Chapter I: Part 1

_Come, let us live the poetry we sing._ ]

THOUGHTS

Selected from the Writings of
Favorite Authors

BY

Ladies of Fabiola Hospital Association

Oakland, California

NEW YORK:

DODGE PUBLISHING COMPANY

53 and 55 Fifth Avenue

The Compilers acknowledge with grateful thanks the courtesy of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin and Company; Dodd, Mead and Company (for selections from Hamilton Wright Mabie’s “Before My Library Fire,” “In the Forest of Arden,” and other publications); Little, Brown and Company (selections from Lilian Whiting’s “From Dreamland Sent,” “The World Beautiful,” First, Second and Third Series, and other publications), and others in allowing insertion of selections from works of which they own the copyright.

[Thoughts. 4]

Copyrighted, 1901,

by

JESSIE K. FREEMAN and SARAH S. B. YULE.

The pleasantest things in the world are pleasant thoughts, and the great art in life is to have as many of them as possible.--_Bovée._

To get peace, if you do want it, make for yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts. None of us yet knows, for none of us has been taught in early youth, what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thoughts--proof against all adversity. Bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble histories, faithful sayings, treasure-houses of precious and restful thoughts, which care cannot disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty take away from us--houses built without hands for our souls to live in.--_Ruskin._

I saw the mountains stand
Silent, wonderful, and grand,
Looking out across the land
When the golden light was falling
On distant dome and spire;
And I heard a low voice calling,
“Come up higher, come up higher,
From the lowland and the mire,
From the mist of earth desire,
From the vain pursuit of pelf,
From the attitude of self;
Come up higher, come up higher.”
--_James G. Clarke._

The thrift of time will repay in after life with usury of profit beyond your most sanguine dreams, and waste of it will make you dwindle alike in intellectual and moral stature beyond your darkest reckoning.--_Gladstone._

Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear three--all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.--_Edward Everett Hale._

Age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself, though in another dress;
And as the evening twilight fades away
The sky is filled with stars invisible by day.
--_Longfellow._

If there is any person to whom you feel dislike, that is the person of whom you ought never to speak.--_R. Cecil._

The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.--_Oliver Wendell Holmes._

In nature there is no blemish but the mind;--none can be called deformed but the unkind.--_Shakespeare._

“You never can tell what your thoughts will do,
In bringing you hate or love;
For thoughts are things, and their airy wings
Are swifter than carrier doves.
They follow the law of the universe,--
Each thing must create its kind;
And they speed o’er the track to bring you back
Whatever went out from your mind.”

Do the duty which lies nearest thee, which thou knowest to be a duty. Thy second duty will already have become clearer.--_Carlyle._

We need a revival of the individual. The question is not, What are they doing?--but, What am I doing? Not, Why do you not do this, that, or the other?--but, Why am not I doing this, that, or the other?--_Jenkin Lloyd Jones._

That man is blessed who every day is permitted to behold anything so pure and serene as the western sky at sunset, while revolutions vex the world.--_Henry D. Thoreau._

There’s life alone in duty done,
And rest alone in striving.
--_Whittier._

It is a matter of economy to be happy, to view life and all its conditions from the brightest angle; it enables one to seize life at its very best. It expands the soul.--_H. W. Dresser._

To educate the heart, one must be willing to go out of himself, and to come into loving contact with Others.--_James Freeman Clarke._

Associate reverently, and as much as you can, with your loftiest thought.--_Henry D. Thoreau._

This question then is ours--are we doing our part in the growth of the race? In the current of life are we moving forward? Do our years mark milestones in humanity’s struggle towards perfection? Is the God within us so much more unrolled, when our development has reached its highest point? Can we transmit to our children a better heritage of brain and soul than our fathers left to us? Has the race through us gained some little in the direction of the law of love? If we have done our part in this struggle our lives have not been in vain.--_David Starr Jordan._

Virgil said of the winning crew in his boat-race, “They can, because they believe they can.”

Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come.--_Lowell._

To be wise we must first learn to be happy: for those who can finally issue forth from self by the portal of happiness, know infinitely wider freedom than those who pass through the gate of sadness.--_Maurice Materlinck._

When we humor our weaknesses they force themselves continually upon our attention, like spoiled children. When we assert our mastery of ourselves and compel its recognition, we stand secure in our sovereign rights.--_Chas. B. Newcomb._

Put away all sarcasm from your speech. Never complain. Do not prophesy evil. Have a good word for everyone, or else keep silent.--_Henry Ward Beecher._

Boys flying kites haul in their white winged birds,
You can’t do that way when you’re flying words.
Thoughts unexpressed may sometimes fall back dead,
But God himself can’t stop them when they’re said.
--_Will Carleton._

Mould conditions aright, and men will grow good to fit them.--_Horace Fletcher._

Pride

Is littleness; he who feels contempt
For any living thing hath faculties
Which he has never used.
--_Wordsworth._

Treat your friends for what you know them to be. Regard no surfaces. Consider not what they did, but what they intended.--_Henry D. Thoreau._

Small kindnesses, small courtesies, small considerations, habitually practiced in our social intercourse, give a greater charm to the character than the display of great talent and accomplishments.--_Kelty._

I believe that the mind can be profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality.--_Henry D. Thoreau._

Don’t hang a dismal picture on the wall, and do not daub with sables and glooms in your conversation. Don’t be a cynic and disconsolate preacher.--_Emerson._

No good thing is failure and no evil thing success.--_W. C. Gannett’s favorite proverb._

Wisdom is knowing what to do next;
Skill is knowing how to do it, and Virtue is doing it.
--_David Starr Jordan._

Always laugh when you can; it is a cheap medicine. Merriment is a philosophy not well understood. It is the sunny side of existence.--_Byron._

If we are not responsible for the thoughts that pass our doors, we are at least responsible for those we admit and entertain.--_Charles B. Newcomb._

Not for the crying,
Not for the loud beseeching
Will peace draw near.
Rest with palms folded,
Rest with thine eyelids fallen,
Lo! peace is here.
--_E. R. Sill._

Would you remain always young, and would you carry all joy and buoyancy of youth into your maturer years? Then have care concerning but one thing--how you live in your thought world.--_R. W. Trine._

Lord, for to-morrow and its needs
I do not pray,
Help me from stain of sin
Just for to-day.

Let me both diligently work
And duly pray,
Let me be kind in word and deed
Just for to-day.

Let me be slow to do my will,
Prompt to obey,
Help me to sacrifice myself
Just for to-day.

Let me no wrong or idle word
Unthinking say,
Put Thou Thy seal upon my lips
Just for to-day.

So for to-morrow and its needs
I do not pray,
But keep me, guide me, hold me, Lord,
Just for to-day.
--_Canon Farrar._

To live in love is to live an everlasting youth. Whoever enters old age by this royal road will find the last of life to be the very best of life. Instead of finding himself descending the hills of life, he will find it up-hill all the way, into clearer air. There the vision reaches further; here the sunsets are more golden and the twilight lasts longer.--_Mrs. Mary A. Livermore._

Those who live on the mountain have a longer day than those who live in the valley. Sometimes all we need to brighten our day is to rise a little higher.--_Rev. S. J. Barrows._

Good luck is the willing handmaid of upright, energetic character, and conscientious observance of duty.--_James Russell Lowell._

The highest compact we can make with our fellow is, let there be truth between us two forevermore.--_Emerson._

Unfaithfulness in the keeping of an appointment is an act of clear dishonesty. You may as well borrow a person’s money as his time.--_Horace Mann._

All service ranks the same with God--
There is no last nor first.
--_Browning._

Logic makes only one demand, that of conscience. But life makes a thousand. The body wants health; the imagination cries out for beauty; and the heart for love. Pride asks for consideration; the soul yearns for peace; the conscience for holiness; our whole being is athirst for happiness and for perfection.--_Amiel._

What if it does look like rain, it is fine now!--_William Smith._

Was there ever a wiser or more loving conspiracy than that which keeps the venerable figure of Santa Claus from slipping away, with all the other old-time myths, into the forsaken wonderland of the past?--_Hamilton Wright Mabie._

Mankind are always happier for having been happy. So that if you make them happy now, you make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it.--_Sydney Smith._

Never fancy you could be something if only you had a different lot and sphere assigned you. The very things that you most deprecate, as fatal limitations or obstructions, are probably what you most want. What you call hindrances, obstacles, discouragements, are probably God’s opportunities.--_Horace Bushnell._

Who may not strive, may yet fulfil
The harder task of standing still,
And good but wished, with God is done.
--_Whittier._

Happiness and the sense of victory are only for those who live for conscience and duty and the soul’s higher ideals.--_Newell Dwight Hillis._

“Try this for one day:--Think as though your thoughts were visible to all about you.”

