy Bysshe Shelley

When the Artist has by diligent attention acquired a clear and distinct idea of beauty and symmetry; when he has reduced the variety of nature to the abstract idea; his next task will be to become acquainted with the genuine habits of nature, as distinguished from those of fashion.Joshua Reynolds

However little chance we may seem to have of doing anything, we can at least determine to be something; not to let our life be filled, like some base vessel, with the offscourings and rinsings of other spirits, but to remember that the water of life is given freely to all who come.Arthur Christopher Benson

I ask for that type of honesty, I ask for militant honesty, for the honesty of the kind that makes those who have it discontented with themselves as long as they have failed to do everything that in them lies to stamp out dishonesty wherever it can be found, in high place or in low.Theodore Roosevelt

The inequality of achievement between the mature and the immature not only necessitates teaching the young, but the necessity of this teaching gives an immense stimulus to reducing experience to that order and form which will render it most easily communicable and hence most usable.John Dewey

The genius of the interesting teacher consists in sympathetic divination of the sort of material with which the pupil's mind is likely to be already spontaneously engaged, and in the ingenuity which discovers paths of connection from that material to the matters to be newly learned.William James

The height of comic elegance and refinement is not to be found in the general diffusion of knowledge and civilization, which tends to level and neutralize, but in the pride of individual distinction, and the contrast between the conflicting pretensions of different ranks in society.William Hazlitt

We must never disbelieve in life, even though in sickness and sorrow and age it may seem to ebb from us; and we must try at all costs to recognise it, to sympathise with it, to put ourselves in touch with it, even though it takes forms unintelligible and even repugnant to ourselves.Arthur Christopher Benson

That is the first duty of all; and then that we should live in touch with the natural beauty of the earth, and let the sweetness of it enter into our minds and hearts; for then we come out renewed, to find the beauty and the fulness of life in the hearts and minds of those about us.Arthur Christopher Benson

In a word, the shrewd separation or disentangling of ideas that seem the same, or where the secret contradiction is not sufficiently suspected, and is of a ludicrous and whimsical nature, is wit just as much as the bringing together those that appear at first sight totally different.William Hazlitt

I think that both Rabelais and Cervantes, the one in the power of ludicrous description, the other in the invention and perfect keeping of comic character, excelled Shakspeare; that is, they would have been greater men, if they had had equal power with him over the stronger passions.William Hazlitt

The functions of the poetical faculty are two-fold; by one it creates new materials of knowledge and power and pleasure; by the other it engenders in the mind a desire to reproduce and arrange them according to a certain rhythm and order which may be called the beautiful and the good.Percy Bysshe Shelley

If therefore we would consider things justly, such a one is, according to the natural course of affections, an object of compassion, as well as of displeasure: and to be affected really in this manner, I say really, in opposition to show and pretence, argues the true greatness of mind.Joseph Butler

The excesses of old-fashioned verbal memorizing, and the immense advantages of object-teaching in the earlier stages of culture, have perhaps led those who philosophize about teaching to an unduly strong reaction; and learning things by heart is now probably somewhat too much despised.William James

Not that I assert poets to be prophets in the gross sense of the word, or that they can foretell the form as surely as they foreknow the spirit of events: such is the pretence of superstition, which would make poetry an attribute of prophecy, rather than prophecy an attribute of poetry.Percy Bysshe Shelley

Poetry turns all things to loveliness; it exalts the beauty of that which is most beautiful, and it adds beauty to that which is most deformed; it marries exultation and horror, grief and pleasure, eternity and change; it subdues to union under its light yoke, all irreconcilable things.Percy Bysshe Shelley

If he is a man of keen sensibilities, the pressure of such care is so insupportable that he takes prompt and effective measures to remove it; and his fear thus becomes an element in his success, because it urges him to action, and at the same time teaches him the need of due precaution.Arthur Christopher Benson

So you see that the process of education, taken in a large way, may be described as nothing but the process of acquiring ideas or conceptions, the best educated mind being the mind which has the largest stock of them, ready to meet the largest possible variety of the emergencies of life.William James

If, then, the above law holds good here, it should be stated as follows: "A comic effect is obtained whenever we pretend to take literally an expression which was used figuratively"; or, "Once our attention is fixed on the material aspect of a metaphor, the idea expressed becomes comic."Henri Bergson

O Thou whose boundless love bestows The joy of earth, the hope of Heaven, And whose unchartered mercy flows O'er all the blessings Thou hast given; Thou by whose light alone we see; And by whose truth our souls set free Are made imperishably strong; Hear Thou the solemn music of our song.Henry van Dyke

She should know how to incite the child to effort through his desire of approbation, of excelling, of advancing, his desire of knowledge, his love of his parents, his sense of duty, in such a way that no one set of motives be called unduly into play to the injury of the child’s character.Charlotte M. Mason

It is true also that joy is in its nature more divine than sorrow; for, although man must sorrow, and God share in his sorrow, yet in himself God is not sorrowful, and the 'glad creator' never made man for sorrow: it is but a stormy strait through which he must pass to his ocean of peace.George MacDonald

They are the shadows of our childishness, and they show that we have a long journey before us; and they gain their strength from the fact that we gather them together out of the future like the bundle of sticks in the fable, when we shall have the strength to snap them singly as they come.Arthur Christopher Benson

If possible, let the children learn from the first under artists, lovers of their work: it is a serious mistake to let the child lay the foundation of whatever he may do in the future under ill-qualified mechanical teachers, who kindle in him none of the enthusiasm which is the life of art.Charlotte M. Mason

There is no hint given of the conditions under which the soul is to continue its further life, of its desires or occupations; the intention obviously is that a Christian should live life freely and fully; but love, and interest in human relations are to supersede all other aims and desires.Arthur Christopher Benson

Youth is the time for amassing the material for a knowledge of the world that shall be distinctive and peculiar,—for an original view of life, in other words, the legacy that a man of genius leaves to his fellow-men; it is, however, only in later years that he becomes master of his material.Arthur Schopenhauer

All this is the greatest proof of the credit which was reposed in Cato, but it is better and more important, that we should accustom ourselves to deal justly even with our enemies, and then there will be no fear that we should ever act unjustly and treacherously to our friends and intimates.Plutarch

Not to enter into metaphysical discussions on the nature or essence of genius, I will venture to assert, that assiduity unabated by difficulty, and a disposition eagerly directed to the object of its pursuit, will produce effects similar to those which some call the result of natural powers.Joshua Reynolds

If the quantity of amusement, or of matter for more serious reflection which their works have afforded, is that by which we are to judge of precedence among the intellectual benefactors of mankind, there are, perhaps, few persons who can put in a stronger claim to our gratitude than Hogarth.William Hazlitt

Some day perhaps, when life has become simpler and wealth more equalised, when work is more distributed, when there is less production of unnecessary things, these groups will form themselves, and the frank, eager, vivid spirit of youth will last on into middle-age, and even into age itself.Arthur Christopher Benson

We have a long and toilsome way to travel, and we can by no device abbreviate it; but when we suffer and grieve, we are walking more swiftly to our goal; and the hours we spend in fear, in sending the mind in weariness along the desolate track, are merely wasted, for we can alter nothing so.Arthur Christopher Benson

And then again, as I have said, experience, knowledge, reflection, and skill in dealing with men, combine to give an old man an increasingly accurate insight into the ways of the world; his judgment becomes keen and he attains a coherent view of life: his mental vision embraces a wider range.Arthur Schopenhauer

But it may be observed also, that a virtuous temper of mind, consciousness of innocence, and good meaning towards everybody, and a strong feeling of injustice and injury, may itself, such is the imperfection of our virtue, lead a person to violate this obligation, if he be not upon his guard.Joseph Butler

But in the culture of the imagination, books, although not the only, are the readiest means of supplying the food convenient for it, and a hundred books may be had where even one work of art of the right sort is unattainable, seeing such must be of some size as well as of thorough excellence.George MacDonald

This, which may be called the original or characteristical style, being less referred to any true archetype existing either in general or particular nature, must be supported by the painter's consistency in the principles which he has assumed, and in the union and harmony of his whole design.Joshua Reynolds

It is the temperate use of beauty which we must aim at, and a certain candour of observation, looking at all things, neither that we may condemn if we can, nor that we may luxuriously abandon ourselves to sensation, but that we may draw from contemplation something of the inner light of life.Arthur Christopher Benson

When agreements are made according to what is right, what is spoken can be made good. When respect is shown according to what is proper, one keeps far from shame and disgrace. When the parties upon whom a man leans are proper persons to be intimate with, he can make them his guides and masters.Master Yu

There is something wrong about me that needs to be forgiven by my brother, but there is also something wrong about my brother which needs to be forgiven by me, and this is what the apostle means—that we are all of us mutually to be exercising the sacred art and mystery of forgiving one another.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present; the words which express what they understand not; the trumpets which sing to battle, and feel not what they inspire; the influence which is moved not, but moves.Percy Bysshe Shelley

We have a multitude of reasons for being thankful to God, if we but thought of them—the gifts of nature—life, health, strength, the pleasures and gratifications of the mind, learning, objects of interest, of study and beauty, both in nature and art, the pleasures of home, the joys of friendship.Paulist Fathers

When neighborhood organization begins to teach that there is no “they,” that it is always we, we, we, that mothers are responsible and fathers are responsible, and young men are responsible, and young women are responsible, for their city and their nation, it will begin to teach its chief lesson.Mary Parker Follett

And there is of course a slow process going on in the world by which this moral restraint is becoming habitual and instinctive; but notably in the case of fear our instinct is a belated one, and results in many causeless and baseless anxieties which our reason in vain assures us are wholly false.Arthur Christopher Benson

At the same time, the mother exercises the friendly vigilance of a guardian angel, being watchful, not to catch the child tripping, but to guide him into the acting out of the duty she has already made lovely in his eyes; for it is only as we do that we learn to do, and become strong in the doing.Charlotte M. Mason

For the men who have most powerfully influenced the world have not been so much men of genius as men of strong convictions and enduring capacity for work, impelled by irresistible energy and invincible determination: such men, for example, as were Mahomet, Luther, Knox, Calvin, Loyola, and Wesley.Samuel Smiles

For just as old men, if they are wise, take pleasure in the society of young men of good parts, and as old age is rendered less dreary for those who are courted and liked by the youth, so also do young men find pleasure in the maxims of the old, by which they are drawn to the pursuit of excellence.Marcus Tullius Cicero

And this seems to be the whole of this passion which is, properly speaking, natural to mankind; namely, a resentment against injury and wickedness in general; and in a higher degree when towards ourselves, in proportion to the greater regard which men naturally have for themselves, than for others.Joseph Butler

Throughout my description of the group process I have taken committee-meetings, conferences etc. for illustration, but really the object of every associating with others, of every conversation with friends, in fact, should be to try to bring out a bigger thought than any one alone could contribute.Mary Parker Follett

The chief importance of this foregoing statement of the educative process which goes on willy-nilly is to lead us to note that the only way in which adults consciously control the kind of education which the immature get is by controlling the environment in which they act, and hence think and feel.John Dewey

It must not, indeed, be forgotten that there is a nobleness of conception which goes beyond anything in the mere exhibition even of perfect form; there is an art of animating and dignifying the figures with intellectual grandeur, of impressing the appearance of philosophic wisdom, or heroic virtue.Joshua Reynolds

For as in war many necessary things, otherwise bad, are customary and have as it were the sanction of law, so that they cannot be abolished in spite of the injury they do, so enmity drags along in its train hatred, and envy, and jealousy, and malignity, and revenge, and stamps them on the character.Plutarch

Further, Though injury, injustice and oppression, the baseness of ingratitude, are the natural objects of indignation, or, if you please, of resentment, as before explained; yet they are likewise the objects of compassion, as they are their own punishment, and without repentance will for ever be so.Joseph Butler

The exercise of voluntary attention in the schoolroom must therefore be counted one of the most important points of training that take place there; and the first-rate teacher, by the keenness of the remoter interests which he is able to awaken, will provide abundant opportunities for its occurrence.William James

In reading the one, we are let into the minds of his characters, we see the play of their thoughts, how their humours flow and work: the author takes a range over nature, and has an eye to every object or occasion that presents itself to set off and heighten the ludicrous character he is describing.William Hazlitt

Imagination may be said to be the finding out something similar in things generally alike, or with like feelings attached to them; while wit principally aims at finding out something that seems the same, or amounts to a momentary deception where you least expected it, viz. in things totally opposite.William Hazlitt

Yet here, I believe, we ought to have no doubt at all; and the man who says to himself, "I should like to bestow my affection on this person and on that, but I will keep it in restraint, because I am afraid of the suffering which it may entail,"—such a man, I say, is very far from the kingdom of God.Arthur Christopher Benson

For the first way, my friend, to overcome anger, like the putting down of some tyrant, is not to obey or listen to it when it bids you speak loud, and look fierce, and beat yourself, but to remain quiet, and not to make the passion more intense, as one would a disease, by tossing about and crying out.Plutarch

Thus, from the numberless partialities which we all have for ourselves, every one would often think himself injured when he was not, and in most cases would represent an injury as much greater than it really is; the imagined dignity of the person offended would scarce ever fail to magnify the offence.Joseph Butler

In its contrast with the ideas both of unfolding of latent powers from within, and of the formation from without, whether by physical nature or by the cultural products of the past, the ideal of growth results in the conception that education is a constant reorganizing or reconstructing of experience.John Dewey

In the interpretation of individual life, the same principles hold; and nowhere can the imagination be more healthily and rewardingly occupied than in endeavouring to construct the life of an individual out of the fragments which are all that can reach us of the history of even the noblest of our race.George MacDonald

Shakespeare is a well-spring of characters which are saturated with the comic spirit; with more of what we will call blood-life than is to be found anywhere out of Shakespeare; and they are of this world, but they are of the world enlarged to our embrace by imagination, and by great poetic imagination.George Meredith

The best constitution that the wit of man has ever devised, the best institutions that the ablest statesmen in the world ever have reduced to practice by law or by custom, will be of no avail if they are not vivified by the spirit which makes a State great by making its citizens honest, just, and brave.Theodore Roosevelt

Such measurements can give us useful information only when we combine them with observations made without brass instruments, upon the total demeanor of the measured individual, by teachers with eyes in their heads and common sense, and some feeling for the concrete facts of human nature in their hearts.William James

In no kind of work done for the public do you ever find the really best, except where you find the man who takes hold of it because he is irresistibly impelled to do it; because he wishes to do it for the sake of doing it well, not for the sake of any reward that comes afterward or in connection with it.Theodore Roosevelt

The mind would appear to be one and indivisible, and endowed with manifold powers; and this sort of doctoring of the material of knowledge is unnecessary for the healthy child, whose mind is capable of self-direction, and of applying itself to its proper work upon the parcel of knowledge delivered to it.Charlotte M. Mason

It is a delightful thing to have the memory stored with beautiful, comforting, and inspiring passages, and we cannot tell when and how this manner of seed may spring up, grow, and bear fruit; but the learning of the parable of the Prodigal Son, for example, should not be laid on the children as a burden.Charlotte M. Mason

We may of course mistrust destructive joy, the joy of selfish pleasure, rough combativeness, foolish wastefulness, ugly riot—all the joys that are evidently dogged by sorrow and pain; but if we see any joy that leads to self-restraint and energy and usefulness and activity, we must recognise it as divine.Arthur Christopher Benson

No nation can permanently retain free government unless it can retain a high average of citizenship, and there can be no such high average of citizenship without a high average of education, using the word in its broadest and truest sense to include the things of the soul as well as the things of the mind.Theodore Roosevelt

Men have long had some intimation of the extent to which education may be consciously used to eliminate obvious social evils through starting the young on paths which shall not produce these ills, and some idea of the extent in which education may be made an instrument of realizing the better hopes of men.John Dewey

Law is the soil in which alone beauty will grow; beauty is the only stuff in which Truth can be clothed; and you may, if you will, call Imagination the tailor that cuts her garments to fit her, and Fancy his journeyman that puts the pieces of them together, or perhaps at most embroiders their button-holes.George MacDonald

In the infancy of society every author is necessarily a poet, because language itself is poetry; and to be a poet is to apprehend the true and the beautiful, in a word, the good which exists in the relation, subsisting, first between existence and perception, and secondly between perception and expression.Percy Bysshe Shelley

There is a benefit to men in taking the lessons of Comedy in congregations, for it enlivens the wits; and to writers it is beneficial, for they must have a clear scheme, and even if they have no idea to present, they must prove that they have made the public sit to them before the sitting to see the picture.George Meredith

All this unrest, this grasping at the comfort of life on the one hand, and the patience, the justice, the tolerance, with which such claims are viewed by many possessors on the other, is because there is a spirit of sympathy growing up, which has not yet become self-sacrifice, but is on its way to become so.Arthur Christopher Benson

In fact, it is a joint-stock business of mutual forgiveness, and members of Christian churches should take large shares in this concern. "Forgiving one another." You forgive me, and I forgive you, and we forgive them, and they forgive us, and so a circle of unlimited forbearance and love goes round the world.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

But it seemed to me, as I read it, that the thoughts of man were just as much facts as any other facts, and that when a man had a vision of beauty, or when a hope came to him in a bitter sorrow, it was just as real a thing as the little particle of the brain which stirred and crept nearer to another particle.Arthur Christopher Benson

To go about irksome and laborious duty cheerfully is to thank God; to bear sickness and pain patiently, because it is according to his will, is to thank God; to sympathise with suffering saints for love of Jesus is to bless God; and to love the cause of God, and to defend it for Christ’s sake, is to thank God.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Those of us who are basing all our faith on the constructive vision of a collective society are giving the fullest value to the individual that has ever been given, are preaching individual value as the basis of democracy, individual affirmation as its process, and individual responsibility as its motor force.Mary Parker Follett

In the third place, it is the office of the school environment to balance the various elements in the social environment, and to see to it that each individual gets an opportunity to escape from the limitations of the social group in which he was born, and to come into living contact with a broader environment.John Dewey

Compared with the youth taught by these methods, one brought up exclusively by books carries through life a certain remoteness from reality: he stands, as it were, out of the pale, and feels that he stands so; and often suffers a kind of melancholy from which he might have been rescued by a more real education.William James

They must be let alone, left to themselves a great deal, to take in what they can of the beauty of earth and heavens; for of the evils of modern education few are worse than this—that the perpetual cackle of his elders leaves the poor child not a moment of time, nor an inch of space, wherein to wonder—and grow.Charlotte M. Mason

That he should do sums is of comparatively small importance; but the use of those functions which ‘summing’ calls into play is a great part of education; so much so, that the advocates of mathematics and of language as instruments of education have, until recently, divided the field pretty equally between them.Charlotte M. Mason

Thus even the passing of a unanimous vote by a group of five does not prove the existence of a group idea if two or three (or even one) out of indifference or laziness or prejudice, or shut-upness, or a misconception of their function, have not added their individual thought to the creation of the group thought.Mary Parker Follett

Talk and write and draw on blackboard, permit the pupils to talk, and make them write and draw, exhibit pictures, plans, and curves, have your diagrams colored differently in their different parts, etc.; and out of the whole variety of impressions the individual child will find the most lasting ones for himself.William James

She can teach her child to be first without vanity, and to be last without bitterness; that is, she can bring him up in such a hearty outgoing of love and sympathy that joy in his brother’s success takes the sting out of his own failure, and regret for his brother’s failure leaves no room for self-glorification.Charlotte M. Mason

Before the reading for the day begins, the teacher should talk a little (and get the children to talk) about the last lesson, with a few words about what is to be read, in order that the children may be animated by expectation; but she should beware of explanation, and, especially, of forestalling the narrative.Charlotte M. Mason

We ought then to train and practise our sense of beauty, not selfishly and luxuriously, but so that when the dark hour comes it may help us to realise that all is not lost, may alleviate our pain by giving us the knowledge that the darkness is the interruption, but that the joy is permanent and deep and certain.Arthur Christopher Benson

Artificial bodies, such as corporations and joint-stock or other associations, depending upon any statutory law for their existence or privileges, should be subject to proper governmental supervision, and full and accurate information as to their operations should be made public regularly at reasonable intervals.Theodore Roosevelt

Finally we must ever keep in mind that a Republic such as ours can exist only by virtue of the orderly liberty which comes through the equal domination of the law over all men alike, and through its administration in such resolute and fearless fashion as shall teach all that no man is above it and no man below it.Theodore Roosevelt

Wit possesses a species of immortality, and for many generations holds its own; humor is truly immortal, and as long as the eye sees, and the ear hears, and the heart beats, it will be our privilege to laugh at the pleasant absurdities which require no other seed or nurture than man’s endless intercourse with man.Agnes Repplier

There must be ever present in our minds the fundamental truth that in a Republic such as ours the only safety is to stand neither for nor against any man because he is rich or because he is poor, because he is engaged in one occupation or another, because he works with his brains or because he works with his hands.Theodore Roosevelt

At evening, having bethought ourselves, and returned to him that feeds the ravens, and watches the dying sparrow, and says to his children 'Love one another,' the sunset splendour is glad over us, the western sky is refulgent as the court of the Father when the glad news is spread abroad that a sinner has repented.George MacDonald

It seems the most unreal thing in the world, when one is on the other side of it; and yet face to face with it, it has a strength, a poignancy, a paralysing power, which makes it seem like a personal and specific ill-will, issuing in a sort of dreadful enchantment or spell, which renders it impossible to withstand.Arthur Christopher Benson

It is the beginning of love, of that divine love that does not seek its own; and he who practises it, who perfects himself in it, comes at last to realise that blessed state wherein the torments of pride and vanity and hatred and retaliation are forever dispelled, and good-will and peace are unchanging and unlimited.James Allen