The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows whither he is going.--_David Starr Jordan._

Beware lest thy friend learn to tolerate one frailty of thine, and so an obstacle be raised to the progress of thy love.--_Thoreau._

As soon as a stranger is introduced into any company, one of the first questions which all wish to have answered, is, How does that man get his living? And with reason; every man is a consumer, and ought to be a producer. He fails to make his place good in the world unless he not only pays his debts but also adds something to the common wealth.--_Emerson._

All impatience disturbs the circulation, scatters force, makes concentration difficult if not impossible.--_C. B. Newcomb._

When the sun of joy is hidden
And the sky is overcast,
Just remember light is coming
And a storm can never last.
--_J. B. Smiley._

There is no music in a rest, that I know of, but there is the making of music in it.--_Ruskin._

Our lives are songs;
God writes the words,
And we set them to music at leisure:
And the song is sad, or the song is glad
As we choose to fashion the measure.

We must write the song,
Whatever the words,
Whatever its rhyme, or meter;
And if it is sad, we must make it glad,
And if sweet, we must make it sweeter.
--_Gibbon._

For what you find in these sweet days,
Depends on how you go about it;
A glad heart helps poor eyes to see,
What brightest eyes can’t see without it.

One child sees sunlit air and sky
And bursting leaf buds, round and ruddy;
Another looks at his own feet,
And only sees that it is muddy!
--_Henrietta R. Eliot._

The work of the world is done by few;
God asks that a part be done by you.
--_Sarah K. Bolton._

This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.--_Abraham Lincoln._

We are haunted by an ideal life, and it is because we have within us the beginning and the possibility of it.--_Phillips Brooks._

Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God.
--_E. B. Browning._

Thoughts are forces: through their instrumentality we have in our grasp, and as our rightful heritage, the power of making life and all its manifold conditions exactly what we will.--_R. W. Trine._

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.--_Emerson._

_The understanding is the vestibule of the mind! Uncover thy head, and enter the temple of the soul! Behold the power, the beauty and the love! If we had nothing but understanding, how little should we know or think or feel!_]

Blessed are the Happiness Makers. Blessed are they who know how to shine on one’s gloom with their cheer.--_Henry Ward Beecher._

The time will come when the civilized man will feel that the rights of every living creature on the earth are as sacred as his own. Anything short of this cannot be perfect civilization.--_David Starr Jordan._

Search thine own heart. What paineth thee
In others, in thyself may be;
All dust is frail, all flesh is weak;
Be thou the true man thou dost seek.
--_Whittier._

Beware of despairing about yourself.--_St. Augustine._

If you were born to honor, show it now:
If put upon you, make the judgment good
That thought you worthy of it.
--_Shakespeare._

Then a voice within his breast
Whispered, audible and clear:
“Do thy duty; that is best;
Leave unto the Lord the rest!”
--_Longfellow._

“There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave,
There are souls that are pure and true;
Then give to the world the best you have,
And the best will come to you.
Give love, and love to your heart will flow,
A strength in your utmost need;
Have faith, and a score of hearts will show
Their faith in your word and deed.”

Fortune will call at the smiling gate.--_Japanese Proverb._

“Talk health; the dreary never-ending tale
Of mortal maladies is worn and stale.
You cannot charm or interest or please
By harping on that minor chord, disease.
Say you are well, or all is well with you
And God shall hear your words and make them true.”

Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit.--_Epictetus._

How true it is that what we really see day by day depends less on the objects and scenes before our eyes than on the eyes themselves and the minds and hearts that use them.--_F. D. Huntington._

You have not fulfilled every duty, unless you have fulfilled that of being pleasant.--_Charles Buxton._

If I am not for myself who will be for me? But if I am for myself alone what am I? If not now--when?--_Hillel._

I asked the New Year for some motto sweet,
Some rule of life by which to guide my feet;
I asked and paused. It answered, soft and low:
“God’s will to know.”
“Will knowledge then suffice, New Year?” I cried;
But ere the question into silence died,
The answer came: “Nay; this remember, too,
God’s will to do.”
“To know; to do; can this be all we give
To Him in Whom we are, and move and live?
No more, New Year?” “This, too, must be your care:
God’s will to bear.”
Once more I asked: “Is there still more to tell?”
And once again the answer sweetly fell;
“Yea, this one thing, all other things above;
God’s will to love.”
--_J. M. C. Bouchard, S. J._

Shun idleness, it is the rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.--_Voltaire._

Few men suspect how much mere talk fritters away spiritual energy--that which should be spent in action, spends itself in words. Hence he who restrains that love of talk lays up a fund of spiritual strength.--_F. W. Robertson._

Truthfulness is the foundation of all personal excellence. It exhibits itself in conduct. It is rectitude, truth in action, and shines through every word and deed.--_Samuel Smiles._

The cry of the age is more for fraternity than for charity. If one exists, the other will follow, or better still, will not be needed.--_Dr. Henry D. Chapin._

There is philosophy as well as philanthropy in the keeping in touch with all sweetness and love, in the being swift to be kind. This is living on the spiritual plane, and spirituality is power.--_Lilian Whiting._

Manners are the happy ways of doing things. If they are superficial, so are the dewdrops, which give such a depth to the morning meadows.--_Emerson._

Being all fashioned of the self-same dust,
Let us be merciful as well as just.
--_Longfellow._

“The man who never makes mistakes loses a great many chances to learn something.”

Why should a true and sincere appreciation be termed flattery, and degraded to the level of insincere praise? Why should an individual be accused of acting from base and selfish policy because he feels the glow and warmth of social response?--_The World Beautiful, Lilian Whiting._

Our power over others lies not so much in the amount of thought within us as in the power of bringing it out.--_W. E. Channing._

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?--_Thoreau._

Why should we wear black for the guests of God?--_Ruskin._

I always seek the good that is in people and leave the bad to Him who made mankind and knows how to round off the corners.--_Goethe’s Mother._

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._

The sunrise never failed us yet.--_Celia Thaxter._

Don’t bewail and bemoan. Omit the negative propositions. Nerve us with incessant affirmations. Don’t waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.--_Emerson._

How the sting of poverty, or small means, is gone when one keeps house for one’s own comfort, and not for the comfort of one’s neighbors.--_Dinah Maria Mulock._

Culture is not an accident of birth, although our surroundings advance or retard it; it is always a matter of individual education.--_Hamilton W. Mabie._

No man need hunt for his mission. His mission comes to him. It is not above, it is not below, it is not far--not to make happy human faces now and then among the children of misery, but to keep happy human faces about us all the time.--_J. F. W. Ware._

God’s best gift to us is not things, but opportunities.--_Alice W. Rollins._

Whoever will prosper in any line of life must save his own time and do his own thinking. He must spend neither time nor money which he has not earned.--_David Starr Jordan._

I pray you, O excellent wife, not to cumber yourself and me to get a rich dinner for this man or this woman who has alighted at our gate, nor a bed-chamber made ready at too great a cost. These things they can get for a dollar at any village. But let this stranger, if he will, in your looks, in your accent, and behavior, read your heart and earnestness, your thought and will, which he cannot buy at any price in any village or city, and which he may well travel fifty miles and dine sparely and sleep hard in order to behold. Certainly, let the board be spread and let the bed be dressed for the traveler; but let not the emphasis of hospitality lie in these things. Honor to the house where they are simple to the verge of hardship, so that there the intellect is awake and reads the laws of the Universe.--_Emerson._

_The happiest heart that ever beat
Was in some quiet breast,
That found the common daylight sweet
And left to heaven the rest._]

“The secret of the joy of living is the proper appreciation of what we actually possess.”

So then believe that every bird that sings,
And every flower that stars the elastic sod,
And every thought the happy summer brings
To the pure spirit is a word of God.--_Coleridge._

Thrust an Emerson into any Concord, and his pungent presence will penetrate the entire region. Soon all who come within the radius of his life respond to his presence as flowers and trees respond with boughs, brilliant and fragrant, to the sunshine. After a little, each Emerson stands girt about with Hawthornes, Whittiers, Holmeses and Lowells.--_Newell Dwight Hillis._

Make it your habit not to be critical about small things.--_Edward Everett Hale._

The nobler life is just as possible to us all as that which is ignoble. The moment one will assert his freedom from petty cares, perplexities, troubles, and anxieties, that moment they fall off of themselves.--_A Study of Mrs. Browning, Lilian Whiting._

He approaches nearest to the gods who knows how to be silent even though he knows he is in the right.--_Cato._

Ah! let us hope that to our praise
Good God not only reckons
The moments when we tread His ways,
But when the spirit beckons--
That some slight good is also wrought
Beyond self-satisfaction,
When we are simply good in thought,
Howe’er we fail in action.
--_Lowell._

We need only obey. There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening, we shall hear the right word.--_Emerson._

When a man has not a good reason for doing a thing, he has one reason for letting it alone.--_Sir Walter Scott._

Pure religion as taught by Jesus Christ is a life, a growth, a divine spirit within, coming out in love and sympathy and helpfulness to our fellow-men.--_Dr. H. W. Thomas._

Be sure of the foundation of your life. Know why you live as you do. Be ready to give a reason for it. Do not, in such a matter as life, build on opinion or custom, or what you guess is true. Make it a matter of certainty and science.--_Thomas Starr King._

Nothing raises the price of a blessing like its removal; whereas, it was its continuance which should have taught us its value.--_Hannah More._

The soul occupied with great ideas, best performs small duties.--_James Martineau._

Christianity wants nothing so much in the world as sunny people, and the old are hungrier for love than for bread. The Oil of Joy is very cheap, and if you can help the poor with a Garment of Praise, it will be better for them than blankets.--_Drummond._

You will find it less easy to uproot faults than to choke them by gaining virtues. Do not think of your faults, still less of others’ faults. In every person who comes near you look for what is good and strong; honor that; rejoice in it; and as you can, try to imitate it; and your faults will drop off like dead leaves, when their time comes.--_Ruskin._

When you hold persistently to the successful mental state, you become a magnet drawing other people to aid you as you in return can aid them. But if you are much of the time despondent and gloomy, you become the negative magnet driving the best from you.--_Prentice Mulford._

There are two days about which nobody should ever worry, and these are yesterday and to-morrow.--_Robert J. Burdette._

A child, however educated, is still untaught if by his teaching we have not emphasized his individual character, if we have not strengthened his will and its guide and guardian, the mind.--_David Starr Jordan._

“I am only a child who is lying
On the bosom of Infinite Love.
I speak not of living or dying;
I know not of sorrow or crying;
My thoughts are dwelling above.

“The spring of the life that is flowing
Is hidden with Christ in God.
Not yet the mystery knowing,
I feel that the peace is growing,
As a river grows deep and broad.

“All I need without price I am buying
By my trust in the Goodness above.
There’s an end to my yearning and sighing,
For just like a child I am lying
On the bosom of Infinite Love.”

The optimist, by his superior wisdom and insight, is making his own heaven, and in the degree that he makes his own heaven, is he helping to make one for all the world beside.--_R. W. Trine._

Do not let your head run upon that which is none of your own, but pick out some of the best of your circumstances, and consider how eagerly you would wish for them, were they not in your possession.--_Marcus Aurelius._

Insist on your self; never imitate. There is at this moment for you an utterance brave and grand as that of the colossal chisel of Phidias, or the pen of Moses or Dante, but different from these. If you can hear what these patriarchs say, surely you can reply to them in the same pitch of voice.--_Emerson._

Just because there’s fallen
A snow-flake on his forehead,
He must go and fancy
’Tis winter all the year!
--_Aldrich._

How poor they are that have not patience.--_Shakespeare._

O God, animate us to cheerfulness! May we have a joyful sense of our blessings, learn to look on the bright circumstances of our lot, and maintain a perpetual contentedness.--_W. E. Channing._

Thy love shall chant its own beatitudes
After its own self-working. A child’s kiss
Set on the sighing lips shall make thee glad;
A poor man served by thee shall make thee rich;
A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong;
Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense
Of service which thou renderest.
--_E. B. Browning._

“Then take this honey for the bitterest cup;
There is no failure, save in giving up;
No real fall so long as one still tries,
For seeming setbacks make the strong man wise.
There’s no defeat, in truth, save from within;
Unless you’re beaten there, you’re bound to win.”