It is in the fulfilment of the rule that the difficulty lies; for the difference between an interesting and a tedious teacher consists in little more than the inventiveness by which the one is able to mediate these associations and connections, and in the dulness in discovering such transitions which the other shows.William James

There are many things in life so radically unwholesome that it is not safe to approach them save with laughter as a disinfectant; and when people cannot laugh, the moral atmosphere grows stagnant, and nothing is too morbid, too preposterous, or too mischievous to meet with sympathy and solemn assurances of good will.Agnes Repplier

The weakness of Stoicism was that it despised human relations; and the strength of primitive Christianity was that, while it recommended a Stoical simplicity of life, it taught men not to be afraid of love, but to use and lavish love freely, as being the one thing which would survive death and not be cut short by it.Arthur Christopher Benson

With the courage, with the hardihood, with the strength, must come the power of self-restraint, the power of self-mastery, the capacity to work for and with others as well as for one’s self, the power of giving to others the love which each of us must bear for his neighbor, if we are to make our civilization great....Theodore Roosevelt

But while the imagination of man has thus the divine function of putting thought into form, it has a duty altogether human, which is paramount to that function—the duty, namely, which springs from his immediate relation to the Father, that of following and finding out the divine imagination in whose image it was made.George MacDonald

That which must be borne had best be borne cheerfully, and sometimes a single telling stroke of wit, a single word rich in manly humor, reveals to us that true courage, that fine philosophy, which endures and even tolerates the vicissitudes of fortune, without for a moment relinquishing its honest hold upon the right.Agnes Repplier

Now long-continued anger, and frequent giving way to it, produces an evil disposition of soul, which people call irascibility, and which ends in passionateness, bitterness, and peevishness, whenever the mind becomes sore and vexed at trifles and querulous at everyday occurrences, like iron thin and beaten out too fine.Plutarch

The leader of a neighborhood group should be able to help every one discover his greatest ability, he should see the stimulus to apply, the path of approach, that the constituents of his neighborhood should not merely serve, but should serve in exactly that way which will best fit themselves into the community’s needs.Mary Parker Follett

When some sin that we have committed has clouded all our horizon, and hidden him from our eyes, he, forgiving us, ere we are, and that we may be, forgiven, sweeps away a path for this his forgiveness to reach our hearts, that it may by causing our repentance destroy the wrong, and make us able even to forgive ourselves.George MacDonald

The works, whether of poets, painters, moralists, or historians, which are built upon general nature, live for ever; while those which depend for their existence on particular customs and habits, a partial view of nature, or the fluctuation of fashion, can only be coeval with that which first raised them from obscurity.Joshua Reynolds

Whoever has so far formed his taste, as to be able to relish and feel the beauties of the great masters, has gone a great way in his study; for, merely from a consciousness of this relish of the right, the mind swells with an inward pride, and is almost as powerfully affected as if it had itself produced what it admires.Joshua Reynolds

It shall continue to be in the future what it has been in the past, a government based on the theory that each man, rich or poor, is to be treated simply and solely on his worth as a man, that all his personal and property rights are to be safeguarded, and that he is neither to wrong others nor to suffer wrong from others.Theodore Roosevelt

No poetry comes by the elevation of prose; but the half of prose comes by the “massing into the common clay” of thousands of winged words, whence, like the lovely shells of by-gone ages, one is occasionally disinterred by some lover of speech, and held up to the light to show the play of colour in its manifold laminations.George MacDonald

On the contrary, it is only in its lower aspects, in light comedy and farce, that comedy is in striking contrast to reality: the higher it rises, the more it approximates to life; in fact, there are scenes in real life so closely bordering on high-class comedy that the stage might adopt them without changing a single word.Henri Bergson

We must rather think of His Heart as full of courage, energy, and hope; as teeming with joy, lightness, zest, mirth; and then we can begin to think of failures, fears, delays as things small and unimportant, not as malicious ambushes, but as rough bits of road, as obstacles to reveal and to develop our strength and gaiety.Arthur Christopher Benson

As we are each day indebted to thousands for the comforts, joys, consolations, and blessings of life, let us realize that it is only by kindness to all that we can begin to repay the debt to one, begin to make gratitude the atmosphere of all our living and a constant expression in outward acts, rather than in mere thoughts.William George Jordan

Organized capital and organized labor alike should remember that in the long run the interest of each must be brought into harmony with the interest of the general public; and the conduct of each must conform to the fundamental rules of obedience to the law, of individual freedom, and of justice and fair-dealing toward all.Theodore Roosevelt

In books, we not only have store of all results of the imagination, but in them, as in her workshop, we may behold her embodying before our very eyes, in music of speech, in wonder of words, till her work, like a golden dish set with shining jewels, and adorned by the hands of the cunning workmen, stands finished before us.George MacDonald

The issue of all this is that the sort of courage which it enforces is essentially a graceful and showy sort of courage, a lively readiness, a high-hearted fearlessness—so that timidity and slowness and diffidence and unreadiness become base and feeble qualities, when they are not the things of which anyone need be ashamed!Arthur Christopher Benson

Let me but do my work from day to day, In field or forest, at the desk or loom, In roaring market-place or tranquil room; Let me but find it in my heart to say, When vagrant wishes beckon me astray, “This is my work; my blessing, not my doom; Of all who live, I am the one by whom This work can best be done in the right way.”Henry van Dyke

The distinction upon which we must insist is the vital, deep-lying, unchangeable distinction between the honest man and the dishonest man, between the man who acts decently and fairly by his neighbor and with a quick sense of his obligations, and the man who acknowledges no internal law save that of his own will and appetite.Theodore Roosevelt

Since some objects are natively interesting and in others interest is artificially acquired, the teacher must know which the natively interesting ones are; for, as we shall see immediately, other objects can artificially acquire an interest only through first becoming associated with some of these natively interesting things.William James

In our early days we fancy that the leading events in our life, and the persons who are going to play an important part in it, will make their entrance to the sound of drums and trumpets; but when, in old age, we look back, we find that they all came in quite quietly, slipped in, as it were, by the side-door, almost unnoticed.Arthur Schopenhauer

A scientific man, a writer, a historian, an artist, can only be a good man of science, a first class artist, a first class writer, if he does his work for the sake of doing it well; and this is exactly as true in political life, exactly as true in every form of social effort, in every kind of work done for the public at large.Theodore Roosevelt

Better, by far, than a marble tomb-- Than a monument towering over my head (What shall I care, in my quiet room, For headboard or footboard when I am dead?); Better than glory, or honors, or fame (Though I am striving for those to-day), To know that some heart would cherish my name And think of me kindly, with blessings, alway.Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Upon the educational side, we note first that the realization of a form of social life in which interests are mutually interpenetrating, and where progress, or readjustment, is an important consideration, makes a democratic community more interested than other communities have cause to be in deliberate and systematic education.John Dewey

Now that more and more direct power is being given to the people it is especially necessary that we should not be led by machine bosses, but that we should evolve the kind of leadership which will serve a true democracy, which will be the expression of a true democracy, and will guide it to democratic ends by democratic methods.Mary Parker Follett

The ludicrous, or comic, is the unexpected loosening or relaxing this stress below its usual pitch of intensity, by such an abrupt transposition of the order of our ideas, as taking the mind unawares, throws it off its guard, startles it into a lively sense of pleasure, and leaves no time nor inclination for painful reflections.William Hazlitt

Count not the cost of honour to the dead! The tribute that a mighty nation pays To those who loved her well in former days Means more than gratitude for glories fled; For every noble man that she hath bred, Lives in the bronze and marble that we raise, Immortalised by art's immortal praise, To lead our sons as he our fathers led.Henry van Dyke

Leaders will be developed in military and in civil life alike; and weapons and tactics change from generation to generation, as methods of achieving good government change in civic affairs; but the fundamental qualities which make for good citizenship do not change any more than the fundamental qualities which make good soldiers.Theodore Roosevelt

If any artist, I do not say had executed, but had merely conceived in his mind the system of the sun, and the stars, and planets, they not existing, and had painted to us in words, or upon canvas, the spectacle now afforded by the nightly cope of heaven, and illustrated it by the wisdom of astronomy, great would be our admiration.Percy Bysshe Shelley

In such moments we perceive that the times when we descend into the meaner and duller and drearier businesses of life are interludes in our real being, into which we have to descend, not because of the actual worth of the baser tasks, but that we may practise the courage and the hope we ought to bring away from the heavenly vision.Arthur Christopher Benson

Let the child alone, and he will learn the alphabet for himself: but few mothers can resist the pleasure of teaching it; and there is no reason why they should, for this kind of learning is no more than play to the child, and if the alphabet be taught to the little student, his appreciation of both form and sound will be cultivated.Charlotte M. Mason

Could this influence be durable in its original purity and force, it is impossible to predict the greatness of the results; but when composition begins, inspiration is already on the decline, and the most glorious poetry that has ever been communicated to the world is probably a feeble shadow of the original conceptions of the poet.Percy Bysshe Shelley

I earnestly hope that the conference may be able to devise some way to make arbitration between nations the customary way of settling international disputes in all save a few classes of cases, which should themselves be as sharply defined and rigidly limited as the present governmental and social development of the world will permit.Theodore Roosevelt

The most colossal improvement which recent years have seen in secondary education lies in the introduction of the manual training schools; not because they will give us a people more handy and practical for domestic life and better skilled in trades, but because they will give us citizens with an entirely different intellectual fibre.William James

Perhaps that is the greatest thing which poetry does for us, to reassure us, to enlighten us, to send us singing on our way, to bid us trust in God even though He is concealed behind calamity and disaster, behind grief and heaviness, misinterpreted to us by philosophers and priests, and horribly belied by the wrongful dealings of men.Arthur Christopher Benson

It is in qualities, hopes, and affections that we live; and if our eyes are opened, we can see, as my friend dreamed he saw, the surface of the hard rock full of moving points, and shimmering with threads of swift life, when the sun has fallen from the height, and the wind comes cool across the moor from the open gates of the evening.Arthur Christopher Benson

In other words the leader of our neighborhood group must interpret our experience to us, must see all the different points of view which underlie our daily activities and also their connections, must adjust the varying and often conflicting needs, must lead the group to an understanding of its needs and to a unification of its purpose.Mary Parker Follett

A child will have taught himself to paint, paste, cut paper, knit, weave, hammer and saw, make lovely things in clay and sand, build castles with his bricks; possibly, too, will have taught himself to read, write, and do sums, besides acquiring no end of knowledge and notions about the world he lives in, by the time he is six or seven.Charlotte M. Mason

Time would fail to tell of the deathless names of those who through faith in principles, and in the face of difficulty, danger, and suffering, "have wrought righteousness and waxed valiant" in the moral warfare of the world, and been content to lay down their lives rather than prove false to their conscientious convictions of the truth.Samuel Smiles

There is a sense of infinite potentiality in us all, when young, which makes some of us draw up lists of books we intend to read hereafter, and makes most of us think that we can easily acquaint ourselves with all sorts of things which we are now neglecting by studying them out hereafter in the intervals of leisure of our business lives.William James

The more that men have this thirst for beauty, for serene energy, for fulness of life, the higher they are in the scale, and the less will they quarrel with the obscurity and humility of their lives, because they are confidently waiting for a purer, higher, more untroubled life, to which we are all on our way, whether we realise it or no!Arthur Christopher Benson

By such self-questionings and their elucidation in the light of mild thoughts and dispassionate conduct a man, gradually overcoming passion and rising out of the ignorance which gave rise to passion, will at last reach that blessed state in which he will cease to see evil in others, and will dwell in universal good-will and love and peace.James Allen

Moreover knavery, and deceit, and villainy, that seem neither bad nor unfair if employed against an enemy, if they once get planted in the mind are difficult to dislodge; and eventually from force of habit get used also against friends, unless they are forewarned and forearmed through their previous acquaintance with the tricks of enemies.Plutarch

The wish of the genuine Painter must be more extensive; instead of endeavouring to amuse mankind with the minute neatness of his imitations, he must endeavour to improve them by the grandeur of his ideas; instead of seeking praise, by deceiving the superficial sense of the spectator, he must strive for fame, by captivating the imagination.Joshua Reynolds

It shows one that though one may have a strong moral and intellectual sense of what is the right and sensible course to take, one may be sadly hampered in carrying it out, by this secret and hidden instinct of which one may be rationally ashamed, but which is characteristic of what seems to be the stronger and more vital part of one's self.Arthur Christopher Benson

It is far more wholesome and encouraging to look upon many disasters that befall us as opportunities to show a little spirit, to evoke the courage which does not come by indolent prosperity, to increase our sympathy, to enlarge our experience, to make things clearer to us, to develop our mind and heart, to free us from material temptations.Arthur Christopher Benson

But there is one thing, which so generally belongs to and accompanies all excess and abuse of it, as to require being mentioned: a certain determination, and resolute bent of mind, not to be convinced or set right; though it be ever so plain, that there is no reason for the displeasure, that it was raised merely by error or misunderstanding.Joseph Butler

Wit is, in fact, the eloquence of indifference, or an ingenious and striking exposition of those evanescent and glancing impressions of objects which affect us more from surprise or contrast to the train of our ordinary and literal preconceptions, than from anything in the objects themselves exciting our necessary sympathy or lasting hatred.William Hazlitt

St Paul seems to believe that perfection in their kind awaits also the humbler inhabitants of our world, its advent to follow immediately on the manifestation of the sons of God: for our sakes and their own they have been made subject to vanity; for our sakes and their own they shall be restored and glorified, that is, raised higher with us.George MacDonald

We do best if we can so refine our happiness as to make it a thing which is not dependent upon wealth or ease; and the more natural our life is, the more can we be of use by the example which is not self-conscious but contagious, by showing that joy does not depend upon excitement and stimulus, but upon vivid using of the very stuff of life.Arthur Christopher Benson

The selfish and the cruel elements of humanity have never been able to band themselves together against the power of good for very long, for the simple reason that those who are selfish and evil have a natural suspicion of other selfish and evil people; and no combination of men can ever be based upon anything but mutual trust and affection.Arthur Christopher Benson

From the standpoint of youth, life seems to stretch away into an endless future; from the standpoint of old age, to go back but a little way into the past; so that, at the beginning, life presents us with a picture in which the objects appear a great way off, as though we had reversed our telescope; while in the end everything seems so close.Arthur Schopenhauer

It is true, these refined principles cannot be always made palpable, like the more gross rules of art; yet it does not follow, but that the mind may be put in such a train, that it shall perceive, by a kind of scientific sense, that propriety, which words, particularly words of unpractised writers, such as we are, can but very feebly suggest.Joshua Reynolds

Everything that helps us, invigorates us, comforts us, sustains us, gives us life, is right for us; of that we need never be in any doubt, provided always that our delight is not won at the expense of others; and we must allow and encourage exactly the same liberty in others to choose their own rest, their own pleasure, their own refreshment.Arthur Christopher Benson

And the only way to face that is to keep our minds open to any light, to nurture and encourage the wish to be different, to pray hour by hour that at any cost we may be taught the truth; it is useless to search for happy illusions, to look for short cuts, to hope vaguely that strength and virtue will burst out like a fountain beside our path.Arthur Christopher Benson

There are songs for the morning and songs for the night, For sunrise and sunset, the stars and the moon; But who will give praise to the fulness of light, And sing us a song of the glory of noon? Oh, the high noon, the clear noon, The noon with golden crest; When the blue sky burns, and the great sun turns With his face to the way of the west!Henry van Dyke

As to that love of our enemies which is commanded; this supposes the general obligation to benevolence or good will towards mankind: and this being supposed, that precept is no more than to forgive injuries ; that is, to keep clear of those abuses before mentioned; because, that we have the habitual temper of benevolence, is taken for granted.Joseph Butler

The dank mists of doubtful thought may close around his way, and hide from him the Light of the world! cold winds from the desert of foiled endeavour may sorely buffet and for a time baffle his hope; but every now and then the blue pledge of a great sky will break through the clouds over his head; and a faint aurora will walk his darkest East.George MacDonald

All the authors of revolutions in opinion are not only necessarily poets as they are inventors, nor even as their words unveil the permanent analogy of things by images which participate in the life of truth; but as their periods are harmonious and rhythmical, and contain in themselves the elements of verse; being the echo of the eternal music.Percy Bysshe Shelley

What were virtue, love, patriotism, friendship—what were the scenery of this beautiful universe which we inhabit; what were our consolations on this side of the grave—and what were our aspirations beyond it, if poetry did not ascend to bring light and fire from those eternal regions where the owl-winged faculty of calculation dare not ever soar?Percy Bysshe Shelley

Still this is easy; the difficult point is to give thanks to him for the bitter things, for the disguised blessings, for the love tokens which come to us from him in black envelopes, for those benefits which travel to us via crucis, by the way of the cross, which are generally the most heavily laden wagons that ever come from our Father’s country.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Gratitude and prayer are essential and must accompany each other, according to the requirements of the daily sacrifice of the Old Testament: the offering of praise, or thank-offering, thanks to God for blessings received; and the sacrifice of prayer, or the Lord's Prayer—the petition against the wickedness and evil from which we would be released.Martin Luther

The essence of it is to train emotion, to believe and to practise the belief that all human beings have in them something interesting, lovable, beautiful, pathetic; and to make the recognition of that fact, the establishment of simple and kind relations with every single person with whom one is brought into contact, the one engrossing aim of life.Arthur Christopher Benson

Yet in that last case the fear suddenly slipped away, without the smallest effort on my part; and in all four cases some strange gusto of experience, some sense of heightened life and adventure, rose in the mind like a fountain—so that even in the crevasse I said to myself, not excitedly but serenely, "So this is what it feels like to await death!"Arthur Christopher Benson

Then I tried for a month or two, and so in time made some progress in forbearance by earnest resolve, and by keeping myself courteous and without anger and using fair language, purifying myself from evil words and absurd actions, and from passion which for a little unlovely pleasure pays us with great mental disturbance and the bitterest repentance.Plutarch

A position so wild would scarce deserve a serious answer; for it is apparent, if we were forbid to make use of the advantages which our predecessors afford us, the art would be always to begin, and consequently remain always in its infant state; and it is a common observation, that no art was ever invented and carried to perfection at the same time.Joshua Reynolds

The Suspicious Husband by Hoadley, the Jealous Wife by Colman, and the Clandestine Marriage by Colman and Garrick, are excellent plays of the middle style of comedy; which are formed rather by judgment and selection, than by any original vein of genius; and have all the parts of a good comedy in degree, without having any one prominent, or to excess.William Hazlitt

Above all, we ought to believe that we can do something to change ourselves, if we only try; that we can anchor our conscience to a responsibility or a personality, can perceive that the society of certain people, the reading of certain books, does affect us, make our mind grow and germinate, give us a sense of something fine and significant in life.Arthur Christopher Benson

The same truth may be more broadly expressed by saying that the first forty years of life furnish the text, while the remaining thirty supply the commentary; and that without the commentary we are unable to understand aright the true sense and coherence of the text, together with the moral it contains and all the subtle application of which it admits.Arthur Schopenhauer

At this time, when we have completed the round of the mysteries of our faith, and are about to recommence it in the season of Advent, it must naturally occur to us to look back and thank God, not only for all his temporal benefits, but also and especially for the spiritual blessings which he has given us, and which we have just finished commemorating.Paulist Fathers

That seems to me a very heroic attitude; while the letter itself, in its perfect frankness and courage, without a touch of solemnity or affectation, or any trace of craven shrinking from his doom, makes it in its noble simplicity one of the finest "last words" that I have ever read, and finer, I verily believe, than any flight of poetical imagination.Arthur Christopher Benson

His incidents succeed one another with rapidity, but without premeditation; his wit is easy and spontaneous; his style animated, unembarrassed, and flowing; his characters full of life and spirit, and never overstrained so as to ‘o’erstep the modesty of nature,’ though they sometimes, from haste and carelessness, seem left in a crude, unfinished state.William Hazlitt

Just as a man gets greater pleasure from Ambivius Turpio if seated in the front row at the theatre than if he was in the last, yet, after all, the man in the last row does get pleasure; so youth, because it looks at pleasures at closer quarters, perhaps enjoys itself more, yet even old age, looking at them from a distance, does enjoy itself well enough.Marcus Tullius Cicero

Constructiveness is the instinct most active; and by the incessant hammering and sawing, and dressing and undressing dolls, putting of things together and taking them apart, the child not only trains the muscles to co-ordinate action, but accumulates a store of physical conceptions which are the basis of his knowledge of the material world through life.William James

There is this difference between a story and a poem, that a story is a catalogue of detached facts, which have no other connexion than time, place, circumstance, cause and effect; the other is the creation of actions according to the unchangeable forms of human nature, as existing in the mind of the Creator, which is itself the image of all other minds.Percy Bysshe Shelley

No one wants to hear a lecture on a subject completely disconnected with his previous knowledge, but we all like lectures on subjects of which we know a little already, just as, in the fashions, every year must bring its slight modification of last year's suit, but an abrupt jump from the fashion of one decade into another would be distasteful to the eye.William James

We ought to allow for, and we ought to commend, that strength of vivid expression which is necessary to convey, in its full force, the highest sense of the most complete effect of art; taking care, at the same time, not to lose in terms of vague admiration that solidity and truth of principle upon which alone we can reason, and may be enabled to practise.Joshua Reynolds

If we think we must not laugh, this perverse impediment makes our temptation to laugh the greater; for by endeavouring to keep the obnoxious image out of sight, it comes upon us more irresistibly and repeatedly; and the inclination to indulge our mirth, the longer it is held back, collects its force, and breaks out the more violently in peals of laughter.William Hazlitt

Of the four writers here classed together, we should perhaps have courted Congreve’s acquaintance most, for his wit and the elegance of his manners; Wycherley’s, for his sense and observation on human nature; Vanbrugh’s, for his power of farcical description and telling a story; Farquhar’s, for the pleasure of his society, and the love of good fellowship.William Hazlitt