A crowd of troubles passed him by
As he with courage waited;
He said, “Where do you troubles fly
When you are thus belated?”
“We go,” they say, “to those who mope,
Who look on life dejected,
Who weakly say ‘good-bye’ to hope,
We go where we’re expected.”
--_Francis J. Allison._

“Bring me men to match my mountains,
Bring me men to match my plains;
Men with empires in their purpose
And new eras in their brains.”

“Who will remember that skies are gray
If he carries a happy heart all day?”

A man is specially and divinely fortunate, not when his conditions are easy, but when they evoke the very best that is in him; when they provoke him to nobleness, and sting him to strength, when they clear his vision, kindle his enthusiasm and inspire his will.--_Hamilton Wright Mabie._

The deeper the feeling the less demonstrative will be the expression of it.--_Balzac._

The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. If he knows I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward.--_H. D. Thoreau._

“Live blameless; God is near.”--_Inscribed over the door of the house of Linnæus, at Hammerby, Sweden._

It is always good to know, if only in passing, charming human beings. It refreshes one like flowers and woods and clear brooks.--_George Eliot._

Do not discharge in haste the arrow which can never return: it is easy to destroy happiness; most difficult to restore it.--_Herder._

Disappointment should always be taken as a stimulant, and never viewed as a discouragement.--_C. B. Newcomb._

In all the crowded Universe
There is but one stupendous word: Love.
There is no tree that rears its crest,
No fern or flower that cleaves the sod
Nor bird that sings above its nest,
But tries to speak this word of God.
--_J. G. Holland._

He who has a thousand friends has not one friend to spare,
And he who has one enemy shall meet him everywhere.
--_From the Arabic._

It is a great folly not to part with your own faults, which is possible, but to try instead to escape from other people’s faults, which is impossible.--_Marcus Aurelius._

“To persuade one soul to lead a better life is to leave the world better than you found it.”

If you intend to be happy, don’t be foolish enough to wait for a just cause.--_Chap-Book._

Don’t borrow a creed from other people,
Nor hang most faith on the stoutest steeple.
Look up for your law, but oh! look higher
Than the hands on any human spire.
If ten think alike, and you think alone,
That never proves ’tis ten to one
They are right, you wrong; for truth, you see,
Is not a thing of majority.
It never can make you false, them true,
That there’s more of them than there is of you:
If your touch is on Truth’s garment’s hem,
There is more of you than a world of them.
’Tis not alone in the Orient region
That a certain hero’s name is Legion.
Nor was it only for once to be
That the whole herd together ran down to the sea.

Your zenith for no man else is true:
Your beam from the sun comes alone to you.
And the thought the great God gave your brain
Is your own for the world, or the world’s in vain.
--_Edward Rowland Sill._

Discontent is want of self-reliance: it is infirmity of will.--_Emerson._

“He that brings sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from himself.”

Give us, oh, give us, the man who sings at his work! Be his occupation what it may, he is equal to any of those who follow the same pursuit in silent sullenness. He does more in the same time--he will do it better--he will persevere longer.--_Carlyle._

Set about what thou intendest to do: the beginning is half the battle.--_Cæsar._

By the street of By-and-By, one arrives at the house of Never.--_Cervantes._

No wind serves him who has no destined port.--_Montaigne._

Be sure you give men the best of your wares though they be poor enough; and the gods will help you to lay by a better store for the future.--_Henry D. Thoreau._

Reading is indeed to the mind as food is to the body--the material of which its fibre is made. It is surprising to note the difference in the quality of mental thought which even one-half hour’s good reading each day will make.--_Lilian Whiting._

Men are four:
He who knows, and knows he knows,--
He is wise--follow him.
He who knows, and knows not he knows,--
He is asleep--wake him:--
He who knows not, and knows not he knows not,--
He is a fool--shun him.
He who knows not, and knows he knows not,--
He is a child--teach him.
--_Arabian Proverb._

Cherish ideals as the traveler cherishes the north star, and keep the guiding light pure and bright and high above the horizon.--_Newell Dwight Hillis._

The days come and go like muffled and veiled figures sent from a distant friendly party; but they say nothing, and if we do not use the gifts they bring, they carry them as silently away.--_Emerson._

’Tis not in seeking,
’Tis not in endless striving,
Thy quest is found.
Be still and listen,
Be still and drink the quiet
Of all around.
--_E. R. Sill._

To keep one’s foot firmly set in the way that leads upwards, however dark and thorny it may be at the moment, is to conquer.--_The World Beautiful, Lilian Whiting._

And daily, hourly, loving and giving
In the poorest life makes heavenly living.
--_Rose Terry Cooke._

To love is the great glory, the last culture, the highest happiness; to be loved is little in comparison.--_The Story of William and Lucy Smith, George S. Merriam._

To persevere in one’s duty, and to be silent, is the best answer to calumny.--_Washington._

I have lived to know that the secret of happiness is never to allow your energies to stagnate.--_Adam Clarke._

Entertaining is the finest of all the fine arts, and it cannot be done by proxy. It cannot be done by the cook, nor yet by the decorator. Let the hostess give her guests her personal interest, her sympathetic comprehension, and she will have then mastered the delicate and subtle art.--_Lilian Whiting._

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.--_Henry D. Thoreau._

I am primarily engaged to myself to be a public servant to all the gods, to demonstrate to all men that there is a good will and intelligence at the heart of things, and ever higher and yet higher leadings.--_Emerson._

Be noble, and the nobleness that lies
In other men, sleeping, but never dead,
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own;
Then shalt thou see it gleam in many eyes,
Then will pure light about thy way be shed.
--_Lowell._

Few causes age the body faster than wilful indolence and monotony of mind--the mind, that very principle of physical youthfulness.--_James Lane Allen._

“To speak wisely may not always be easy, but not to speak ill requires only silence.”

If you have not slept, or if you have slept, or if you have a headache, or sciatica, or leprosy, or thunder stroke, I beseech you by all the angels to hold your peace, and not pollute the morning, to which all the housemates bring serene and pleasant thoughts, by corruptions and groans.--_Emerson._

“‘Downward the path of life!’ Oh, no!
Up, up, with patient steps, I go;
I watch the skies fast brightening there;
I breathe a sweeter, purer air.”

Happiness rarely is absent. It is we that know not of its presence. The greatest felicity avails us nothing if we know not that we are happy.--_Maurice Materlinck._

There is no good in life but love--but love!
What else looks good, is some shade flung from love;
Love gilds it, gives it worth.
--_Robert Browning._

_The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving._]

Instead of a gem, or even a flower, cast the gift of a lovely thought into the heart of a friend.--_Geo. Macdonald._

Be satisfied with nothing but your best.--_Edward Rowland Sill._

Do not think it wasted time to submit yourself to any influence that will bring upon you any noble feeling.--_Ruskin._

Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that day, which must be done whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you ... a hundred virtues which the idle never know.--_Charles Kingsley._

Foresight is very wise, but foresorrow is very foolish; and castles are, at any rate, better than dungeons in the air.--_Sir John Lubbock._

It requires a sterner virtue than good nature to hold fast the truth, that it is nobler to be shabby and honest, than to do things handsomely in debt.--_Juliana H. Ewing._

“Drop the subject when you cannot agree; there is no need to be bitter because you know you are right.”

It is not only a part of the wisdom of happiness, but it is absolutely essential to the conditions of any true work in the world, to so live that one may not be too greatly affected by the attitude of other people. A man’s life is, after all, primarily between God and himself.--_Lilian Whiting._

Get your distaff ready, and God will send you flax.--_Mary A. Livermore’s favorite proverb._

The thoughts that come often unsought, and, as it were, drop into the mind, are commonly the most valuable we have, and therefore should be secured, because they seldom return again.--_Locke._

The little worries that we meet each day
May be as stumbling-blocks across our way,
Or we may make them stepping-stones to be
Of grace, O Lord, to Thee!
--_A. E. Hamilton._

A man’s own good breeding is the best security against other people’s ill manners.--_Chesterfield._

The best teacher of duties that still lie near to us, is the practice of those we see and have at hand.--_Carlyle._

“The secret of a sweet and Christian life is learning to live by the day. It is the long stretches that tire us.”