Through the mass and through it, that it may cohere, this way and that, guided in dance inexplicable of prophetic harmony, move the children of God, the lights of the world, the lovers of men, the fellow-workers with God, the peace-makers—ever weaving, after a pattern devised by, and known only to him who orders their ways, the web of the world's history.George MacDonald

What a gap between Queen Victoria and Queen Bess, what a thorough and far-reaching change in everything that goes to make up the life and habits of men; and yet Shakespeare’s fine strokes of humor have become so fitted to our common speech that the very unconsciousness with which we apply them proves how they tally with our modern emotions and opportunities.Agnes Repplier

The style of Roderick Random is more easy and flowing than that of Tom Jones; the incidents follow one another more rapidly (though, it must be confessed, they never come in such a throng, or are brought out with the same dramatic effect); the humour is broader, and as effectual; and there is very nearly, if not quite, an equal interest excited by the story.William Hazlitt

Thus beauty, instead of being for us but as the melody swiftly played when our hearts are high, a mere momentary ray, a happy accident that befalls us, may become to us a deep and vital spring of love and hope, of which we may say that it is there waiting for us, like the home that awaits the traveller over the weary upland at the foot of the far-looming hill.Arthur Christopher Benson

Even though a list of all the peculiarities that have ever been found ridiculous were drawn up, comedy would manage to add to them, not indeed by creating artificial ones, but by discovering lines of comic development that had hitherto gone unnoticed; thus does imagination isolate ever fresh figures in the intricate design of one and the same piece of tapestry.Henri Bergson

But he who is not blinded by hate, but a discerning spectator of life and character and words and deeds, will perceive that most of what he envies comes to those who have them from diligence and prudence and good actions, and exerting himself in the same direction he will increase his love of what is honourable and noble, and will eradicate his vanity and sloth.Plutarch

It is impossible too strongly to insist upon what ought to be the patent fact that it is not only in the interest of the people of wealth themselves, but in our interest, in the interest of the public as a whole, that they should be treated fairly and justly; that if they show exceptional business ability they should be given exceptional reward for that ability.Theodore Roosevelt

But since, as Plato says, "the lover is blind as respects the loved one," and we notice more what our enemies do amiss, we ought not to let either our joy at their faults or our grief at their success be idle, but in either case we ought to reflect, how we may become better than them by avoiding their errors, and by imitating their virtues not come short of them.Plutarch

When we are studying an uninteresting subject, if our mind tends to wander, we have to bring back our attention every now and then by using distinct pulses of effort, which revivify the topic for a moment, the mind then running on for a certain number of seconds or minutes with spontaneous interest, until again some intercurrent idea captures it and takes it off.William James

But it is obvious that in the usual schoolroom no such differentiation of appeal is possible; and the only really useful practical lesson that emerges from this analytic psychology in the conduct of large schools is the lesson already reached in a purely empirical way, that the teacher ought always to impress the class through as many sensible channels as he can.William James

Upon it, however, I do not care to spend thought or time, least of all argument; what I care to press is the question—If we believe in the progress of creation as hitherto manifested, also in the marvellous changes of form that take place in every individual of certain classes, why should there be any difficulty in hoping that old lives may reappear in new forms?George MacDonald

All the poets that ever sang in the pleasant springtime can hardly have felt the joyful onrush of the season more sweetly than I felt it that day; and yet no philosopher or priest could have given me a hint of what the mystery was, why so ceaselessly renewed; but it was clear to me at least that the mind behind it was joyful enough, and wished me to share its joy.Arthur Christopher Benson

From the point of view we have been taking up until now, life may be compared to a piece of embroidery, of which, during the first half of his time, a man gets a sight of the right side, and during the second half, of the wrong. The wrong side is not so pretty as the right, but it is more instructive; it shows the way in which the threads have been worked together.Arthur Schopenhauer

Ah, who can tell How far away, Some sentinel Of God's good will, In forest cool, Or desert gray, By lonely pool, Or barren hill, Shall faintly hear, With inward ear, The chiming bell, Of his old school, Through darkness pealing; And lowly kneeling, Shall feel the spell Of grateful tears His eyelids fill; And softly pray To Him who hears: God bless old Lawrenceville!Henry van Dyke

The giving up - the total uprooting - of vanity and pride is a great task; but it is a blessed task, and it can be accomplished by constant practice in non-resentment and by meditating upon one’s thoughts and actions so as to understand and purify them; and the spirit of forgiveness is perfected in one in the measure that pride and vanity are overcome and abandoned.James Allen

For all the inventive arts maintain, as it were, a sympathetic connexion between each other, being no more than various expressions of one internal power, modified by different circumstances, either of an individual, or of society; and the paintings of that period would probably bear the same relation as is confessedly borne by the sculptures to all succeeding ones.Percy Bysshe Shelley

It is the duty of every honest patriot to rebuke in emphatic fashion alike the politician who does not understand that the only kind of “practical politics” which a nation can with safety tolerate is that kind which we know as clean politics, and that we are as severe in our condemnation of the business trickery which succeeds as of the business trickery which fails.Theodore Roosevelt

The peace-makers quiet the winds of the world ever ready to be up and blowing; they tend and cherish the interlacing roots of the ministering grass; they spin and twist many uniting cords, and they weave many supporting bands; they are the servants, for the truth's sake, of the individual, of the family, of the world, of the great universal family of heaven and earth.George MacDonald

Those that are on their way to see God, those who are growing pure in heart through hunger and thirst after righteousness, are indeed the children of God; but specially the Lord calls those his children who, on their way home, are peace-makers in the travelling company; for, surely, those in any family are specially the children, who make peace with and among the rest.George MacDonald

In the past the most direful among the influences which have brought about the downfall of republics has ever been the growth of the class spirit, the growth of the spirit which tends to make a man subordinate the welfare of the public as a whole to the welfare of the particular class to which he belongs, the substitution of loyalty to a class for loyalty to the Nation.Theodore Roosevelt

Feed the growing human being, feed him with the sort of experience for which from year to year he shows a natural craving, and he will develop in adult life a sounder sort of mental tissue, even though he may seem to be 'wasting' a great deal of his growing time, in the eyes of those for whom the only channels of learning are books and verbally communicated information.William James

It is the far-seeing imagination which beholds what might be a form of things, and says to the intellect: “Try whether that may not be the form of these things;” which beholds or invents a harmonious relation of parts and operations, and sends the intellect to find out whether that be not the harmonious relation of them—that is, the law of the phenomenon it contemplates.George MacDonald

Yet life has its shadow, as well as its sun; Earth has its storehouse of joy and of sorrow. But the first is so wide-and my task's but begun That the last must be left for a far distant morrow. I will count up the blessings God gave in a row, But dear me! when I get through them, I know I shall have little time left for the rest, For life is a swift-flowing river at best.Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Let us begin our Christian career with the full assurance that we shall have a great deal to forgive in other people, but that there will be a great deal more to be forgiven in ourselves, and let us set our account upon having to exercise gentleness, and needing its exercise from others, "Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Note again.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

But suppose the person injured to have a due natural sense of the injury, and no more; he ought to be affected towards the injurious person in the same way any good men, uninterested in the case, would be; if they had the same just sense, which we have supposed the injured person to have, of the fault: after which there will yet remain real good will towards the offender.Joseph Butler

There is in many people who work hard with their brains a curious and unreal mood of sadness which hangs about the waking hour, which I have thought to be a sort of hunger of the mind, craving to be fed; and this is accompanied, at least in me, by a very swift, clear, and hopeful apprehension, so that a beautiful thought comes to me as a draught of water to a thirsty man.Arthur Christopher Benson

The patriot who fights an always-losing battle—the martyr who goes to death amidst the triumphant shouts of his enemies—the discoverer, like Columbus, whose heart remains undaunted through the bitter years of his "long wandering woe"—are examples of the moral sublime which excite a profounder interest in the hearts of men than even the most complete and conspicuous success.Samuel Smiles

And the mind of the teacher must mediate between the work of art and the mind of the pupil, bringing them together in the vital contact of intelligence; directing the observation to the lines of expression, the points of force; and helping the mind to repose upon the whole, so that no separable beauties shall lead to a neglect of the scope—that is the shape or form complete.George MacDonald

The drama, so long as it continues to express poetry, is as a prismatic and many-sided mirror, which collects the brightest rays of human nature and divides and reproduces them from the simplicity of these elementary forms, and touches them with majesty and beauty, and multiplies all that it reflects, and endows it with the power of propagating its like wherever it may fall.Percy Bysshe Shelley

The natural world has its laws, and no man must interfere with them in the way of presentment any more than in the way of use; but they themselves may suggest laws of other kinds, and man may, if he pleases, invent a little world of his own, with its own laws; for there is that in him which delights in calling up new forms—which is the nearest, perhaps, he can come to creation.George MacDonald

No, I desired no renewal of old things, only the power of interpreting the things that were new, and through which even now one was passing swiftly and carelessly, as the boy ran among the fruit-trees of the garden; but it was not the golden fragrant husk of happiness that one wanted, but the seed hidden within it—experience was made sweet just that one might be tempted to live!Arthur Christopher Benson

For the comforting warmth of the sun that my body embraces, For the cool of the waters that run through the shadowy places, For the balm of the breezes that brush my face with their fingers, For the vesper-hymn of the thrush when the twilight lingers, For the long breath, the deep breath, the breath of a heart without care,— I will give thanks and adore thee, God of the open air!Henry van Dyke

Look closely: you will find that the art of the comic poet consists in making us so well acquainted with the particular vice, in introducing us, the spectators, to such a degree of intimacy with it, that in the end we get hold of some of the strings of the marionette with which he is playing, and actually work them ourselves; this it is that explains part of the pleasure we feel.Henri Bergson

If you were always grateful to God, you would thank him that people are as good as they are; if you would be thankful when you meet even with bad people, thankful that they are not worse than they are, and try to get hold of the best points in them, and not their worst points, you would be much more likely to gain your purpose, if your purpose be to glorify God by doing them good.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The subject of this book has been the necessity for community organization, but the ability to meet this necessity implies that we know how to do that most difficult thing in the world—work with other people: that we are ready to sacrifice individual interests to the general good, that we have a fully developed sense of responsibility, that we are trained in initiative and action.Mary Parker Follett

Just so, in teaching, you must simply work your pupil into such a state of interest in what you are going to teach him that every other object of attention is banished from his mind; then reveal it to him so impressively that he will remember the occasion to his dying day; and finally fill him with devouring curiosity to know what the next steps in connection with the subject are.William James

For instance, take the Médecin malgré lui (the Mock Doctor), in which a common wood-cutter takes upon himself, and is made successfully to support through a whole play, the character of a learned physician, without exciting the least suspicion; and yet, notwithstanding the absurdity of the plot, it is one of the most laughable and truly comic productions that can well be imagined.William Hazlitt

Of course, in making out a theory, we must not neglect one set of facts and depend wholly on another set of facts; but I believe that the intense and pathetic desire of humanity to know why they are here, why they feel as they do, why they suffer and rejoice, what awaits them, are facts just as significant as the blood that drips from the wound, or the leaf that unfolds in the sun.Arthur Christopher Benson

The mere suddenness of the transition, the mere baulking our expectations, and turning them abruptly into another channel, seems to give additional liveliness and gaiety to the animal spirits; but the instant the change is not only sudden, but threatens serious consequences, or calls up the shape of danger, terror supersedes our disposition to mirth, and laughter gives place to tears.William Hazlitt

Of course the more eagerly and enjoyably we live, so much the more we are affected by little incidents, beyond which we can hardly look when they bring us so much pleasure or so much discomfort; and thus it is always the men and women of keen and highly-strung natures, who taste the quality of every moment, in its sweetness and its bitterness, who will most feel the influence of fear.Arthur Christopher Benson

Our whole life long it is the present, and the present alone, that we actually possess: the only difference is that at the beginning of life we look forward to a long future, and that towards the end we look back upon a long past; also that our temperament, but not our character, undergoes certain well-known changes, which make the present wear a different color at each period of life.Arthur Schopenhauer

It is based in reality upon the noble element in humanity, the power of love and trust and unselfishness which rises superior to the ills of life; and the force of Christianity lies in the fact that it reveals to men the greatness of which they are capable, and the fact that no squalor or wretchedness of circumstances can bind the thought of man, if it is set upon what is high and pure.Arthur Christopher Benson

And this is, I believe, one of the uses of prayer, that we put a thought into the mind, which can abide with us, secretly it may be, all the day; and that thus it is not a mere pious habit or tradition to have a quiet period at the beginning of the day, in which we can nurture some joyful and generous hope, but as real a source of strength to the spirit as the morning meal is to the body.Arthur Christopher Benson

But there is no danger of the mind being overburthened with knowledge, or the genius extinguished by any addition of images; on the contrary, these acquisitions may as well, perhaps better, be compared, if comparisons signified anything in reasoning, to the supply of living embers, which will contribute to strengthen the spark, that without the association of more fuel would have died away.Joshua Reynolds

On the other hand, good will come, even out of the present evils, if we face them armed with the old homely virtues; if we show that we are fearless of soul, cool of head, and kindly of heart; if, without betraying the weakness that cringes before wrong-doing, we yet show by deeds and words our knowledge that in such a government as ours each of us must be in very truth his brother’s keeper.Theodore Roosevelt

When genius is able to lift the veil and show us a child, it does a service which, in our present state of thought, we are hardly able to appraise; and when genius or simplicity, or both, shall have given us enough such studies to generalise upon, we shall doubtless reconsider the whole subject, and shall be dismayed at the slights we have been putting upon children in the name of education.Charlotte M. Mason

The passive endurance of the man or woman who, for conscience sake, is found ready to suffer and to endure in solitude, without so much as the encouragement of even a single sympathising voice, is an exhibition of courage of a far higher kind than that displayed in the roar of battle, where even the weakest feels encouraged and inspired by the enthusiasm of sympathy and the power of numbers.Samuel Smiles

We begin to see the lines we must go upon in teaching geography: for educative purposes, the child must learn such geography, and in such a way, that his mind shall thereby be stored with ideas, his imagination with images; for practical purposes he must learn such geography only as, the nature of his mind considered, he will able to remember; in other words, he must learn what interests him.Charlotte M. Mason

Poets are not only subject to these experiences as spirits of the most refined organization, but they can colour all that they combine with the evanescent hues of this ethereal world; a word, a trait in the representation of a scene or a passion, will touch the enchanted chord, and reanimate, in those who have ever experienced these emotions, the sleeping, the cold, the buried image of the past.Percy Bysshe Shelley

If deceiving the eye were the only business of the art, there is no doubt, indeed, but the minute painter would be more apt to succeed; but it is not the eye, it is the mind which the painter of genius desires to address; nor will he waste a moment upon those smaller objects which only serve to catch the sense, to divide the attention, and to counteract his great design of speaking to the heart.Joshua Reynolds

I conceive, therefore, that the golden period of our comedy was just after the age of Charles ii. when the town first became tainted with the affectation of the manners and conversation of fashionable life, and before the distinction between rusticity and elegance, art and nature, was lost (as it afterwards was) in a general diffusion of knowledge, and the reciprocal advantages of civil intercourse.William Hazlitt

But where women are on the road to an equal footing with men, in attainments and in liberty—in what they have won for themselves, and what has been granted them by a fair civilization—there, and only waiting to be transplanted from life to the stage, or the novel, or the poem, pure Comedy flourishes, and is, as it would help them to be, the sweetest of diversions, the wisest of delightful companions.George Meredith

We know the degree of refinement in men by the matter they will laugh at, and the ring of the laugh; but we know likewise that the larger natures are distinguished by the great breadth of their power of laughter, and no one really loving Molière is refined by that love to despise or be dense to Aristophanes, though it may be that the lover of Aristophanes will not have risen to the height of Molière.George Meredith

Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar; it reproduces all that it represents, and the impersonations clothed in its Elysian light stand thenceforward in the minds of those who have once contemplated them as memorials of that gentle and exalted content which extends itself over all thoughts and actions with which it coexists.Percy Bysshe Shelley

There are those who receive help from friends in unnumbered ways, through years, help that brings to them great aid in life—promotion, advancement, improvement in character, widening of privileges and opportunities, tender kindness that warms, blesses, and inspires the heart, and enriches, refines, and ennobles the life—who yet seem never to recognize or appreciate the benefit and the good they receive.J. R. Miller

To conclude what I have to say on this part of the subject, which I think of great importance, I wish you to understand that I do not discourage the younger Students from the noble attempt of uniting all the excellencies of art; but suggest to them, that, beside the difficulties which attend every arduous attempt, there is a peculiar difficulty in the choice of the excellencies which ought to be united.Joshua Reynolds

We are helped beyond measure by those who can tell us and convince us, as poets can, that there is something beautiful in sorrow and loss and severed ties; by those who show us the splendour of courage and patience and endurance; but the true faith is to believe that the end is joy; and we therefore owe perhaps the largest debt of all to those who encourage us to enjoy, to laugh, to smile, to be amused.Arthur Christopher Benson

Mothers seldom talk down to their children; they are too intimate with the little people, and have, therefore, too much respect for them: but professional teachers, whether the writers of books or the givers of lessons, are too apt to present a single grain of pure knowledge in a whole gallon of talk, imposing upon the child the labour of discerning the grain and of extracting it from the worthless flood.Charlotte M. Mason

They, who have never observed the gradation by which art is acquired; who see only what is the full result of long labour and application of an infinite number and infinite variety of acts, are apt to conclude, from their entire inability to do the same at once, that it is not only inaccessible to themselves, but can be done by those only who have some gift of the nature of inspiration bestowed upon them.Joshua Reynolds

We may wish—and we may try to persuade them—that their hopes and aims were wider, more bountiful, and more inclusive, but if we seek to exclude those hopes and aims, however inconsistent they may be with our own, that moment the shadow involves our own hopes, because our desire must be that the world may somehow become happier, fuller, more joyful, even if it is not on the lines which we ourselves approve.Arthur Christopher Benson

The knight’s great aims and constant mishaps, his chivalrous valiancy exercised on absurd objects, his good sense along the highroad of the craziest of expeditions; the compassion he plucks out of derision, and the admirable figure he preserves while stalking through the frantically grotesque and burlesque assailing him, are in the loftiest moods of humour, fusing the Tragic sentiment with the Comic narrative.George Meredith

It is clear from the accounts of primitive Christians that they impressed their heathen neighbours not as timid, anxious, and despondent people, but as men and women with some secret overflowing sense of joy and energy, and with a curious radiance and brightness about them which was not an affected pose, but the redundant happiness of those who have some glad knowledge in heart and mind which they cannot repress.Arthur Christopher Benson

Love grows as gratitude is felt, and then breaks out into praise and thanksgiving to God: “I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplication.” Answered prayers cause gratitude, and gratitude brings forth a love that declares it will not cease praying: “Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.” Gratitude and love move to larger and increased praying.E. M. Bounds

It is no limitation upon property rights or freedom of contract to require that when men receive from Government the privilege of doing business under corporate form, which frees them from individual responsibility, and enables them to call into their enterprise the capital of the public, they shall do so upon absolutely truthful representations as to the value of the property in which the capital is to be invested.Theodore Roosevelt

A man cannot say, 'I will compose poetry.' The greatest poet even cannot say it; for the mind in creation is as a fading coal, which some invisible influence, like an inconstant wind, awakens to transitory brightness; this power arises from within, like the colour of a flower which fades and changes as it is developed, and the conscious portions of our natures are unprophetic either of its approach or its departure.Percy Bysshe Shelley

A faithful picture of a mind, though it be not of the most elevated kind, though it be irregular, wild, and incorrect, yet if it be marked with that spirit and firmness which characterise works of genius, will claim attention, and be more striking than a combination of excellencies that do not seem to unite well together; or we may say, than a work that possesses even all excellencies, but those in a moderate degree.Joshua Reynolds

In very truth, a wise imagination, which is the presence of the spirit of God, is the best guide that man or woman can have; for it is not the things we see the most clearly that influence us the most powerfully; undefined, yet vivid visions of something beyond, something which eye has not seen nor ear heard, have far more influence than any logical sequences whereby the same things may be demonstrated to the intellect.George MacDonald

My brothers, whilst we thank God for giving us this harvest of corn, let us still more thank Him for the harvest of spiritual blessing, for the precious grace and mercy which make glad the hearts of hardened sinners, for the anointing of the Holy Spirit which makes our faces shine with joy and gladness, for the Bread which came down from Heaven, and which strengthens our hearts to be Christ's faithful soldiers and servants.H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

In a word, I do not think the Lord would be content to call a man blessed on the mere ground of his going to be restored to a former bliss by no means perfect; I think he congratulated the mourners upon the grief they were enduring, because he saw the excellent glory of the comfort that was drawing nigh; because he knew the immeasurably greater joy to which the sorrow was at once clearing the way and conducting the mourner.George MacDonald

There may be something hidden beneath the seeming termination of mortal experience; indeed, I fully believe that there is; but even if it were not so, nothing could make love and joy unreal, or destroy the consciousness of what says within us, "This Is I." Our one hope then is not to be deceived or beguiled or bewildered by the complexity and intricacy of life; the path of each of us lies clear and direct through the tangle.Arthur Christopher Benson

Poetry thus makes immortal all that is best and most beautiful in the world; it arrests the vanishing apparitions which haunt the interlunations of life, and veiling them, or in language or in form, sends them forth among mankind, bearing sweet news of kindred joy to those with whom their sisters abide—abide, because there is no portal of expression from the caverns of the spirit which they inhabit into the universe of things.Percy Bysshe Shelley

We can say, "I will live resolutely to-day in joy and good-humour and energy and kindliness." Those powers and possibilities are all there; and even if we are overshadowed by disappointment and anxiety and pain, we can say to ourselves that we will behave as if it were not so; because there is undoubtedly a very real and noble pleasure in putting off shadows and troubles, and not letting them fall in showers on those about us.Arthur Christopher Benson

Thus, in cases of offence and enmity, the whole character and behaviour is considered with an eye to that particular part which has offended us, and the whole man appears monstrous, without any thing right or human in him: whereas the resentment should surely, at least, be confined to that particular part of the behaviour which gave offence, since the other parts of a man's life and character stand just the same as they did before.Joseph Butler

If a soul turns to the future for consolation in a sad or wearied or disappointed present, it is in religion that hope and strength are sometimes found; but if it is a retrospective nature—and the poetical nature is generally retrospective, because poetry is concerned with the beauty of actual experience and actual things, rather than with the possible and the unknown—then it finds its medicine for the dreariness of life in memory.Arthur Christopher Benson

Let everyone be content, then, with what God has given or ordained for him, and let him take pleasure in another's gifts, knowing that in eternal blessings he is equally rich, having the same God and Christ, the same grace and salvation; and that although his standing before God may differ from that of his fellows, he is nevertheless in no way inferior to them, nor is anyone for the same reason at all better than or superior to himself.Martin Luther

The only thing worth having is a wholesome sorrow for not having done better; but it is ignoble to remember, if our remembrance has anything hopeless about it; and we do best utterly to forget our failures and lapses, because of this we may be wholly sure, that joys are restored to us, that strength returns, and that peace beyond measure is waiting for us; and not only waiting for us, but as near us as a closed door in the room in which we sit.Arthur Christopher Benson

If it is so beautiful, so sweet, so peaceful to get rid of all feelings of bitterness and to utterly and wholly forgive, would it not be still more beautiful and sweet and peaceful never to grow bitter at all, never to know anger, never to resent as evil the action of another, but always to live in the experience of that pure, calm, blissful love which is known when an act of forgiveness is done, and all unruly passion towards another is put away?James Allen

When a man begins to look, as it were, through the eyes of others, and to measure them by their own standard and not by his, then he ceases from seeing of evil in others, for he knows that every man’s perception and standard of good and evil is different; that there is no vice so low but some men regard it as good; no virtue so high but some men regard it as evil; and what a man regards as good that to him is good; what he regards as evil that to him is evil.James Allen

We must possess the qualities which make us do our duty in our homes and among our neighbors, and in addition we must possess the qualities which are indispensable to the makeup of every great and masterful nation—the qualities of courage and hardihood, of individual initiative and yet of power to combine for a common end, and, above all, the resolute determination to permit no man and no set of men to sunder us one from the other by lines of caste or creed or section.Theodore Roosevelt

For he who praises another receives on that account greater praise himself, and is the more credited on another occasion when he finds fault, as not having any personal ill-feeling against the man, but only disapproving of his act; and what is most noble and advantageous, the man who is accustomed to praise his enemies, and not to be vexed or malignant at their prosperity, is as far as possible from envying the good fortune of his friends, and the success of his intimates.Plutarch

But to speak of higher gifts and benefits: What motives of joy and thankfulness ought we not to find in the knowledge of God, his truth, mercy, and goodness as made known to us in the Scripture and in his Divine Son, our Saviour and friend, the God-Man; in the gift of the faith, the spiritual riches of the church and the sacraments, his mercies to us personally—blessings on our labors, the removal of dangers from our paths, his gracious forgiveness of our sins, time and again.Paulist Fathers

It is not too much to say that the most characteristic work of the Republic is that done by the educators, by the teachers, for whatever our shortcomings as a Nation may be—and we have certain shortcomings—we have at least firmly grasped the fact that we cannot do our part in the difficult and all-important work of self-government, that we cannot rule and govern ourselves unless we approach the task with developed minds, and with what counts for more even—with trained characters.Theodore Roosevelt

Moreover, in addition to mere obedience to the law, each man, if he be really a good citizen, must show broad sympathy for his neighbor and genuine desire to look at any question arising between them from the standpoint of that neighbor no less than from his own; and to this end it is essential that capitalist and wage-worker should consult freely one with the other, should each strive to bring closer the day when both shall realize that they are properly partners and not enemies.Theodore Roosevelt

It is the man’s moral quality, his attitude toward the great questions which concern all humanity, his cleanliness of life, his power to do his duty toward himself and toward others, which really count; and if we substitute for the standard of personal judgment which treats each man according to his merits, another standard in accordance with which all men of one class are favored and all men of another class discriminated against, we shall do irreparable damage to the body politic.Theodore Roosevelt

Let us never forget our duty to help in uplifting the lowly, to shield from wrong the humble; and let us likewise act in a spirit of the broadest and frankest generosity toward all our brothers, all our fellow-countrymen; in a spirit proceeding not from weakness but from strength, a spirit which takes no more account of locality than it does of class or creed; a spirit which is resolutely bent on seeing that the Union which Washington founded and which Lincoln saved from destruction shall grow nobler and greater throughout the ages.Theodore Roosevelt

Whenever either corporation, labor union, or individual disregards the law or acts in a spirit of arbitrary and tyrannous interference with the rights of others, whether corporations or individuals, then, where the Federal Government has jurisdiction, it will see to it that the misconduct is stopped, paying not the slightest heed to the position or power of the corporation, the union, or the individual, but only to one vital fact—that is, the question whether or not the conduct of the individual or aggregate of individuals is in accordance with the law of the land.Theodore Roosevelt

Feelings are mentionable and manageable.

Fred Rogers

How shall we set about giving people without traditions of art eyes with which to see works of art?

William Morris

What is done in love is done well.

Vincent van Gogh

He who intends to be grateful, let him think how he shall repay a kindness while he is receiving it.

Seneca

Each is liable to panic, which is, exactly, the terror of ignorance surrendered to the imagination.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

When the common soldiers are too strong and their officers too weak, the result is insubordination.

Sun Tzu

The teacher must understand and feel her position of observer: the activity must lie in the phenomenon.

Maria Montessori

All the past attainments of man are ours; and more, his day-dreams have become our clear realities.

Helen Keller

I will not be concerned at men's not knowing me; I will be concerned at my own want of ability.

Confucius

Your actions will affect other people in one way or another, and you will be responsible for the result.

Booker T. Washington

There is surely no greater wisdom, than well to time the beginnings, and onsets, of things.

Francis Bacon

And as for men, towards them as naturally partakers of the same reason, my care is to carry myself sociably.

Marcus Aurelius

That thou hast given me life, I thank thee for what thou hast given.

Epictetus

Deep and simple are far, far more important than shallow and complicated and fancy.

Fred Rogers

All art starts from this simplicity; and the higher the art rises, the greater the simplicity.

William Morris

Life is most delightful when it is on the downward slope, but has not yet reached the abrupt decline.

Seneca

I count it another capital advantage of age, this, that a success more or less signifies nothing.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought.

Sun Tzu

By education must be understood the active help given to the normal expansion of the life of the child.

Maria Montessori

Mere tolerance has given place to a sentiment of brotherhood between sincere men of all denominations.

Helen Keller

A horse is called a ch'i, not because of its strength, but because of its other good qualities.

Confucius

The thing to do is to feel some responsibility in seeing that things are done right yourself.

Booker T. Washington

TRAVEL, in the younger sort, is a part of education, in the elder, a part of experience.

Francis Bacon

If it be right and honest to be spoken or done, undervalue not thyself so much, as to be discouraged from it.

Marcus Aurelius

Will you not then, as long as you have been permitted, after seeing the spectacle and the solemnity, when he leads you out, go with adoration of him and thanks for what you have heard and seen?

Epictetus

So I say, if you cannot learn to love real art, at least learn to hate sham art and reject it.

William Morris

The greatest flaw in life is that it is always imperfect, and that a certain part of it is postponed.

Seneca

Time, yes, that is the finder, the unweariable explorer, not subject to casualties, omniscient at last.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage and strictness.

Sun Tzu

The pedagogical method of observation has for its base the liberty of the child; and liberty is activity.

Maria Montessori

In the fervor of enthusiasm he predicted the wonderful movement which should result from his work.

Helen Keller

I will not be afflicted at men's not knowing me; I will be afflicted that I do not know men.

Confucius

Get hold of every book or paper that you can which has anything to do with your line of work.

Booker T. Washington

Patience and gravity of hearing, is an essential part of justice; and an overspeaking judge is no well-tuned cymbal.

Francis Bacon

This thou must ever be mindful of, as of this also, that a man's true happiness doth consist in very few things.

Marcus Aurelius

But the solemnity is ended; go away like a grateful and modest man; make room for others; others also must be born, as you were, and, being born, they must have a place, and houses, and necessary things.

Epictetus

That thing which I understand by real art is the expression by man of his pleasure in labour.

William Morris

Therefore, my dear Lucilius, begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.

Seneca

Each is strong, relying on his own, and each is betrayed when he seeks in himself the courage of others.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hence in the wise leader’s plans, considerations of advantage and of disadvantage will be blended together.

Sun Tzu

The lesson must be presented in such a way that the personality of the teacher shall disappear.

Maria Montessori

Some day the wonderful, the inexpressible, arrives and shines upon him, and he is there to welcome it.

Helen Keller

Specious words confound virtue. Want of forbearance in small matters confounds great plans.

Confucius

But sham, buffoonery, mere imitation, mere superficiality, never has brought success and never will bring it.

Booker T. Washington

Therefore, since custom is the principal magistrate of man's life, let men by all means endeavor, to obtain good customs.

Francis Bacon

By tranquillity I understand a decent orderly disposition and carriage, free from all confusion and tumultuousness.

Marcus Aurelius

From everything, which is or happens in the world, it is easy to praise Providence, if a man possesses these two qualities: the faculty of seeing what belongs and happens to all persons and things, and a grateful disposition.

Epictetus

To have a meaning and to make others feel and understand it, must ever be the aim and end of our Western art.

William Morris

What is there to prevent your returning your benefactor's kindness, even while he is in prosperity?

Seneca

He wishes to break every yoke all over the world which hinders his brother from acting after his thought.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hence the saying: The enlightened ruler lays his plans well ahead; the good general cultivates his resources.

Sun Tzu

A definite and undoubted part of the teacher's work is that of teaching an exact nomenclature.

Maria Montessori

My heart responds proudly to his exhortation to pay gladly life’s debt of pain, darkness and cold.

Helen Keller

A man can enlarge the principles which he follows; those principles do not enlarge the man.

Confucius

The success of the whole depends upon having every person connected with the institution do his or her whole duty.

Booker T. Washington

A MAN that is young in years, may be old in hours, if he have lost no time.

Francis Bacon

Reason, and rational power, are faculties which content themselves with themselves, and their own proper operations.

Marcus Aurelius

Because the gods have given the vine, or wheat, we sacrifice to them; but because they have produced in the human mind that fruit by which they designed to show us the truth which relates to happiness, shall we not thank God for this?

Epictetus

You must master it so far as to make it express a meaning, and to serve your aim at beauty.

William Morris

Moreover, no one is so old that it would be improper for him to hope for another day of existence.

Seneca

Each surmounts the fear as fast as he precisely understands the peril, and learns the means of resistance.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Manœuvering with an army is advantageous; with an undisciplined multitude, most dangerous.

Sun Tzu

Even an intelligent teacher, who understands the principle, finds much difficulty in putting it into practice.

Maria Montessori

The consequence of pessimism in the life of a nation is the same as in the life of the individual.

Helen Keller

To have faults and not to reform them,— this, indeed, should be pronounced having faults.

Confucius

I want you to be more conscientious in your thoughts and in your work, and with regard to your duty toward others.

Booker T. Washington

The wisest princes need not think it any diminution to their greatness, or derogation to their sufficiency, to rely upon counsel.

Francis Bacon

What then is it that may upon this present occasion according to best reason and discretion, either be said or done?

Marcus Aurelius

But indeed for the power of seeing and hearing, and indeed for life itself, and for the things which contribute to support it, for the fruits which are dry, and for wine and oil give thanks to God: but remember that he has given you something else better than all these, I mean the power of using them, proving them, and estimating the value of each.

Epictetus

Once more I say that the greatest foe to art is luxury, art cannot live in its atmosphere.

William Morris

Natural desires are limited; but those which spring from false opinion can have no stopping-point.

Seneca

Perseverance strips it of all peculiarity, and ranges it on the same ground as other business.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

When the officers are too strong and the common soldiers too weak, the result is collapse.

Sun Tzu

Another characteristic quality of the lesson in the "Children's Houses" is its simplicity.

Maria Montessori

My share in the work of the world may be limited; but the fact that it is work makes it precious.

Helen Keller

In a hamlet of ten families, there may be found one honourable and sincere as I am, but not so fond of learning.

Confucius

Each student ought to feel that he or she has a personal responsibility to do each task in the very best manner possible.

Booker T. Washington

And let a man beware, how he keepeth company with choleric and quarrelsome persons; for they will engage him into their own quarrels.

Francis Bacon

Charitable actions, and a holy disposition, is the only fruit of this earthly life.

Marcus Aurelius

The word Architecture has, I suppose, to most of you the meaning of the art of building nobly and ornamentally.

William Morris

No one, therefore, is worsted by benefits, because each man's gratitude is to be measured by his will.

Seneca

True courage is not ostentatious; men who wish to inspire terror seem thereby to confess themselves cowards.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is the business of a general to be quiet and thus ensure secrecy; upright and just, and thus maintain order.

Sun Tzu

The child's unconscious aim was his own self-development; not the external fact of a pail full of little stones.

Maria Montessori

When Haüy offered to teach the blind to read, he was met by pessimism that laughed at his folly.

Helen Keller

He who requires much from himself and little from others, will keep himself from being the object of resentment.

Confucius

In the first place you should be continually on the lookout for opportunities to improve yourselves in your present work.

Booker T. Washington

And certainly there is a great difference, between a cunning man, and a wise man; not only in point of honesty, but in point of ability.

Francis Bacon

Such as thy thoughts and ordinary cogitations are, such will thy mind be in time.

Marcus Aurelius

I do not want art for a few, any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few.

William Morris

Pray that you may return my kindnesses when I need their return, but do not pray that I may need them.

Seneca

The charm of the best courages is that they are inventions, inspirations, flashes of genius.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

If a general shows confidence in his men but always insists on his orders being obeyed, the gain will be mutual.

Sun Tzu

For all these reasons, the first form of educational intervention must tend to lead the child toward independence.

Maria Montessori

It listens to the strong man, Lincoln, who in times of doubt, trouble and need does not falter.

Helen Keller

The superior man is dignified, but does not wrangle. He is sociable, but not a partizan.

Confucius

So long as a man does his whole duty in what he is engaged in, he is not to be condemned for looking for something better to do.

Booker T. Washington

Divide with reason; between self-love and society; and be so true to thyself, as thou be not false to others; specially to thy king and country.

Francis Bacon

That which makes not man himself the worse, cannot make his life the worse, neither can it hurt him either inwardly or outwardly.

Marcus Aurelius

You cannot educate, you cannot civilise men, unless you can give them a share in art.

William Morris

Countless things that happen every hour call for advice; and such advice is to be sought in philosophy.

Seneca

There are degrees of courage, and each step upward makes us acquainted with a higher virtue.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The general who thoroughly understands the advantages that accompany variation of tactics knows how to handle his troops.

Sun Tzu

Indeed, nomenclature prepares for an exactness in the use of language which is not always met with in our schools.

Maria Montessori

I, too, can work, and because I love to labor with my head and my hands, I am an optimist in spite of all.

Helen Keller

At seventy, I could follow what my heart desired, without transgressing what was right.

Confucius

Then you can make yourself valuable and in demand just in proportion as you consider that the work you are performing is your own.

Booker T. Washington

Some men's behavior is like a verse, wherein every syllable is measured; how can a man comprehend great matters, that breaketh his mind too much, to small observations?

Francis Bacon

To comprehend all in a few words, our life is short; we must endeavour to gain the present time with best discretion and justice.

Marcus Aurelius

However, I cannot forget that, in my mind, it is not possible to dissociate art from morality, politics, and religion.

William Morris

At our birth nature made us teachable, and gave us reason, not perfect, but capable of being perfected.

Seneca

The head is a half, a fraction, until it is enlarged and inspired by the moral sentiment.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Therefore soldiers must be treated in the first instance with humanity, but kept under control by means of iron discipline.

Sun Tzu

And such is our duty toward the child: to give a ray of light and to go on our way.

Maria Montessori

So, too, our most potent men of letters have been optimists in their books and in their lives.

Helen Keller

The wise are free from perplexities; the virtuous from anxiety; and the bold from fear.

Confucius

The general problem we have to work out here, and work it out with fear and trembling, is:—Can we educate the individual conscience?

Booker T. Washington

Therefore always, when thou changest thine opinion or course, profess it plainly, and declare it, together with the reasons that move thee to change; and do not think to steal it.

Francis Bacon

Remember that all is but opinion, and all opinion depends of the mind.

Marcus Aurelius

Yet to my mind real art is cheap, even at the price that must be paid for it.

William Morris

True; but a benefit is in an evil plight if we cannot be grateful for it even when we are empty-handed.

Seneca

I do not wish to put myself or any man into a theatrical position, or urge him to ape the courage of his comrade.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hence the enlightened ruler is heedful, and the good general full of caution.

Sun Tzu

We do not stop to think that the child who does not do, does not know how to do.

Maria Montessori

If Browning were less difficult to read, he would surely be the dominant poet in this century.

Helen Keller

If a man in the morning hear the right way, he may die in the evening without regret.

Confucius

You must so shape your lives that the hundreds and thousands of those who are looking to you for guidance may profit by your example.

Booker T. Washington

For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best, from those that are learned.

Francis Bacon

In that which is so infinite, what difference can there be between that which liveth but three days, and that which liveth three ages?

Marcus Aurelius

The fertile man, he of resource, has not to worry himself about invention.

William Morris

A benefit gives perpetual joy to a grateful man, but pleases an ungrateful one only for a moment.

Seneca

The general must stimulate the mind of his soldiers to the perception that they are men, and the enemy is no more.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Simulated disorder postulates perfect discipline; simulated fear postulates courage; simulated weakness postulates strength.

Sun Tzu

Children, who are undertaking something for the first time are extremely slow.

Maria Montessori

Optimism is the harmony between man’s spirit and the spirit of God pronouncing His works good.

Helen Keller

He who acts with a constant view to his own advantage will be much murmured against.

Confucius

We help you that you may help somebody else, and if you do not do this, when you go out from here, then our work here has been in vain.

Booker T. Washington

That which is past is gone, and irrevocable; and wise men have enough to do, with things present and to come; therefore they do but trifle with themselves, that labor in past matters.

Francis Bacon

Let thy mind penetrate both into the effects, and into the causes.

Marcus Aurelius

Who can say how little we should know of many periods, but for their art?

William Morris

When you are travelling on a road, there must be an end; but when astray, your wanderings are limitless.

Seneca

Let us say then frankly that the education of the will is the object of our existence.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

If in training soldiers commands are habitually enforced, the army will be well-disciplined; if not, its discipline will be bad.

Sun Tzu

Now, child life is not an abstraction; it is the life of individual children.

Maria Montessori

Dickens, Lamb, Goldsmith, Irving, all the well-beloved and gentle humorists, were optimists.

Helen Keller

A transmitter and not a maker, believing in and loving the ancients, I venture to compare myself with our old P'ang.

Confucius

The happy people and the successful people are those who go out of their way to reach and influence for good as many persons as they can.

Booker T. Washington

This seemeth incredible, unto those that know not the principle, that the mind of man, is more cheered and refreshed by profiting in small things, than by standing at a stay, in great.

Francis Bacon

Worship the Gods, procure the welfare of men, this life is short.

Marcus Aurelius

We could have a few real works of art at the same price for which we now have hundreds of yards of makeshift machine-woven goods.

William Morris

Therefore it is also a crime to injure any man: for he is your fellow-citizen in a larger state.

Seneca

Time is, indeed, the theatre and seat of illusion: nothing is so ductile and elastic.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

No ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen; no general should fight a battle simply out of pique.

Sun Tzu

The greatest triumph of our educational method should always be this: to bring about the spontaneous progress of the child.

Maria Montessori

His joyous optimism is like water to feverish lips, and has for its highest expression the eight beatitudes.

Helen Keller

To be poor without murmuring is difficult. To be rich without being proud is easy.

Confucius

I want to emphasize the fact that we want you to grow in the direction of character—to grow stronger each day in the matter of character.

Booker T. Washington

And certainly, the more a man drinketh of the world, the more it intoxicateth; and age doth profit rather in the powers of understanding, than in the virtues of the will and affections.

Francis Bacon

For though we are all made one for another, yet have our minds and understandings each of them their own proper and limited jurisdiction.

Marcus Aurelius

History (so called) has remembered the kings and warriors, because they destroyed; Art has remembered the people, because they created.

William Morris

However, the truth will never be discovered if we rest contented with discoveries already made.

Seneca

These once seen, he is as cool as Archimedes, and cheerily proceeds a step farther.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand.

Sun Tzu

And, since the child draws what he wishes, he reveals to us which are the objects that most strongly attract his attention.

Maria Montessori

Only by contact with evil could I have learned to feel by contrast the beauty of truth and love and goodness.

Helen Keller

Let every man consider virtue as what devolves on himself. He may not yield the performance of it even to his teacher.

Confucius

By conversing with intelligent and experienced persons, and by your own experiments, you can get much valuable information about your work.

Booker T. Washington

MEN'S thoughts, are much according to their inclination; their discourse and speeches, according to their learning and infused opinions; but their deeds, are after as they have been accustomed.

Francis Bacon

As for that which is truly good, what can it stand in need of more than either justice or truth; or more than either kindness and modesty?

Marcus Aurelius

How shall people in general get leisure enough from toil, and truce enough with anxiety to give scope to their inborn longing for beauty?

William Morris

To have lived long enough depends neither upon our years nor upon our days, but upon our minds.

Seneca

For a fourth benefit, age sets its house in order, and finishes its works, which to every artist is a supreme pleasure.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

If there is disturbance in the camp, the general’s authority is weak.

Sun Tzu

The teacher should watch with the most solicitous care to see when and how the child arrives at this generalisation of ideas.

Maria Montessori

The press is the pulpit of the modern world, and on the preachers who fill it much depends.

Helen Keller

If a man take no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand.

Confucius

There is no person who makes himself of so little use in the world as the one who feels that he knows all there is to be known about his work.

Booker T. Washington

SOME, in their discourse, desire rather commendation of wit, in being able to hold all arguments, than of judgment, in discerning what is true; as if it were a praise, to know what might be said, and not, what should be thought.

Francis Bacon

Thou hast taken ship, thou hast sailed, thou art come to land, go out, if to another life, there also shalt thou find gods, who are everywhere.

Marcus Aurelius

Anyhow, however it be done, unless people care about carrying on their business without making the world hideous, how can they care about Art?

William Morris

For since reason alone brings man to perfection, reason alone, when perfected, makes man happy.

Seneca

It is he who has done the deed once who does not shrink from attempting it again.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Disciplined and calm, to await the appearance of disorder and hubbub amongst the enemy:—this is the art of retaining self-possession.

Sun Tzu

In regard to infant psychology, we are more richly endowed with prejudices than with actual knowledge bearing upon the subject.

Maria Montessori

He knew the people; he believed in them and rested his faith on the justice and wisdom of the great majority.

Helen Keller

Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.

Confucius

We want to see you grow in reputation for being honest, conscientious, intelligent, hard-working; no matter in what capacity you are employed.

Booker T. Washington

Again, it is one thing to understand persons, and another thing to understand matters; for many are perfect in men's humors, that are not greatly capable of the real part of business; which is the constitution of one that hath studied men, more than books.

Francis Bacon

First, do nothing at all, but what reason proceeding from that regal and supreme part, shall for the good and benefit of men, suggest unto thee.

Marcus Aurelius

Art was not born in the palace; rather she fell sick there, and it will take more bracing air than that of rich men’s houses to heal her again.

William Morris

We ought to free our minds of suspicion and mistrust, those most untrustworthy causes of anger.

Seneca

Self-sacrifice is the real miracle out of which all the reported miracles grew.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The consummate leader cultivates the moral law, and strictly adheres to method and discipline; thus it is in his power to control success.

Sun Tzu

The children select the colours and are left entirely free in their work.

Maria Montessori

To what is good I open the doors of my being, and jealously shut them against what is bad.

Helen Keller

They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it, and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in it.

Confucius

We want to feel that in every student who goes out from here there is a character which can be depended upon in the night as well as in the day.

Booker T. Washington

He that questioneth much, shall learn much, and content much; but especially, if he apply his questions to the skill of the persons whom he asketh; for he shall give them occasion, to please themselves in speaking, and himself shall continually gather knowledge.

Francis Bacon

As one who had lived, and were now to die by right, whatsoever is yet remaining, bestow that wholly as a gracious overplus upon a virtuous life.

Marcus Aurelius

I suppose you will think it too commonplace of me to say that the general education that makes men think, will one day make them think rightly upon art.

William Morris

Revenge takes up much time, and throws itself in the way of many injuries while it is smarting under one.

Seneca

Why do they rely on it, but because they know how potent it is with themselves?

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thus, what enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge.

Sun Tzu

If any educational act is to be efficacious, it will be only that which tends to help toward the complete unfolding of this life.

Maria Montessori

Then I learned how his quick imagination transfigured the hard, bare facts of life into new and living dreams.

Helen Keller

The superior man wishes to be slow in his speech and earnest in his conduct.

Confucius

Now if any of you have a temper that often gets to be your master, make up your mind that it is a part of your duty here to learn to control it.

Booker T. Washington

Surely every medicine is an innovation; and he that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator; and if time of course alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?

Francis Bacon

For justice cannot be preserved, if either we settle our minds and affections upon worldly things; or be apt to be deceived, or rash, and inconstant.

Marcus Aurelius

He need but think of beauty and simplicity of expression; his work will grow on and on, one thing leading to another, as it fares with a beautiful tree.

William Morris

But is there any better end to it all than to glide off to one's proper haven, when nature slips the cable?

Seneca

For it is always new, leads and surprises, and practice never comes up with it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.

Sun Tzu

For, if she provokes the child to make an unnatural effort, she will no longer know what is the spontaneous activity of the child.

Maria Montessori

Through the night of despair he says, “All is well,” and thousands rest in his confidence.

Helen Keller

The commander of the forces of a large state may be carried off, but the will of even a common man cannot be taken from him.

Confucius

You will constantly be surprised to find how little you really know about your work, and how much more somebody else knows about it than you do.

Booker T. Washington

It is a good precept generally, in seconding another, yet to add somewhat of one's own: as if you will grant his opinion, let it be with some distinction; if you will follow his motion, let it be with condition; if you allow his counsel, let it be with alleging further reason.

Francis Bacon

Conceit no such things, as he that wrongeth thee conceiveth, or would have thee to conceive, but look into the matter itself, and see what it is in very truth.

Marcus Aurelius

But moreover you may sometimes have an opportunity of studying ancient art in a narrower but a more intimate, a more kindly form, the monuments of our own land.

William Morris

For this reason, give over hoping that you can skim, by means of epitomes, the wisdom of distinguished men.

Seneca

Knowledge is the encourager, knowledge that takes fear out of the heart, knowledge and use, which is knowledge in practice.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thus it may be known that the leader of armies is the arbiter of the people’s fate, the man on whom it depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in peril.

Sun Tzu

The liberty of the child should have as its limit the collective interest; as its form, what we universally consider good breeding.

Maria Montessori

Night fled before the day of thought, and love and joy and hope came up in a passion of obedience to knowledge.

Helen Keller

In hearing litigations, I am like any other body. What is necessary, however, is to cause the people to have no litigations.

Confucius

The student who lays the bricks must learn to lay each brick as well as it is possible for him to lay it, and then do still better work on the morrow.

Booker T. Washington

Certainly it is good to compound employments of both; for that will be good for the present, because the virtues of either age, may correct the defects of both; and good for succession, that young men may be learners, while men in age are actors; and, lastly, good for extern accidents, because authority followeth old men, and favor and popularity, youth.

Francis Bacon

For all his life long, this is his only care, that his mind may always be occupied in such intentions and objects, as are proper to a rational sociable creature.

Marcus Aurelius

Pray do not forget, that any one who cuts down a tree wantonly or carelessly, especially in a great town or its suburbs, need make no pretence of caring about art.

William Morris

Yet I ought not to refuse to receive a new benefit, because I have not repaid the former one.

Seneca

There is a courage of a merchant in dealing with his trade, by which dangerous turns of affairs are met and prevailed over.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Now the general is the bulwark of the State: if the bulwark is complete at all points; the State will be strong; if the bulwark is defective, the State will be weak.

Sun Tzu

We must give such help as shall make it possible for children to achieve the satisfaction of their own individual aims and desires.

Maria Montessori

He sees success afar, and by strenuous hope, by hoping against hope, inspires a nation.

Helen Keller

He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.

Confucius

You should be constantly on the lookout for chances to make yourselves more valuable to your present employer, and more efficient in your work for him.

Booker T. Washington

And let his travel appear rather in his discourse, than his apparel or gesture; and in his discourse, let him be rather advised in his answers, than forward to tell stories; and let it appear that he doth not change his country manners, for those of foreign parts; but only prick in some flowers, of that he hath learned abroad, into the customs of his own country.

Francis Bacon

It is high time for thee, to understand that there is somewhat in thee, better and more divine than either thy passions, or thy sensual appetites and affections.

Marcus Aurelius

Yet such were even now the state of art were it not for that hope which I am here to set forth to you, the hope of an art that shall express the soul of the people.

William Morris

Let us not moderate anger, but get rid of it altogether: what can moderation have to do with an evil habit?

Seneca

He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The general who does not understand these, may be well acquainted with the configuration of the country, yet he will not be able to turn his knowledge to practical account.

Sun Tzu

In such cases, the children experience a joy at each fresh discovery.

Maria Montessori

It is because Christ is an optimist that for ages he has dominated the Western world.

Helen Keller

The superior man does not promote a man simply on account of his words, nor does he put aside good words because of the man.

Confucius

I want you to go forward by thoroughness in your work; by being more conscientious in your work; by loving your work more to-day than you did yesterday.

Booker T. Washington

As every fancy and imagination presents itself unto thee, consider (if it be possible) the true nature, and the proper qualities of it, and reason with thyself about it.

Marcus Aurelius

The artist came out from the handicraftsmen, and left them without hope of elevation, while he himself was left without the help of intelligent, industrious sympathy.

William Morris

Infinitely swift is the flight of time, as those see more clearly who are looking backwards.

Seneca

To the sailor’s experience every new circumstance suggests what he must do.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The general who advances without coveting fame and retreats without fearing disgrace, whose only thought is to protect his country and do good service for his sovereign, is the jewel of the kingdom.

Sun Tzu

To have learned something is for the child only a point of departure.

Maria Montessori

For nineteen centuries Christendom has gazed into his shining face and felt that all things work together for good.

Helen Keller

The superior man, in the world, does not set his mind either for anything, or against anything; what is right he will follow.

Confucius

You want to be very sure, too, that as you go out into the world, you go out not ashamed to work; not ashamed to put in practice what you have learned here.

Booker T. Washington

For it is the truth that I seek after, by which I am sure that never any man was hurt; and as sure, that he is hurt that continueth in any error, or ignorance whatsoever.

Marcus Aurelius

It seems to me that, by a great piece of good luck, the way to pay for them is by doing that which alone can produce popular art among us: living a simple life, I mean.

William Morris

I, at least, am doing this: in my old age I have ceased to desire what I desired when a boy.

Seneca

Nature is full of freaks, and now puts an old head on young shoulders, and then a young heart beating under fourscore winters.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Therefore the skilful leader subdues the enemy’s troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field.

Sun Tzu

And herein lies the art of the educator; in knowing how to measure the action by which we help the young child's personality to develop.

Maria Montessori

I recognize the beneficence of the power which we all worship as supreme—Order, Fate, the Great Spirit, Nature, God.

Helen Keller

Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practises it will have neighbors.

Confucius

It should not be our thought to see how little we can put into our work, but how much; not how quickly we can get rid of our tasks, but how well we can do them.

Booker T. Washington

Whatsoever thou dost affect, whatsoever thou dost project, so do, and so project all, as one who, for aught thou knowest, may at this very present depart out of this life.

Marcus Aurelius

I hold that men would wake up after a while, and look round and find the dulness unbearable, and begin once more inventing, imitating, and imagining, as in earlier days.

William Morris

I receive what was given me in the same spirit in which it was given: then I have repaid it.

Seneca

It is the groom who knows the jumping horse well who can safely ride him.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Amid the turmoil and tumult of battle, there may be seeming disorder and yet no real disorder at all; amid confusion and chaos, your array may be without head or tail, yet it will be proof against defeat.

Sun Tzu

Often (and this is another misconception) we think all we need to do, to obtain a voluntary action from a child, is to order him to do it.

Maria Montessori

We have found that our great philosophers and our great men of action are optimists.

Helen Keller

I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there.

Confucius

And you will disappoint us unless you are above the average man, unless you go out from here with the determination that you are going to perform more than your duty.

Booker T. Washington

For many things are done by way of discreet policy; and generally a man must know many things first, before he be able truly and judiciously to judge of another man's action.

Marcus Aurelius

But if to any of you I have seemed to speak hopelessly, my words have been lacking in art; and you must remember that hopelessness would have locked my mouth, not opened it.

William Morris

Would not every man wish to lay aside anger when he sees that it begins by injuring himself?

Seneca

Life and art are cumulative; and he who has accomplished something in any department alone deserves to be heard on that subject.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

When the general is weak and without authority; when his orders are not clear and distinct; when there are no fixed duties assigned to officers and men, and the ranks are formed in a slovenly haphazard manner, the result is utter disorganisation.

Sun Tzu

The more fully the teacher is acquainted with the methods of experimental psychology, the better will she understand how to give the lesson.

Maria Montessori

Every optimist moves along with progress and hastens it, while every pessimist would keep the world at a standstill.

Helen Keller

Is virtue a thing remote? I wish to be virtuous, and lo! virtue is at hand.

Confucius

The point is, that we want to be constantly on the lookout for ways of improving whatever work we are engaged in, whether that work be milking cows or doing something else.

Booker T. Washington

As virtue and wickedness consist not in passion, but in action; so neither doth the true good or evil of a reasonable charitable man consist in passion, but in operation and action.

Marcus Aurelius

Do not, at any rate, shelter yourselves from any misgiving you may have behind the fallacy that the art-lacking labour of to-day is happy work: for the most of men it is not so.

William Morris

He who has attained wisdom has reached, not the furthermost, but the most important, goal.

Seneca

Skill to do comes of doing; knowledge comes by eyes always open, and working hands; and there is no knowledge that is not power.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

By Method and discipline are to be understood the marshalling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the gradations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.

Sun Tzu

The directress must intervene to lead the child from sensations to ideas—from the concrete to the abstract, and to the association of ideas.

Maria Montessori

The man of letters whose voice is to prevail must be an optimist, and his voice often learns its message from his life.

Helen Keller

He acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his actions.

Confucius

Whenever you promise, moreover, to do a piece of work for a man, there is a contract binding you to do an honest day's labour—and the man to pay you for an honest day's labour.

Booker T. Washington

What then remaineth but to enjoy thy life in a course and coherence of good actions, one upon another immediately succeeding, and never interrupted, though for never so little a while?

Marcus Aurelius

Anyhow, let us make up our minds which we want, art, or the absence of art, and be prepared if we want art, to give up many things, and in many ways to change the conditions of life.

William Morris

The man who is not angry remains unshaken by injury: he who is angry has been moved by it.

Seneca

The hero could not have done the feat at another hour, in a lower mood.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The natural formation of the country is the soldier’s best ally; but a power of estimating the adversary, of controlling the forces of victory, and of shrewdly calculating difficulties, dangers and distances, constitutes the test of a great general.

Sun Tzu

The discipline to which the child habituates himself here is, in its character, not limited to the school environment but extends to society.

Maria Montessori

Despondency has no place in his creed, for he believes in the imperishable righteousness of God and the dignity of man.

Helen Keller

By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.

Confucius

But where I fear for your success is when you come to the performance of the small duties—the duties which you think no one else will know about, the things which no one will see you do.

Booker T. Washington

Remember, that to change thy mind upon occasion, and to follow him that is able to rectify thee, is equally ingenuous, as to find out at the first, what is right and just, without help.

Marcus Aurelius

As to the bricklayer, the mason, and the like—these would be artists, and doing not only necessary, but beautiful, and therefore happy work, if art were anything like what it should be.

William Morris

Besides, he who follows another not only discovers nothing but is not even investigating.

Seneca

The mind stretches an hour to a century, and dwarfs an age to an hour.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

This brief and simple lesson must be considered by the teacher as an explanation of the object and of the use which the child can make of it.

Maria Montessori

But I have found out that though the ways in which I can make myself useful are few, yet the work open to me is endless.

Helen Keller

See what a man does. Mark his motives. Examine in what things he rests.

Confucius

We can succeed only in proportion as the student who makes the mortar, who lays the bricks, puts his whole conscience into that work, and does it just as thoroughly as it is possible for him to do it.

Booker T. Washington

Thou must also take heed of another kind of wandering, for they are idle in their actions, who toil and labour in this life, and have no certain scope to which to direct all their motions, and desires.

Marcus Aurelius

Let us therefore study it wisely, be taught by it, kindled by it; all the while determining not to imitate or repeat it; to have either no art at all, or an art which we have made our own.

William Morris

So little does forgetfulness excuse ingratitude, that even the remembrance of a benefit may leave us ungrateful.

Seneca

To him a leak, a hurricane, or a water-spout is so much work—no more.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is remarkable how clearly individual differences show themselves, if we proceed in this way; the child, conscious and free, reveals himself.

Maria Montessori

The optimist cannot fall back, cannot falter; for he knows his neighbor will be hindered by his failure to keep in line.

Helen Keller

If the will be set on virtue, there will be no practice of wickedness.

Confucius

Make haste and get to the point where you can feel that everything connected with the shop in which you work, or in the office, or in the stable, is under your care, and that you alone are responsible for it.

Booker T. Washington

Certainly there is nothing better, than for a man to confine himself to necessary actions; to such and so many only, as reason in a creature that knows itself born for society, will command and enjoin.

Marcus Aurelius

What else can we do to help to educate ourselves and others in the path of art, to be on the road to attaining an Art made by the people and for the people as a joy to the maker and the user?

William Morris

Mankind is born for mutual assistance, anger for mutual ruin: the former loves society, the latter estrangement.

Seneca

A certain quantity of power belongs to a certain quantity of faculty.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the giving of such lessons the fundamental guide must be the method of observation, in which is included and understood the liberty of the child.

Maria Montessori

He will work as if upon him alone depended the establishment of heaven on earth.

Helen Keller

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

Confucius

You are to exercise this influence in the communities where you go; and if you fail to exercise it for the good of other individuals, you have failed to accomplish the purpose for which this institution exists.

Booker T. Washington

Consider how quickly all things are dissolved and resolved: the bodies and substances themselves, into the matter and substance of the world: and their memories into the general age and time of the world.

Marcus Aurelius

How shall we give them leisure from toil, and truce with anxiety, so that they may have time to brood over the longing for beauty which men are born with, as ’tis said, even in London streets?

William Morris

Let us cherish and love old age; for it is full of pleasure if one knows how to use it.

Seneca

Use makes a better soldier than the most urgent considerations of duty,—familiarity with danger enabling him to estimate the danger.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The fact that the child must remember the colour of the objects represented in the design encourages him to observe those things which are about him.

Maria Montessori

With the first word I used intelligently, I learned to live, to think, to hope.

Helen Keller

In ancient times, men learned with a view to their own improvement. Now-a-days, men learn with a view to the approbation of others.

Confucius

Wherever you go, then, make up your minds that you are going to make your influence felt in favour of better prepared teachers and preachers—in better preparation of all those who stand for leaders of the people.

Booker T. Washington

Or should it be so, that the light of a candle indeed is still bright and lightsome until it be put out: and should truth, and righteousness, and temperance cease to shine in thee whilest thou thyself hast any being?

Marcus Aurelius

The danger that the present course of civilisation will destroy the beauty of life—these are hard words, and I wish I could mend them, but I cannot, while I speak what I believe to be the truth.

William Morris

We shall never want a subject for complaint if we look at benefits on their wrong side.

Seneca

I am much mistaken if every man who went to the army in the late war had not a lively curiosity to know how he should behave in action.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

To one whose attitude is right, little children soon reveal profound individual differences which call for very different kinds of help from the teacher.

Maria Montessori

I have had a glimpse of the shore, and can now live by the hope of reaching it.

Helen Keller

The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

Confucius

If you fail to give a full honest day's work, if you know that you have done only three-quarters of a day's work, or four-fifths, it may seem to you at the time that it has paid, but in the long run you lose by it.

Booker T. Washington

As thou thyself, whoever thou art, were made for the perfection and consummation, being a member of it, of a common society; so must every action of thine tend to the perfection and consummation of a life that is truly sociable.

Marcus Aurelius

So I will content myself with saying this on these qualities, that though a designer may put all manner of strangeness and surprise into his patterns, he must not do so at the expense of beauty.

William Morris

There is no greater proof of magnanimity than that nothing which befalls you should be able to move you to anger.

Seneca

The singers, I observe, all yield to it, and so the fair singer indulges her instinct, and dares, and dares, because she knows she can.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Opportune and rational instruction prevents such an effort, and therefore does not weary, but relieves, the child and satisfies his desire for knowledge.

Maria Montessori

I rejoice to see in the world and in this country a new and better patriotism than that which seeks the life of an enemy.

Helen Keller

In archery it is not going through the leather which is the principal thing;— because people's strength is not equal. This was the old way.

Confucius

Then, and this is more important still, we want you to take this habit of growth—this disposition to grow in the right direction—out with you from the school, and scatter it as an influence for good wherever you go.

Booker T. Washington

Herein doth consist happiness of life, for a man to know thoroughly the true nature of everything; what is the matter, and what is the form of it: with all his heart and soul, ever to do that which is just, and to speak the truth.

Marcus Aurelius

As to the second, I do not think that any man but one of the highest genius, could do anything in these days without much study of ancient art, and even he would be much hindered if he lacked it.

William Morris

There are many ways in which anger may be checked; most things may be turned into jest.

Seneca

The instinct of classifying marks the wise and healthy mind.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Here lies the essential point; from her scientific preparation, the teacher must bring not only the capacity, but the desire, to observe natural phenomena.

Maria Montessori

But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation.

Helen Keller

In language it is simply required that it convey the meaning.

Confucius

You may go out and make great speeches, you may write books or addresses which are great literature, but unless you have character behind what you say and write, it will amount to nothing; it will all go to the winds.

Booker T. Washington

So will he be able to perceive the proper ripeness and beauty of old age, whether in man or woman: and whatsoever else it is that is beautiful and alluring in whatsoever is, with chaste and continent eyes he will soon find out and discern.

Marcus Aurelius

First clear steady principle, then playing with the danger, and lastly falling into the snare, mark with the utmost distinctness the times of the health, the decline, and the last sickness of art.

William Morris

Put aside the opinion of the world; it is always wavering and always takes both sides.

Seneca

He is serene who does not feel himself pinched and wronged, but whose condition, in particular and in general, allows the utterance of his mind.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

There exists only one real biological manifestation: the living individual; and toward single individuals, one by one observed, education must direct itself.

Maria Montessori

It is a mistake always to contemplate the good and ignore the evil, because by making people neglectful it lets in disaster.

Helen Keller

The reason why the ancients did not readily give utterance to their words, was that they feared lest their actions should not come up to them.

Confucius

We can fill your heads with knowledge, and we can train your hands to work with skill, but unless all this training of head and hand is based upon high, upright character, upon a true heart, it will amount to nothing.

Booker T. Washington

The next, that all these things, which now thou seest, shall within a very little while be changed, and be no more: and ever call to mind, how many changes and alterations in the world thou thyself hast already been an eyewitness of in thy time.

Marcus Aurelius

Sirs, I believe that art has such sympathy with cheerful freedom, open-heartedness and reality, so much she sickens under selfishness and luxury, that she will not live thus isolated and exclusive.

William Morris

If you will do so at some time, how better is it that you should abandon anger than that anger should abandon you?

Seneca

The terrific chances which make the hours and the minutes long to the passenger, he whiles away by incessant application of expedients and repairs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Any pedagogical action, if it is to be efficacious in the training of little children, must tend to help the children to advance upon this road of independence.

Maria Montessori

The restraining hand of tolerance is laid upon the inquisitor, and the humanist utters a message of peace to the persecuted.

Helen Keller

Can there be love which does not lead to strictness with its object? Can there be loyalty which does not lead to the instruction of its object?

Confucius

I want you, as you go out from this institution, whether you are graduates or not, whether you have been here one year or four years—to go out with the idea that you must set a high example for every one in your community.

Booker T. Washington

What is this, that now my fancy is set upon? of what things doth it consist? how long can it last? which of all the virtues is the proper virtue for this present use? as whether meekness, fortitude, truth, faith, sincerity, contentation, or any of the rest?

Marcus Aurelius

True it is that that meaning may have come down to us traditionally, and not be our own invention, yet we must at heart understand it, or we can neither receive it, nor hand it down to our successors.

William Morris

Lay hold of to-day's task, and you will not need to depend so much upon to-morrow's.

Seneca

Morphy played a daring game in chess: the daring was only an illusion of the spectator, for the player sees his move to be well fortified and safe.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

When a child has attained this stage, of repeating an exercise, he is on the way to self-development, and the external sign of this condition is his self-discipline.

Maria Montessori

Even on Christmas Day do men remember that Christ came as a prophet of good?

Helen Keller

The superior man is correctly firm, and not firm merely.

Confucius

In order to do this, though, in order best to fit one's self to live this kind of life, it is important that certain habits be acquired; and an essential one of these is the habit of realizing one's responsibility to others.

Booker T. Washington

Thus must thou according to truth and nature, throughly consider how man's life is but for a very moment of time, and so depart meek and contented: even as if a ripe olive falling should praise the ground that bare her, and give thanks to the tree that begat her.

Marcus Aurelius

For you know all art is compact of effort, of failure and of hope, and we cannot but think that somewhere perfection lies ahead, as we look anxiously for the better thing that is to come from the good.

William Morris

Hence, every day ought to be regulated as if it closed the series, as if it rounded out and completed our existence.

Seneca

Merchants recognize as much gallantry, well judged too, in the conduct of a wise and upright man of business, in difficult times, as soldiers in a soldier.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

So the teacher shall observe whether the child interests himself in the object, how he is interested in it, for how long, etc., even noticing the expression of his face.

Maria Montessori

Each halt in his progress has been but a pause before a mighty leap forward.

Helen Keller

When the multitude hate a man, it is necessary to examine into the case. When the multitude like a man, it is necessary to examine into the case.

Confucius

We must keep this fact before us, then; that institutions of this kind are of little value unless they can pave the way to make the results of their work felt among the masses of the people who are especially remote from these institutions.

Booker T. Washington

Consider the whole universe whereof thou art but a very little part, and the whole age of the world together, whereof but a short and very momentary portion is allotted unto thee, and all the fates and destinies together, of which how much is it that comes to thy part and share!

Marcus Aurelius

This was the growth of art: like all growth, it was good and fruitful for awhile; like all fruitful growth, it grew into decay; like all decay of what was once fruitful, it will grow into something new.

William Morris

That man is happiest, and is secure in his own possession of himself, who can await the morrow without apprehension.

Seneca

The sailor loses fear as fast as he acquires command of sails and spars and steam; the frontiersman, when he has a perfect rifle and has acquired a sure aim.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

And in preparing the lessons which she is to give, the teacher must pay special attention to this point, counting and weighing the value of the words which she is to speak.

Maria Montessori

I make a friend of this indefinable force, and straightway I feel glad, brave and ready for any lot Heaven may decree for me.

Helen Keller

It passes on just like this, not ceasing day or night!

Confucius

The end of all education, whether of head or hand or heart, is to make an individual good, to make him useful, to make him powerful; is to give him goodness, usefulness and power in order that he may exert a helpful influence upon his fellows.

Booker T. Washington

If therefore thou dost truly understand, what it is that is of moment indeed; as for thy fame and credit, take no thought or care for that: let it suffice thee if all the rest of thy life, be it more or less, thou shalt live as thy nature requireth, or according to the true and natural end of thy making.

Marcus Aurelius

At first sight its hope of victory is slender indeed: yet to us now living it seems as if man had not yet lost all that part of his soul which longs for beauty: nay we cannot but hope that it is not yet dying.

William Morris

There is, I say, a great difference between a lofty and a proud mind: anger brings about nothing grand or beautiful.

Seneca

For it is not the means on which we draw, as health or wealth, practical skill or dexterous talent, or multitudes of followers, that count, but the aims only.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is necessary, therefore, that the teaching shall be rigorously guided by the principle of limiting to the greatest possible point the active intervention of the educator.

Maria Montessori

The prophets of the world have been of good heart, or their standards would have stood naked in the field without a defender.

Helen Keller

When we see men of worth, we should think of equalling them; when we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

Confucius

But the world has little patience with the man or woman who takes no real interest in the performance of a duty, or who runs against a snag and gets discouraged, and then simply tells why he did not do a thing, and gives excuses instead of results.

Booker T. Washington

In the morning as soon as thou art awaked, when thy judgment, before either thy affections, or external objects have wrought upon it, is yet most free and impartial: put this question to thyself, whether if that which is right and just be done, the doing of it by thyself, or by others when thou art not able thyself; be a thing material or no.

Marcus Aurelius

The excellence of this sort of work lies in a clear but soft relief of the form, in colours each beautiful in itself, and harmonious one with the other on ground whose colour is also beautiful, though unobtrusive.

William Morris

When a man has said: "I have lived!", every morning he arises he receives a bonus.

Seneca

Our instincts drove us to hive innumerable experiences, that are yet of no visible value, and which we may keep for twice seven years before they shall be wanted.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

These clay models are undoubtedly very valuable material for the teacher, and make clear many individual differences, thus helping her to understand her children more fully.

Maria Montessori

He will take the iron claws of circumstance in his hand and use them as tools to break away the obstacles that block his path.

Helen Keller

I have been the whole day without eating, and the whole night without sleeping:— occupied with thinking. It was of no use. The better plan is to learn.

Confucius

To do the most that lies in you, you must go with a heart and head full of hope and faith in the world, believing that there is work for you to do, believing that you are the person to accomplish that work, and the one who is going to accomplish it.

Booker T. Washington

And secondly, if any man that is present shall be able to rectify thee or to turn thee from some erroneous persuasion, that thou be always ready to change thy mind, and this change to proceed, not from any respect of any pleasure or credit thereon depending, but always from some probable apparent ground of justice, or of some public good thereby to be furthered; or from some other such inducement.

Marcus Aurelius

There is the hard business for us! to get all simple people to care about art, to get them to insist on making it part of their lives, whatever becomes of systems of commerce and labour held perfect by some of us.

William Morris

It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

Seneca

But the central wisdom, which was old in infancy, is young in fourscore years, and, dropping off obstructions, leaves in happy subjects the mind purified and wise.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Discipline is, therefore, not a fact but a path, a path in following which the child grasps the abstract conception of goodness with an exactitude which is fairly scientific.

Maria Montessori

I try to increase the power God has given me to see the best in everything and every one, and make that Best a part of my life.

Helen Keller

The silent treasuring up of knowledge; learning without satiety; and instructing others without being wearied:— which one of these things belongs to me?

Confucius

Then we want to have you to learn to govern your actions, not alone for the sake of the result which they will have upon yourself and those who are near and dear to you, but for the sake of your influence upon all with whom you will come in contact.

Booker T. Washington

If thou shalt find anything in this mortal life better than righteousness, than truth, temperance, fortitude, and in general better than a mind contented both with those things which according to right and reason she doth, and in those, which without her will and knowledge happen unto thee by the providence; if I say, thou canst find out anything better than this, apply thyself unto it with thy whole heart, and that which is best wheresoever thou dost find it, enjoy freely.

Marcus Aurelius

That cause is the Democracy of Art, the ennobling of daily and common work, which will one day put hope and pleasure in the place of fear and pain, as the forces which move men to labour and keep the world a-going.

William Morris

You should keep learning as long as you are ignorant — even to the end of your life, if there is anything in the proverb.

Seneca

An old scholar finds keen delight in verifying the impressive anecdotes and citations he has met with in miscellaneous reading and hearing, in all the years of youth.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We can not create observers by saying, " observe," but by giving them the power and the means for this observation, and these means are procured through education of the senses.

Maria Montessori

Life is a fair field, and the right will prosper if we stand by our guns.

Helen Keller

If, because a man's discourse appears solid and sincere, we allow him to be a good man, is he really a superior man? or is his gravity only in appearance?

Confucius

And so you will find it all through life—those persons who are going to be constantly sought after, constantly in demand, are those who make the best use of their opportunities, who work unceasingly to become proficient in whatever they attempt to do.

Booker T. Washington

By what means then shall those work who long for reform in the arts, and who shall they seek to kindle into eager desire for possession of beauty, and better still, for the development of the faculty that creates beauty?

William Morris

One who daily puts the finishing touches to his life is never in want of time.

Seneca

The thoughtful man says, you differ from me in opinion and methods; but do you not see that I cannot think or act otherwise than I do? that my way of living is organic?

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We should reflect upon the fact that many times a child, left to himself, makes an undue effort to comprehend the language of the adults and the meaning of the things about him.

Maria Montessori

Although there are still great evils which have not been subdued, and the optimist is not blind to them, yet he is full of hope.

Helen Keller

There are cases in which the blade springs, but the plant does not go on to flower! There are cases where it flowers, but no fruit is subsequently produced!

Confucius

And if the task or errand passes out of your hands before it is completed, do not feel that your responsibility in the matter ends until you have impressed it upon the minds and heart of the person to whom you turn over the further performance of the duty.

Booker T. Washington

Time was when the mystery and wonder of handicrafts were well acknowledged by the world, when imagination and fancy mingled with all things made by man; and in those days all handicraftsmen were artists, as we should now call them.

William Morris

Moreover, of what use is anger, when the same end can be arrived at by reason?

Seneca

How short a time since this whole nation rose every morning to read or to hear the traits of courage of its sons and brothers in the field, and was never weary of the theme!

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The movements of the children from the state of order become always more co-ordinated and perfect with the passing of the days; in fact, they learn to reflect upon their own acts.

Maria Montessori

Doubt and mistrust are the mere panic of timid imagination, which the steadfast heart will conquer, and the large mind transcend.

Helen Keller

Though a man have abilities as admirable as those of the Duke of Chau, yet if he be proud and niggardly, those other things are really not worth being looked at.

Confucius

If you want to be powerful in the world, if you want to be strong, influential and useful, you can be so in no better way than by having strong character; but you cannot have a strong character if you yield to the temptations about which I have been speaking.

Booker T. Washington

It follows from this that your convention must be your own, and not borrowed from other times and peoples; or, at the least, that you must make it your own by thoroughly understanding both the nature and the art you are dealing with.

William Morris

We must, therefore, refrain from anger, whether he who provokes us be on a level with ourselves, or above us, or below us.

Seneca

The political reigns of terror have been reigns of madness and malignity,—a total perversion of opinion; society is upside down, and its best men are thought too bad to live.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Work develops the child spiritually; but the child with a fuller spiritual development works better, and his improved work delights him,—hence he continues to develop spiritually.

Maria Montessori

Education broadens to include all men, and deepens to reach all truths.

Helen Keller

The superior man, extensively studying all learning, and keeping himself under the restraint of the rules of propriety, may thus likewise not overstep what is right.

Confucius

It is comparatively easy to perform almost any kind of work, but the value of any work is in having it performed so that the desired results may be most speedily reached, and in having the means with which the worker labours arranged so as to meet certain ends.

Booker T. Washington

Yet even then one might be excused for thinking that the wild rose was scarce improved on, for nothing can be more beautiful in general growth or in detail than a wayside bush of it, nor can any scent be as sweet and pure as its scent.

William Morris

To avoid being angry with individuals, you must pardon the whole mass, you must grant forgiveness to the entire human race.

Seneca

The school-boy is daunted before his tutor by a question of arithmetic, because he does not yet command the simple steps of the solution which the boy beside him has mastered.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The educator must be as one inspired by a deep worship of life, and must, through this reverence, respect, while he observes with human interest, the development of the child life.

Maria Montessori

Beneath the doubt, the unrest, the materialism, which surround us still glows and burns at the world’s best life a steadfast faith.

Helen Keller

In letters I am perhaps equal to other men, but the character of the superior man, carrying out in his conduct what he professes, is what I have not yet attained to.

Confucius

Your education, in a large measure, is a gift from the public, and it seems to me that one of the first things you should do is to repay, to as large an extent as is possible with your services, what has been spent in giving you so large a part of your education.

Booker T. Washington

As to the second moral quality of design, meaning, I include in that the invention and imagination which forms the soul of this art, as of all others, and which, when submitted to the bonds of order, has a body and a visible existence.

William Morris

What is more restful than a mind at peace, and what more toilsome than anger?

Seneca

Undoubtedly there is a temperamental courage, a warlike blood, which loves a fight, does not feel itself except in a quarrel, as one sees in wasps, or ants, or cocks, or cats.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

So, after we have offered to the child such didactic material as is adapted to provoke the development of his senses, we must wait until the activity known as observation develops.

Maria Montessori

I tried again with new courage and succeeded almost before I knew it.

Helen Keller

It is virtuous manners which constitute the excellence of a neighborhood. If a man in selecting a residence, do not fix on one where such prevail, how can he be wise?

Confucius

When an individual gets a reputation—no matter what he has undertaken—of not having the quality of sticking to a thing until he succeeds in reaching the end, that reputation nullifies the influence for good of the better traits of his character in every direction.

Booker T. Washington

Finally, no amount of delicacy is too great in drawing the curves of a pattern, no amount of care in getting the leading lines right from the first, can be thrown away, for beauty of detail cannot afterwards cure any shortcoming in this.

William Morris

Above all, my dear Lucilius, make this your business: learn how to feel joy.

Seneca

In a world so charged and sparkling with power, a man does not live long and actively without costly additions of experience, which, though not spoken, are recorded in his mind.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A room in which all the children move about usefully, intelligently, and voluntarily, without committing any rough or rude act, would seem to me a classroom very well disciplined indeed.

Maria Montessori

So the people are patient and honest, while their rulers stumble.

Helen Keller

The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills. The wise are active; the virtuous are tranquil. The wise are joyful; the virtuous are long-lived.

Confucius

It is true that in the last few months the institution has come into a great deal of prominence, and is meeting with what the world calls "success." But we must remember that very often it is with institutions as it is with individuals—success may injure them more than poverty.

Booker T. Washington

Simplicity of life, begetting simplicity of taste, that is, a love for sweet and lofty things, is of all matters most necessary for the birth of the new and better art we crave for; simplicity everywhere, in the palace as well as in the cottage.

William Morris

He who receives a benefit with gratitude, repays the first instalment of it.

Seneca

What cannot stand must fall; and the measure of our sincerity, and therefore of the respect of men, is the amount of health and wealth we will hazard in the defence of our right.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thus the knowledge of the forms given him in the plane geometric insets will be for him a species of magic key, opening the external world, and making him feel that he knows its secrets.

Maria Montessori

It is my service to think how I can best fulfil the demands that each day makes upon me, and to rejoice that others can do what I cannot.

Helen Keller

Do you think, my disciples, that I have any concealments? I conceal nothing from you. There is nothing which I do that is not shown to you, my disciples;— that is my way.

Confucius

I wish to speak more specifically to-night on this subject—on what I may term the importance of your feeling a sense of personal responsibility not only for the successful performance of every task set you, but for the successful outcome of every worthy undertaking with which you come in contact.

Booker T. Washington

Now if the public knew anything of art, that is excellence in things made by man, they would not abide the shams of it; and if the real thing were not to be had, they would learn to do without, nor think their gentility injured by the forbearance.

William Morris

Whenever we are loth to pardon any one, let us think whether it would be to our advantage that all men should be inexorable.

Seneca

Every moment, as long as he is awake, he studies the use of his eyes, ears, hands, and feet, learning how to meet and avoid his dangers, and thus every hour loses one terror more.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

So the spontaneous psychic development of the child continues indefinitely and is in direct relation to the psychic potentiality of the child himself, and not with the work of the teacher.

Maria Montessori

I love the good that others do; for their activity is an assurance that whether I can help or not, the true and the good will stand sure.

Helen Keller

Things that are done, it is needless to speak about; things that have had their course, it is needless to remonstrate about; things that are past, it is needless to blame.

Confucius

Now the point I especially want to make to-night is this: all of you must bear in mind the fact that you are not only to keep yourselves clean, and pure, and sober, and true, in every respect, but you owe a constant responsibility to yourself to see that you exert a helpful influence on others also.

Booker T. Washington

Nay, and apart from the morality of the matter, which I am forced to speak to you of; let me tell you that though simplicity in art may be costly as well as uncostly, at least it is not wasteful, and nothing is more destructive to art than the want of it.

William Morris

You should lay hold, once for all, upon a single norm to live by, and should regulate your whole life according to this norm.

Seneca

We have had examples of men who, for showing effective courage on a single occasion, have become a favorite spectacle to nations, and must be brought in chariots to every mass meeting.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

In our efforts with the child, external acts are the means which stimulate internal development, and they again appear as its manifestation, the two elements being inextricably intertwined.

Maria Montessori

Jesus utters and Paul proclaims a message of peace and a message of reason, a belief in the Idea, not in things, in love, not in conquest.

Helen Keller

If a minister make his own conduct correct, what difficulty will he have in assisting in government? If he cannot rectify himself, what has he to do with rectifying others?

Confucius

You know you sometimes get frightened and discouraged about the laws that some of the States are inclined to pass, and that some of them are passing, but there is no State, there is no municipality, there is no power on earth, that can neutralize the influence of a high, pure, simple and useful life.

Booker T. Washington

Furthermore, no room of the richest man should look grand enough to make a simple man shrink in it, or luxurious enough to make a thoughtful man feel ashamed in it; it will not do so if Art be at home there, for she has no foes so deadly as insolence and waste.

William Morris

There is therefore nothing great or noble in anger, even when it seems to be powerful and to contemn both gods and men alike.

Seneca

Men are so charmed with valor, that they have pleased themselves with being called lions, leopards, eagles, and dragons, from the animals contemporary with us in the geologic formations.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

But when the child has failed, we should know that he was not at that instant ready for the psychic association which we wished to provoke in him, and we must therefore choose another moment.

Maria Montessori

I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty and joy to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble.

Helen Keller

A man should say, I am not concerned that I have no place, I am concerned how I may fit myself for one. I am not concerned that I am not known, I seek to be worthy to be known.

Confucius

Notwithstanding this, I think I am right in saying that the persons who accomplish most in this world, those to whom on account of their helpfulness the world looks most for service—those who are most useful in every way—are those who are constantly seeing and appreciating the bright side as well as the dark side of life.

Booker T. Washington

But to me, and I hope to you, Art is a very serious thing, and cannot by any means be dissociated from the weighty matters that occupy the thoughts of men; and there are principles underlying the practice of it, on which all serious-minded men, may—nay, must—have their own thoughts.

William Morris

And yet time is the one loan which even a grateful recipient cannot repay.

Seneca

The hunter is not alarmed by bears, catamounts, or wolves, nor the grazier by his bull, nor the dog-breeder by his bloodhound, nor an Arab by the simoom, nor a farmer by a fire in the woods.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

At a given moment it happens that a child becomes keenly interested in a piece of work, showing it by the expression of his face, by his intense attention, by his perseverance in the same exercise.

Maria Montessori

If it be true that optimism compels the world forward, and pessimism retards it, then it is dangerous to propagate a pessimistic philosophy.

Helen Keller

The sage and the man of perfect virtue;— how dare I rank myself with them? It may simply be said of me, that I strive to become such without satiety, and teach others without weariness.

Confucius

We are dependent as an institution—every institution is dependent—for success, upon the individual consciences of those connected with it as teachers and students; and there is nothing that gives me more satisfaction and pleasure, and more faith in the future of the school, than to see examples of conscientious work here.

Booker T. Washington

Now after all, for us who are learning art, it is not far to seek what is the surest way to further it; that which most breeds art is art; every piece of work that we do which is well done, is so much help to the cause; every piece of pretence and half-heartedness is so much hurt to it.

William Morris

Neither ought it to be believed that anger contributes anything to magnanimity: what it gives is not magnanimity but vain glory.

Seneca

He is everywhere a liberator, but of a freedom that is ideal; not seeking to have land or money or conveniences, but to have no other limitation than that which his own constitution imposes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

No one can be free unless he is independent: therefore, the first, active manifestations of the child's individual liberty must be so guided that through this activity he may arrive at independence.

Maria Montessori

The world is sown with good; but unless I turn my glad thoughts into practical living and till my own field, I cannot reap a kernel of the good.

Helen Keller

He who does not anticipate attempts to deceive him, nor think beforehand of his not being believed, and yet apprehends these things readily (when they occur);— is he not a man of superior worth?

Confucius

This institution can grow only by each person putting his thought into his work, by planning how he can improve the work of his particular department, by constantly striving to make his work more useful to the institution, by keeping the place where he works cleaner, and making his work more business-like and more systematic.

Booker T. Washington

Our subject is that great body of art, by means of which men have at all times more or less striven to beautify the familiar matters of everyday life: a wide subject, a great industry; both a great part of the history of the world, and a most helpful instrument to the study of that history.

William Morris

Philosophy is no trick to catch the public; it is not devised for show.

Seneca

In all applications ’tis the same power,—the habit of reference to one’s own mind, as the home of all truth and counsel, and which can easily dispose of any book because it can very well do without all books.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The teacher must at least have attended the training classes in the "Children's Houses," in order to acquire a knowledge of the fundamental principles of the method and to understand their application.

Maria Montessori

I do live in a beautiful dream; but that dream is the actual, the present,—not cold, but warm; not bare, but furnished with a thousand blessings.

Helen Keller

There may be those who act without knowing why. I do not do so. Hearing much and selecting what is good and following it; seeing much and keeping it in memory:— this is the second style of knowledge.

Confucius

Remember that whether you are hackmen, or business men, it pays whenever you cannot fill an engagement to explain beforehand why you cannot, and that unless you make a practice of doing this, it will be impossible for you to get ahead or to attain to places of trust and responsibility, no matter how much education you may have.

Booker T. Washington

So I will say that I believe there are two virtues much needed in modern life, if it is ever to become sweet; and I am quite sure that they are absolutely necessary in the sowing the seed of an art which is to be made by the people and for the people, as a happiness to the maker and the user.

William Morris

I shall indeed use the old road, but if I find one that makes a shorter cut and is smoother to travel, I shall open the new road.

Seneca

Disinterestedness, as shown in indifference to the ordinary bribes and influences of conduct,—a purpose so sincere and generous that it cannot be tempted aside by any prospects of wealth or other private advantage.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

In fact, by revealing the error we may lead the child to make an undue effort to remember, or we may discourage him, and it is our duty to avoid as much as possible all unnatural effort and all depression.

Maria Montessori

Philosophy gives to the mind the prerogative of seeing truth, and bears us into a realm where I, who am blind, am not different from you who see.

Helen Keller

The virtuous will be sure to speak correctly, but those whose speech is good may not always be virtuous. Men of principle are sure to be bold, but those who are bold may not always be men of principle.

Confucius

I desire to call your attention for a few minutes to-night to the fact that one thing is dependent for success upon another, one individual is dependent for success upon another, one family in a community upon other families for their mutual prosperity, one part of a State upon the other parts for the successful government of the State.

Booker T. Washington

Yes, surely these times are wonderful and fruitful of change, which, as it wears and gathers new life even in its wearing, will one day bring better things for the toiling days of men, who, with freer hearts and clearer eyes, will once more gain the sense of outward beauty, and rejoice in it.

William Morris

How can any man feel gratitude for benefits, if he skips through his whole life entirely engrossed with the present and the future?

Seneca

Courage is equality to the problem, in affairs, in science, in trade, in council, or in action; consists in the conviction that the agents with whom you contend are not superior in strength or resources or spirit to you.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Since, when a command to do a certain thing is given, we presuppose a corresponding active or inhibitive power of the child, it is plain that obedience must follow the formation of the will and of the mind.

Maria Montessori

Who shall dare let his incapacity for hope or goodness cast a shadow upon the courage of those who bear their burdens as if they were privileges?

Helen Keller

If the search for riches is sure to be successful, though I should become a groom with whip in hand to get them, I will do so. As the search may not be successful, I will follow after that which I love.

Confucius

Of course it is the right and the duty of every denomination to erect its own theological seminaries and its colleges, where the special tenets of that denomination are taught to those who are preparing for its pulpit; but no one has a right to let this denominational spirit defeat the work of a public school to which all should be free to go.

Booker T. Washington

Now I believe the practice of this art to be one of the most important things which man can turn his hand to, and the consideration of it to be worth the attention of serious people, not for an hour only, but for a good part of their lives, even though they may not have to do with it professionally.

William Morris

Therefore, we should decide what we wish, and abide by the decision.

Seneca

Every creature has a courage of his constitution fit for his duties:—Archimedes, the courage of a geometer to stick to his diagram, heedless of the siege and sack of the city; and the Roman soldier his faculty to strike at Archimedes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The instruction given to little children should be so directed as to lessen this expenditure of poorly directed effort, converting it instead into the enjoyment of conquest made easy and infinitely broadened.

Maria Montessori

Pessimism kills the instinct that urges men to struggle against poverty, ignorance and crime, and dries up all the fountains of joy in the world.

Helen Keller

With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow;— I have still joy in the midst of these things. Riches and honours acquired by unrighteousness, are to me as a floating cloud.

Confucius

All teachers make mistakes sometimes, and you may depend upon it that it is an excellent teacher and a person of fine character who, when he or she has made a mistake, says frankly and plainly, "I have made a mistake," or "I don't know." It takes a very good and a very bright teacher to say, "I don't know." No teacher knows everything about every subject.

Booker T. Washington

You whose hands make those things that should be works of art, you must be all artists, and good artists too, before the public at large can take real interest in such things; and when you have become so, I promise you that you shall lead the fashion; fashion shall follow your hands obediently enough.

William Morris

I am endeavouring to live every day as if it were a complete life.

Seneca

There is a persuasion in the soul of man that he is here for cause, that he was put down in this place by the Creator to do the work for which he inspires him, that thus he is an overmatch for all antagonists that could combine against him.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The teacher must always test whether or not her lesson has attained the end she had in view, and her tests must be made to come within the restricted field of consciousness, provoked by the lesson on nomenclature.

Maria Montessori

From Browning I learn that there is no lost good, and that makes it easier for me to go at life, right or wrong, do the best I know, and fear not.

Helen Keller

I do not know how a man without truthfulness is to get on. How can a large carriage be made to go without the cross-bar for yoking the oxen to, or a small carriage without the arrangement for yoking the horses?

Confucius

This may, for the time being, seem to make you unpopular; it may inconvenience you, it may deprive you of something that you count dear; but the individual who cultivates that kind of courage, who, at the cost of everything, always speaks the truth, is the individual who in the end will be successful, is the one who in the end will come out the conqueror.

Booker T. Washington

For Art breeds Art, and every worthy work done and delighted in by maker and user begets a longing for more: and since art cannot be fashioned by mechanical toil, the demand for real art will mean a demand for intelligent work, which if persisted in will in time create its due supply—at least I hope so.

William Morris

In returning a kindness it makes a great difference whether you are eager to bestow a benefit, or merely to free yourself from a debt.

Seneca

If you have no faith in beneficent power above you, but see only an adamantine fate coiling its folds about nature and man, then reflect that the best use of fate is to teach us courage, if only because baseness cannot change the appointed event.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

For this reason, I have wished to make my work broad, leading the child, not only to observe the forms about him, but to distinguish the work of man from that of nature, and to appreciate the fruits of human labour.

Maria Montessori

The confidence and trust which these conceptions inspire teach me to rest safe in my life as in a fate, and protect me from spectral doubts and fears.

Helen Keller

The superior man in everything considers righteousness to be essential. He performs it according to the rules of propriety. He brings it forth in humility. He completes it with sincerity. This is indeed a superior man.

Confucius

We are very apt to get the idea that there are high positions and that there are low positions, that there is important service and unimportant service; but I believe that God expects the same amount of conscientious work from a person in a low position as from one in a high position, that He expects the same conscientious service whether the work be a big task or a little one.

Booker T. Washington

I beg you to remember both as a remedy against this, and as explaining exactly what I mean, that nothing can be a work of art which is not useful; that is to say, which does not minister to the body when well under command of the mind, or which does not amuse, soothe, or elevate the mind in a healthy state.

William Morris

The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.

Seneca

Self-love is, in almost all men, such an overweight, that they are incredulous of a man’s habitual preference of the general good to his own; but when they see it proved by sacrifices of ease, wealth, rank, and of life itself, there is no limit to their admiration.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

But if we cut away the artificiality with which we have enwrapped them, and the violence through which we have foolishly thought to discipline them, they will reveal themselves to us in all the truth of child nature.

Maria Montessori

But the noble optimist persevered, and by and by the reluctant pessimists saw that he whom they ridiculed had become one of the world’s philanthropists.

Helen Keller

When a man may be spoken with, not to speak to him is to err in reference to the man. When a man may not be spoken with, to speak to him is to err in reference to our words. The wise err neither in regard to their man nor to their words.

Confucius

As a general thing the people—those in the country especially—do not ask anybody to come and give them food, clothing and houses; all they ask is for some person, some honest, upright man or woman who is interested in their welfare, to come among them and show them how to direct their efforts and their energy, show them how best to realize on the results of their work, so that they can supply their own moral, religious and material needs and educate their children.

Booker T. Washington

Nor is such an art as we long for a vain dream; such an art once was in times that were worse than these, when there was less courage, kindness, and truth in the world than there is now; such an art there will be hereafter, when there will be more courage, kindness, and truth than there is now in the world.

William Morris

“What? do not circumstances arise which provoke us to anger?” Yes: but at those times above all others we ought to choke down our wrath.

Seneca

There is a courage in the treatment of every art by a master in architecture, in sculpture, in painting, or in poetry, each cheering the mind of the spectator or receiver as by true strokes of genius, which yet nowise implies the presence of physical valor in the artist.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The teacher moves quietly about, goes to any child who calls her, supervising operations in such a way that any one who needs her finds her at his elbow, and whoever does not need her is not reminded of her existence.

Maria Montessori

If indeed some of the temples we worshipped in have fallen, we have built new ones on the sacred sites loftier and holier than those which have crumbled.

Helen Keller

The leaving virtue without proper cultivation; the not thoroughly discussing what is learned; not being able to move towards righteousness of which a knowledge is gained; and not being able to change what is not good:— these are the things which occasion me solicitude.

Confucius

Those of you who are real artists know well enough all the special advice I can give you, and in how few words it may be said—follow nature, study antiquity, make your own art, and do not steal it, grudge no expense of trouble, patience, or courage, in the striving to accomplish the hard thing you have set yourselves to do.

William Morris

We ought not to fly into a rage even when the injury appears to be open and distinct: for some false things bear the semblance of truth.

Seneca

The judge puts his mind to the tangle of contradictions in the case, squarely accosts the question, and, by not being afraid of it, by dealing with it as business which must be disposed of, he sees presently that common arithmetic and common methods apply to this affair.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

In our system, she must become a passive, much more than an active, influence, and her passivity shall be composed of anxious scientific curiosity, and of absolute respect for the phenomenon which she wishes to observe.

Maria Montessori

As my college days draw to a close, I find myself looking forward with beating heart and bright anticipations to what the future holds of activity for me.

Helen Keller

Where the solid qualities are in excess of accomplishments, we have rusticity; where the accomplishments are in excess of the solid qualities, we have the manners of a clerk. When the accomplishments and solid qualities are equally blended, we then have the man of virtue.

Confucius

Properly speaking, this work is all pleasure: true, there are pains and perplexities and weariness in it, but they are like the troubles of a beautiful life; the dark places that make the bright ones brighter: they are the romance of the work and do but elevate the workman, not depress him: I would call this Imaginative Work.

William Morris

We have reached the heights if we know what it is that we find joy in and if we have not placed our happiness in the control of externals.

Seneca

Animal resistance, the instinct of the male animal when cornered, is no doubt common; but the pure article, courage with eyes, courage with conduct, self-possession at the cannon’s mouth, cheerfulness in lonely adherence to the right, is the endowment of elevated characters.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

These are the first outlines of an experiment which shows a form of indirect discipline in which there is substituted for the critical and sermonizing teacher a rational organisation of work and of liberty for the child.

Maria Montessori

If he had seen clearly the faults of America, and still believed in her capacity to overcome them, our people might have felt the stimulation of his censure.

Helen Keller

Admirable indeed was the virtue of Hui! With a single bamboo dish of rice, a single gourd dish of drink, and living in his mean narrow lane, while others could not have endured the distress, he did not allow his joy to be affected by it. Admirable indeed was the virtue of Hui!

Confucius

But, noble as that art is by itself, and though it is specially the art of civilisation, it neither ever has existed nor never can exist alive and progressive by itself, but must cherish and be cherished by all the crafts whereby men make the things which they intend shall be beautiful, and shall last somewhat beyond the passing day.

William Morris

You must persevere, must develop new strength by continuous study, until that which is only a good inclination becomes a good settled purpose.

Seneca

It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Who does not know that to teach a child to feed himself, to wash and dress himself, is a much more tedious and difficult work, calling for infinitely greater patience, than feeding, washing and dressing the child one's self?

Maria Montessori

I have failed many times since; but I have never felt so disheartened as I did before that sturdy preacher gave me my lesson in the “fashion of the smiling face.”

Helen Keller

Though a man may be able to recite the three hundred odes, yet if, when intrusted with a governmental charge, he knows not how to act, or if, when sent to any quarter on a mission, he cannot give his replies unassisted, notwithstanding the extent of his learning, of what practical use is it?

Confucius

Maybe indeed that many things which I think beautiful you will deem of small account; nay, that even some things I think base and ugly will not vex your eyes or your minds: but one thing I know you will none of you like to plead guilty to; blindness to the natural beauty of the earth; and of that beauty art is the only possible guardian.

William Morris

Some stories may be so construed as to appear to be insults: wherefore it is best to put some aside, to laugh at others, and to pardon others.

Seneca

There is a courage of the cabinet as well as a courage of the field; a courage of manners in private assemblies, and another in public assemblies; a courage which enables one man to speak masterly to a hostile company, whilst another man who can easily face a cannon’s mouth dares not open his own.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

From a biological point of view, the concept of liberty in the education of the child in his earliest years must be understood as demanding those conditions adapted to the most favourable development of his entire individuality.

Maria Montessori

Stevenson’s life has become a tradition only ten years after his death; he has taken his place among the heroes, the bravest man of letters since Johnson and Lamb.

Helen Keller

He who aims to be a man of complete virtue in his food does not seek to gratify his appetite, nor in his dwelling place does he seek the appliances of ease; he is earnest in what he is doing, and careful in his speech; he frequents the company of men of principle that he may be rectified:— such a person may be said indeed to love to learn.

Confucius

Then there is a natural and beautiful way of ornamenting a ceiling by working the plaster into delicate patterns, such as you see in our Elizabethan and Jacobean houses; which often enough, richly designed and skilfully wrought as they are, are by no means pedantically smooth in finish—nay, may sometimes be called rough as to workmanship.

William Morris

We all retain our anger longer than we feel our hurt: how far better it were to take the opposite course and not meet one mischief by another.

Seneca

If, on a winter day, you should stand within a bell-glass, the face and color of the afternoon clouds would not indicate whether it were June or January; and if we did not find the reflection of ourselves in the eyes of the young people, we could not know that the century-clock had struck seventy instead of twenty.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We must help them to learn to walk without assistance, to run, to go up and down stairs, to lift up fallen objects, to dress and undress themselves, to bathe themselves, to speak distinctly, and to express their own needs clearly.

Maria Montessori

It is not enough to say that the twentieth century is the best age in the history of mankind, and to take refuge from the evils of the world in skyey dreams of good.

Helen Keller

The prosecution of learning may be compared to what may happen in raising a mound. If there want but one basket of earth to complete the work, and I stop, the stopping is my own work. It may be compared to throwing down the earth on the level ground. Though but one basketful is thrown at a time, the advancing with it is my own going forward.

Confucius

We should not be able to read the whole thing at once, nor desire to do so, nor be impelled by that desire to go on tracing line after line to find out how the pattern is made, and I think that the obvious presence of a geometrical order, if it be, as it should be, beautiful, tends towards this end, and prevents our feeling restless over a pattern.

William Morris

You must linger among a limited number of master thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind.

Seneca

The third excellence is courage, the perfect will, which no terrors can shake, which is attracted by frowns or threats or hostile armies, nay, needs these to awake and fan its reserved energies into a pure flame, and is never quite itself until the hazard is extreme; then it is serene and fertile, and all its powers play well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A special technique is necessary to the teacher who is to lead the child along such a path of discipline, if she is to make it possible for him to continue in this way all his life, advancing indefinitely toward perfect self-mastery.

Maria Montessori

Thus in my outlook upon our times I find that I am glad to be a citizen of the world, and as I regard my country, I find that to be an American is to be an optimist.

Helen Keller

I could describe the ceremonies of the Hsia dynasty, but Chi cannot sufficiently attest my words. I could describe the ceremonies of the Yin dynasty, but Sung cannot sufficiently attest my words. (They cannot do so) because of the insufficiency of their records and wise men. If those were sufficient, I could adduce them in support of my words.

Confucius

Surely if it be worth while troubling ourselves about the works of art of to-day, of which any amount almost can be done, since we are yet alive, it is worth while spending a little care, forethought, and money in preserving the art of bygone ages, of which (woe worth the while!) so little is left, and of which we can never have any more, whatever good-hap the world may attain to.

William Morris

How great a blessing is it to escape from anger, that chief of all evils, and therewith from frenzy, ferocity, cruelty, and madness, its attendants?

Seneca

If you accept your thoughts as inspirations from the Supreme Intelligence, obey them when they prescribe difficult duties, because they come only so long as they are used; or, if your scepticism reaches to the last verge, and you have no confidence in any foreign mind, then be brave, because there is one good opinion which must always be of consequence to you, namely, your own.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our educational aim with very young children must be to aid the spontaneous development of the mental, spiritual, and physical personality, and not to make of the child a cultured individual in the commonly accepted sense of the term.

Maria Montessori

Although they laughed at his vision and called him a madman, yet he worked on patiently, and with the labor of his hands he maintained a home for little street waifs.

Helen Keller

Can men refuse to assent to the words of strict admonition? But it is reforming the conduct because of them which is valuable. Can men refuse to be pleased with words of gentle advice? But it is unfolding their aim which is valuable. If a man be pleased with these words, but does not unfold their aim, and assents to those, but does not reform his conduct, I can really do nothing with him.

Confucius

Belike the thoughts of the men who wrought this kind of art could not have been expressed in grander ways or more definitely, or, at least, would not have been; therefore I believe I am not thinking only of my own pleasure, but of the pleasure of many people, when I praise the usefulness of the lives of these men, whose names are long forgotten, but whose works we still wonder at.

William Morris

Let us also reflect, how much credit the tale of our forgiveness will confer upon us, how many men may be made into valuable friends by forgiveness.

Seneca

The day comes when the hidden author of our story is found; when the brave speech returns straight to the hero who said it; when the admirable verse finds the poet to whom it belongs; and best of all, when the lonely thought, which seemed so wise, yet half-wise, half-thought, because it cast no light abroad, is suddenly matched in our mind by its twin, by its sequence, or next related analogy, which gives it instantly radiating power, and justifies the superstitious instinct with which we have hoarded it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The teacher, in other words, when she gives a lesson must seek to limit the field of the child's consciousness to the object of the lesson, as, for example, during sense education she isolated the sense which she wished the child to exercise.

Maria Montessori

He may bluster and disagree and lament as Carlyle and Ruskin do sometimes; but a basic confidence in the good destiny of life and of the world must underlie his work.

Helen Keller

Imaginative work is the very blossom of civilisation triumphant and hopeful; it would fain lead men to aspire towards perfection: each hope that it fulfils gives birth to yet another hope: it bears in its bosom the worth and the meaning of life and the counsel to strive to understand everything; to fear nothing and to hate nothing: in a word, ’tis the symbol and sacrament of the Courage of the World.

William Morris

We should strive, not to live long, but to live rightly; for to achieve long life you have need of Fate only, but for right living you need the soul.

Seneca

Since the child now learns to move rather than to sit still, he prepares himself not for the school, but for life; for he becomes able, through habit and through practice, to perform easily and correctly the simple acts of social or community life.

Maria Montessori

In the midst of my perplexity I read an essay of Stevenson which made me feel as if I had been “outing” in the sunshine, instead of losing heart over a difficult task.

Helen Keller

Indeed when Intelligent work coexists with Imaginative, there is no hard and fast line between them; in the very best and happiest times of art, there is scarce any Intelligent work which is not Imaginative also; and there is but little of effort or doubt, or sign of unexpressed desires even in the highest of the Imaginative work: the blessing of Equality elevates the lesser, and calms the greater, art.

William Morris

For I have not planned to live up to the very last day that my greedy hopes had promised me; nay, I have looked upon every day as if it were my last.

Seneca

Once we have aroused such activity, auto-education is assured, for refined well-trained senses lead us to a closer observation of the environment, and this, with its infinite variety, attracts the attention and continues the psychosensory education.

Maria Montessori

In “Lear” and “Hamlet” there is a looking forward to something better, some one is left at the end of the play to right wrong, restore society and build the state anew.

Helen Keller

Now order imposes on us certain limitations, which partly spring from the nature of the art itself, and partly from the materials in which we have to work; and it is a sign of mere incompetence in either a school or an individual to refuse to accept such limitations, or even not to accept them joyfully and turn them to special account, much as if a poet should complain of having to write in measure and rhyme.

William Morris

I am, however, discussing with you troubles which concern us both, and sharing the remedy with you, just as if we were lying ill in the same hospital.

Seneca

In that long preparation, the child experiences joys, spiritual awakenings and pleasures which form his inner treasure-house—the treasure-house in which he is steadily storing up the sweetness and strength which will be the sources of righteousness.

Maria Montessori

As sinners stand up in meeting and testify to the goodness of God, so one who is called afflicted may rise up in gladness of conviction and testify to the goodness of life.

Helen Keller

Of course, however, both as an instrument of that study we have been speaking of, as well as of the practice of the arts, all handicraftsmen should be taught to draw very carefully; as indeed all people should be taught drawing who are not physically incapable of learning it: but the art of drawing so taught would not be the art of designing, but only a means towards this end, general capability in dealing with the arts.

William Morris

Who can be grateful for what has been disdainfully flung to him, or angrily cast at him, or been given him out of weariness, to avoid further trouble?

Seneca

Actual training and practice are necessary to fit for this method teachers who have not been prepared for scientific observation, and such training is especially necessary to those who have been accustomed to the old domineering methods of the common school.

Maria Montessori

Paul, too, taught the faith which looks beyond the hardest things into the infinite horizon of heaven, where all limitations are lost in the light of perfect understanding.

Helen Keller

Let us remember this, and amid simplicity of life turn our eyes to real beauty that can be shared by all: and then though the days worsen, and no rag of the elder art be left for our teaching, yet the new art may yet arise among us, and even if it have the hands of a child together with the heart of a troubled man, still it may bear on for us to better times the tokens of our reverence for the Life of Man upon the Earth.

William Morris

Life is well enough furnished, but we are too greedy with regard to its furnishings; something always seems to us lacking, and will always seem lacking.

Seneca

To the casual onlooker the child seems to be learning exactitude and grace of action, to be refining his senses, to be learning how to read and write; but much more profoundly he is learning how to become his own master, how to be a man of prompt and resolute will.

Maria Montessori

A man must understand evil and be acquainted with sorrow before he can write himself an optimist and expect others to believe that he has reason for the faith that is in him.

Helen Keller

But the thought of man became more intricate, more difficult to express; art grew a heavier thing to deal with, and its labour was more divided among great men, lesser men, and little men; till that art, which was once scarce more than a rest of body and soul, as the hand cast the shuttle or swung the hammer, became to some men so serious labour, that their working lives have been one long tragedy of hope and fear, joy and trouble.

William Morris

Make yourself believe the truth of my words — that certain moments are torn from us, that some are gently removed, and that others glide beyond our reach.

Seneca

That the teacher must not lose herself in vain words, is included in the first quality of conciseness; this second, then, is closely related to the first: that is, the carefully chosen words must be the most simple it is possible to find, and must refer to the truth.

Maria Montessori

It moves thousands to lay down their lives in social service, and every life so laid down brings us a step nearer the time when corn-fields shall no more be fields of battle.

Helen Keller

In this and in many other ways it may differ from the past art, but in one thing it must needs be like it; it will not be an esoteric mystery shared by a little band of superior beings; it will be no more hierarchical than the art of past time was, but like it will be a gift of the people to the people, a thing which everybody can understand, and every one surround with love; it will be a part of every life, and a hindrance to none.

William Morris

Pray, let us see to it, my dear Lucilius, that our lives, like jewels of great price, be noteworthy not because of their width but because of their weight.

Seneca

This idea, that life acts of itself, and that in order to study it, to divine its secrets or to direct its activity, it is necessary to observe it and to understand it without intervening—this idea, I say, is very difficult for anyone to assimilate and to put into practice.

Maria Montessori

The ecstatic prophecies of Isaiah did far more to restore the exiles of Israel to their homes than the lamentations of Jeremiah did to deliver them from the hands of evil-doers.

Helen Keller

Nevertheless, I offer thanks to myself, with you as witness; for I feel that age has done no damage to my mind, though I feel its effects on my constitution.

Seneca

However, as a calm man and a self-disciplined man are not one and the same, so here the fact which manifests itself externally by the calm of the children is in reality a phenomenon merely physical and partial compared to the real self-discipline which is being developed in them.

Maria Montessori

My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good and a willing effort always to coöperate with the good, that it may prevail.

Helen Keller

How much more philanthropic it is to deal with the erring in a gentle and fatherly spirit, and to call them into the right course instead of hunting them down?

Seneca

It is exactly in the repetition of the exercises that the education of the senses consists; their aim is not that the child shall know colours, forms and the different qualities of objects, but that he refine his senses through an exercise of attention, of comparison, of judgment.

Maria Montessori

If we have lost some of the heroic physical qualities of our ancestors, we have replaced them with a spiritual nobleness that turns aside wrath and binds up the wounds of the vanquished.

Helen Keller

Let us, therefore, show how acceptable a gift is by loudly expressing our gratitude for it; and let us do so, not only in the hearing of the giver, but everywhere.

Seneca

The method which is the subject of this book contains in every part an exercise for the will-power, when the child completes co-ordinated actions directed towards a given end, when he achieves something he set out to do, when he repeats patiently his exercises, he is training his positive will-power.

Maria Montessori

In America the optimist finds abundant reason for confidence in the present and hope for the future, and this hope, this confidence, may well extend over all the great nations of the earth.

Helen Keller

Money will come of its own accord; titles will be given to you; influence and authority will perhaps be thrust upon you; but virtue will not fall upon you by chance.

Seneca

The first idea that the child must acquire, in order to be actively disciplined, is that of the difference between good and evil; and the task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility, and evil with activity, as often happens in the case of the old-time discipline.

Maria Montessori

Long ago men fought and died for their faith; but it took ages to teach them the other kind of courage,—the courage to recognize the faiths of their brethren and their rights of conscience.

Helen Keller

The rule for the giver and receiver of a benefit is, that the one should straightway forget that he has given, the other should never forget that he has received it.

Seneca

Given the fact that, through the régime of liberty the pupils can manifest their natural tendencies in the school, and that with this in view we have prepared the environment and the materials (the objects with which the child is to work), the teacher must not limit her action to observation, but must proceed to experiment.

Maria Montessori

Had he not believed that the soul of man is mightier than the ignorance that fetters it, had he not been an optimist, he would not have turned the fingers of the blind into new instruments.

Helen Keller

If every good is in the soul, then whatever strengthens, uplifts, and enlarges the soul, is a good; virtue, however, does make the soul stronger, loftier, and larger.

Seneca

Now (with the idea of order understood by the children) the observation of the way in which the children pass from the first disordered movements to those which are spontaneous and ordered—this is the book of the teacher; this is the book which must inspire her actions; it is the only one in which she must read and study if she is to become a real educator.

Maria Montessori

But the world turns its back on a hopeless prophet and listens to Emerson who takes into account the best qualities of the nation and attacks only the vices which no one can defend or deny.

Helen Keller

Other vices can be concealed and cherished in secret; anger shows itself openly and appears in the countenance, and the greater it is, the more plainly it boils forth.

Seneca

The later plays, “The Tempest” and “Cymbeline,” show a beautiful, placid optimism which delights in reconciliations and reunions and which plans for the triumph of external as well as internal good.

Helen Keller

If any one is angry with you, meet his anger by returning benefits for it: a quarrel which is only taken up on one side falls to the ground: it takes two men to fight.

Seneca

In spite of the latter-day notoriety of the “Rubáiyát” of Omar Khayyám, we may set it down as a rule that he who would be heard must be a believer, must have a fundamental optimism in his philosophy.

Helen Keller

Now we ought to fight against the first causes of evil: the cause of anger is the belief that we are injured; this belief, therefore, should not be lightly entertained.

Seneca

John Bosco, the benefactor of the poor and the friendless of Italian cities, was another optimist, another prophet who, perceiving a Divine Idea while it was yet afar, proclaimed it to his countrymen.

Helen Keller

There are only a few who control themselves and their affairs by a guiding purpose; the rest do not proceed; they are merely swept along, like objects afloat in a river.

Seneca

Swift, the pessimist, has never had as many readers as his towering genius should command, and indeed, when he comes down into our century and meets Thackeray, that generous optimist can hardly do him justice.

Helen Keller

It is my duty to show a grateful mind, but in some cases my own poverty, in others the prosperity of the friend to whom I owe some return, will not permit me to give it.

Seneca

No pessimist ever won an audience commensurately wide with his genius, and many optimistic writers have been read and admired out of all measure to their talents, simply because they wrote of the sunlit side of life.

Helen Keller

In short, repayment requires gratitude, time, opportunity, and the help of fortune; whereas, he who remembers a benefit is grateful for it, and that too without expenditure.

Seneca

If I am happy in spite of my deprivations, if my happiness is so deep that it is a faith, so thoughtful that it becomes a philosophy of life,—if, in short, I am an optimist, my testimony to the creed of optimism is worth hearing.

Helen Keller

But it is not expedient that anger should be increased: therefore it is not expedient that it should exist at all, for that which grows bad by increase cannot be a good thing.

Seneca

Ancient prejudice of man against his brother-man wavers and retreats before the radiance of a more generous sentiment, which will not sacrifice men to forms, or rob them of the comfort and strength they find in their own beliefs.

Helen Keller

A life is really long if it is a full life; but fullness is not attained until the soul has rendered to itself its proper Good, that is, until it has assumed control over itself.

Seneca

If the protest of the press against unrighteous measures is to avail, then for ninety-nine days the word of the preacher should be buoyant and of good cheer, so that on the hundredth day the voice of censure may be a hundred times strong.

Helen Keller

Let us therefore be more gentle one to another: we are bad men, living among bad men: there is only one thing which can afford us peace, and that is to agree to forgive one another.

Seneca

His supreme lesson is to grapple with great public questions, to keep his mind hospitable to new ideas and new views of truth, to restore the finer ideals that are lost sight of in the struggle for wealth and to promote justice between man and man.

Helen Keller

Nothing becomes one who inflicts punishment less than anger, because the punishment has all the more power to work reformation if the sentence be pronounced with deliberate judgment.

Seneca

I believe it is a sacred duty to encourage ourselves and others; to hold the tongue from any unhappy word against God’s world, because no man has any right to complain of a universe which God made good, and which thousands of men have striven to keep good.

Helen Keller

How far more glorious is it to throw back all wrongs and insults from oneself, like one wearing armour of proof against all weapons, for revenge is an admission that we have been hurt.

Seneca

The idea of brotherhood redawns upon the world with a broader significance than the narrow association of members in a sect or creed; and thinkers of great soul like Lessing challenge the world to say which is more godlike, the hatred and tooth-and-nail grapple of conflicting religions, or sweet accord and mutual helpfulness.

Helen Keller

To awaken some men, it is only necessary to stir them, not to strike them; in like manner, with some men, the feeling of honour about returning a benefit is not extinct, but slumbering.

Seneca

The recognition of the right of all men to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, a spirit of conciliation such as Burke dreamed of, the willingness on the part of the strong to make concessions to the weak, the realization that the rights of the employer are bound up in the rights of the employed—in these the optimist beholds the signs of our times.

Helen Keller

Anger ought to be removed from our minds: even those who say that it ought to be kept low admit this to some extent: let it be got rid of altogether; there is nothing to be gained by it.

Seneca

This, I say, is the highest duty and the highest proof of wisdom — that deed and word should be in accord, that a man should be equal to himself under all conditions, and always the same.

Seneca

O when shall you see the time when you shall know that time means nothing to you, when you shall be peaceful and calm, careless of the morrow, because you are enjoying your life to the full?

Seneca

In the next place, a benefit is not repaid in the same manner as a loan: you have no reason for expecting me to offer you any payment; the account between us depends upon the feelings alone.

Seneca

This breath that we hold so dear will soon leave us: in the meantime, while we draw it, while we live among human beings, let us practise humanity: let us not be a terror or a danger to any one.

Seneca

Show me that the good in life does not depend upon life's length, but upon the use we make of it; also, that it is possible, or rather usual, for a man who has lived long to have lived too little.

Seneca

And yet I would not on that account decline for myself a few additional years; although, if my life's space be shortened, I shall not say that I have lacked aught that is essential to a happy life.

Seneca

This evil takes its rise from anger; for anger, after it has by long use and indulgence made a man forget mercy, and driven all feelings of human fellowship from his mind, passes finally into cruelty.

Seneca

To misuse a benefit like a spendthrift is most shameful, because we do not need our wealth but only our intention to set us free from the obligation of it; for a benefit is repaid by being acknowledged.

Seneca

How far more grateful is a benefit, how far more deeply does it impress itself upon the mind, never to be forgotten, when we rejoice to think not so much of what it is, as from whom we have received it!

Seneca

Receive a benefit, embrace it, rejoice, not that you have received it, but that you have to owe it and return it; then you will never be in peril of the great sin of being rendered ungrateful by mischance.

Seneca

On the other hand, he who takes pleasure in receiving a benefit, enjoys an unvarying and continuous happiness, which he derives from consideration, not of the thing given, but of the intention of the giver.

Seneca

And if fortune prevents any one from repaying a kindness, he need not, therefore, blush, as though he were vanquished; there is no disgrace in failing to reach your object, provided you attempt to reach it.

Seneca

Each day acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes as well; and after you have run over many thoughts, select one to be thoroughly digested that day.

Seneca

The greatest remedy for anger is delay: beg anger to grant you this at the first, not in order that it may pardon the offence, but that it may form a right judgment about it: if it delays, it will come to an end.

Seneca

This, however, my dear Lucilius, I ask and beg of you, on your part, that you let wisdom sink into your soul, and test your progress, not by mere speech or writings, but by stoutness of heart and decrease of desire.

Seneca

We ought, therefore, to plead the cause of the absent against ourselves, and to keep our anger in abeyance: for a punishment which has been postponed may yet be inflicted, but when once inflicted cannot be recalled.

Seneca

This idea, however, clear though it is, must be strengthened and implanted more deeply by daily reflection; it is more important for you to keep the resolutions you have already made than to go on and make noble ones.

Seneca

Now, therefore, you know the answer to the question which was put to us, “Why, if the wise man receives neither injury nor insult, he punishes those who do these things?” He does not revenge himself, but corrects them.

Seneca

He will do as Cato did when he was struck in the face; he did not flare up and revenge the outrage, he did not even pardon it, but ignored it, showing more magnanimity in not acknowledging it than if he had forgiven it.

Seneca

No one will postpone his anger: yet delay is the best remedy for it, because it allows its first glow to subside, and gives time for the cloud which darkens the mind either to disperse or at any rate to become less dense.

Seneca

In other years time did not seem to me to go so swiftly; now, it seems fast beyond belief, perhaps, because I feel that the finish-line is moving closer to me, or it may be that I have begun to take heed and reckon up my losses.

Seneca

“But anger possesses a certain pleasure of its own, and it is sweet to pay back the pain you have suffered.” Not at all; it is not honourable to requite injuries by injuries, in the same way as it is to repay benefits by benefits.

Seneca

It is hard to say whether it is more dishonourable for the receiver to disown a benefit, or for the giver to demand a return of it: for a benefit is a loan, the repayment of which depends merely upon the good feeling of the debtor.

Seneca

How much better and more righteous is it to bear in mind what we owe to our friends, and to offer repayment, not to obtrude it, nor to think ourselves too much indebted; because a benefit is a common bond which connects two persons.

Seneca

Do thou teach me how I may bestow more good things, and be more grateful to those who have earned my gratitude, and how the minds of both parties may vie with one another, the giver in forgetting, the receiver in remembering his debt.

Seneca

Let us put ourselves in the place of him with whom we are angry: at present an overweening conceit of our own importance makes us prone to anger, and we are quite willing to do to others what we cannot endure should be done to ourselves.

Seneca

One ought to proportion one's thanks to the importance of the benefit received, and to use the phrases, "You have laid more of us than you think under an obligation," for everyone likes to find his good actions extend further than he expected.

Seneca

Revenge and retaliation are words which men use and even think to be righteous, yet they do not greatly differ from wrong-doing, except in the order in which they are done: he who renders pain for pain has more excuse for his sin; that is all.

Seneca

A man steers well who reaches the port for which he started: a dart hurled by a steady hand performs its duty if it hits the mark; one who bestows a benefit wishes it to be received with gratitude; he gets what he wanted if it be well received.

Seneca

A man may think himself injured, may wish to avenge his wrongs, and then may be persuaded by some reason or other to give up his intention and calm down: I do not call that anger, it is an emotion of the mind which is under the control of reason.

Seneca

He who wishes to return a benefit will study his friend's interests, and will hope that a suitable occasion will arise; he who only wishes to free himself from an obligation will be eager to do so by any means whatever, which shows very bad feeling.

Seneca

Since gratitude demands neither labour, wealth, nor good fortune, he who fails to render it has no excuse behind which to shelter himself; for he who places a benefit so far away that it is out of his sight, never could have meant to be grateful for it.

Seneca

No one, therefore, can be conquered in a contest of benefits, if he knows how to owe a debt, if he wishes to make a return for what he has received, and raises himself to the same level with his friend in spirit, though he cannot do so in material gifts.

Seneca

We find many men ungrateful, yet we make more men so, because at one time we harshly and reproachfully demand some return for our bounty, at another we are fickle and regret what we have given, at another we are peevish and apt to find fault with trifles.

Seneca

When men employ anger as the most powerful of agents, consider it to be a proof of power, and reckon a speedy revenge among the greatest blessings of great prosperity, would you not wish me to warn them that he who is the slave of his own anger is not powerful, nor even free?

Seneca

When we have decided to accept, let us accept with cheerfulness, showing pleasure, and letting the giver see it, so that he may at once receive some return for his goodness: for as it is a good reason for rejoicing to see our friend happy, it is a better one to have made him so.

Seneca

It is clear to you, I am sure, Lucilius, that no man can live a happy life, or even a supportable life, without the study of wisdom; you know also that a happy life is reached when our wisdom is brought to completion, but that life is at least endurable even when our wisdom is only begun.

Seneca

“We are treated,” says our opponent, “with more respect if we revenge our injuries.” If we make use of revenge merely as a remedy, let us use it without anger, and not regard revenge as pleasant, but as useful: yet often it is better to pretend not to have received an injury than to avenge it.

Seneca

So when a benefit has been graciously received, the giver has already received gratitude, but has not yet received recompense for it: that which we owe in return is therefore something apart from the benefit itself, for we have paid for the benefit itself when we accept it in a grateful spirit.

Seneca

The mind can find no safe repose there, it must needs be shaken and tempest-tossed if it be safe only because of its own defects, if it cannot be brave without anger, diligent without greed, quiet without fear: such is the despotism under which a man must live if he becomes the slave of a passion.

Seneca

For this cause reason will never call to its aid blind and fierce impulses, over whom she herself possesses no authority, and which she never can restrain save by setting against them similar and equally powerful passions, as for example, fear against anger, anger against sloth, greed against timidity.

Seneca

It is our duty to respect the virtuous, not only when present with us, but also when removed from our sight: as they have made it their study not to bestow their benefits upon one age alone, but to leave them existing after they themselves have passed away, so let us not confine our gratitude to a single age.

Seneca

Anger, as we have said, is eager to punish; and that such a desire should exist in man’s peaceful breast is least of all according to his nature; for human life is founded on benefits and harmony, and is bound together into an alliance for the common help of all, not by terror, but by love towards one another.

Seneca

Similarly, it is the duty of the chief administrator of the laws, or the ruler of a state, to correct ill-disposed men, as long as he is able, with words, and even with gentle ones, that he may persuade them to do what they ought, inspire them with a love of honour and justice, and cause them to hate vice and set store upon virtue.

Seneca

In the first place, it is easier to banish dangerous passions than to rule them; it is easier not to admit them than to keep them in order when admitted; for when they have established themselves in possession of the mind they are more powerful than the lawful ruler, and will in no wise permit themselves to be weakened or abridged.

Seneca

Greed does not permit any one to be grateful; for what is given is never equal to its base desires, and the more we receive the more we covet, for avarice is much more eager when it has to deal with great accumulations of wealth, just as the power of a flame is enormously greater in proportion to the size of the conflagration from which it springs.

Seneca

To feel anger on behalf of one’s friends does not show a loving, but a weak mind: it is admirable and worthy conduct to stand forth as the defender of one’s parents, children, friends, and countrymen, at the call of duty itself, acting of one’s own free will, forming a deliberate judgment, and looking forward to the future, not in an impulsive, frenzied fashion.

Seneca

In the next place, since none of us think of any time but the present, and but few turn back their thoughts to the past, it results that we forget our teachers, and all the benefits which we have obtained from them, because we have altogether left our childhood behind us: thus, all that was done for us in our youth perishes unremembered, because our youth itself is never reviewed.

Seneca

On the other hand, I am not so unjust as to feel no gratitude to a man, because, while helping me, he helped himself also; for I do not insist upon his consulting my interests to the exclusion of his own—nay, I should prefer that the benefit which I receive may be of even greater advantage to the giver, provided that he thought of us both when giving it, and meant to divide it between me and himself.

Seneca

No passion is more eager for revenge than anger, and for that very reason it is unapt to obtain it: being over hasty and frantic, like almost all desires, it hinders itself in the attainment of its own object, and therefore has never been useful either in peace or war: for it makes peace like war, and when in arms forgets that Mars belongs to neither side, and falls into the power of the enemy, because it is not in its own.

Seneca

The best plan is to reject straightway the first incentives to anger, to resist its very beginnings, and to take care not to be betrayed into it: for if once it begins to carry us away, it is hard to get back again into a healthy condition, because reason goes for nothing when once passion has been admitted to the mind, and has by our own free will been given a certain authority, it will for the future do as much as it chooses, not only as much as you will allow it.

Seneca

How much better is it to be thankful for the pleasures which one has received, not to reckon up the years of others, but to set a high value upon one's own, and score them to one's credit, saying, "God thought me worthy of this; I am satisfied with it; he might have given me more, but this, too, is a benefit." Let us be grateful towards both gods and men, grateful to those who have given us anything, and grateful even to those who have given anything to our relatives.

Seneca