To one who is in the rôle of host there can be no more bitter rebuke than to have any guest or chance caller go out from the portals with the feeling that he is sorry he came--that he is depressed rather than up-lifted. For all personal association, whether permanent or transient, whether prearranged or a matter of accidental contact, should leave behind it a lingering charm, a deeper sense of the loveliness of life.--_Lilian Whiting._

One of the natural tendencies of the mortal mind is toward proselyting. The moment we believe something to be true, we begin to try to convert others to our belief. We learn to say, with some degree of realization, “God worketh in me to will and to do of His good pleasure,” but we quite forget that the same God is working equally in our brother “to will and to do.” “I am the door,” says the Christ within every man’s own soul. Now you are trying to have your dear one enter in through your door. He must enter in through his own Christ, his own desire.--_H. Emilie Cady._

You may not be able to leave your children a great inheritance, but day by day you may be weaving coats for them which they will wear through all eternity.--_T. L. Cuyler._

He that cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven.--_Lord Herbert._

We exhaust our strength in our impatience at our work, and the conditions that surround us. There is nothing that comes to us which we could not do easily with true adjustment, but we waste our forces in our worries.--_C. B. Newcomb._

It seems as if heroes had done almost all for the world that they can do; and not much more can come until common men awake and take their common tasks. I believe the common man’s task is the hardest.--_Phillips Brooks._

When we climb to heaven ’tis on the rounds of love to men.--_Whittier._

When you find a person a little better than his word, a little more liberal than his promise, a little more than borne out in his statements by facts, a little larger in deed than in speech, you recognize a kind of eloquence in that person’s utterance not laid down in Blair or Campbell.--_Holmes._

Young man! let the nobleness of your mind impel you to its improvement. You are too strong to be defeated, save by yourself.--_W. D. Howard._

What we earnestly aspire to be, that in some sense we are.--_Anna Jameson._

The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech, he takes a low business tone, avoids all brag, promises not at all, performs much. He calls his employment by its lowest names, and so takes from evil tongues their sharpest weapon.--_Emerson._

“In judging others, weigh carefully the method against the motive. If the latter be pure, be patient and charitable, however different from your own the method may be.”

“Refuse to regard as unfortunate the treatment you receive from others; let it stimulate you to deal more justly with yourself and with them.”

The strength of affection is a proof not of the worthiness of the object, but of the largeness of the soul which loves.--_F. W. Robertson._

Every flower is a hint of His beauty; every grain of wheat a token of His beneficence; every atom of dust, a revelation of His power. In and through all things He is attracting our regard.--_Furness._

One never speaks of himself except at a loss.--_Montaigne._

It is easy in the world, to live after the world’s opinion: it is easy in solitude, to live after our own. But the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.--_Emerson._

If you knew the light
That your soul casts in my sight,
How I look to you
For the good and true,
The beauteous and the right.
--_Robert Browning._

Manners impress as they indicate real power. A man who is sure of his point, carries a broad and contented expression, which everybody reads. And you cannot rightly train one to an air and manner, except by making him the kind of man of whom that manner is the natural expression. Nature forever puts a premium on reality.--_Emerson._

Who looks to Heaven alone to save his soul
May keep the path, but will not reach the goal:
But he who walks in love may wander far,
And God will bring him where the blessed are.
--_Henry Van Dyke._

“If you and I--just you and I--
Should laugh instead of worry;
If we should grow--just you and I--
Kinder and sweeter hearted,
Perhaps in some near by and by
A good time might get started;
Then what a happy world ’twould be
For you and me--for you and me!”

Let nothing disturb thee,
Nothing affright thee;
All things are passing;
God never changeth;
Patient endurance
Attaineth to all things;
Who God possesseth
In nothing is wanting;
Alone God sufficeth.
--_Longfellow._

The world is full of judgment-days, and in every assembly that a man enters, in every action he attempts, he is gauged and stamped. A man passes for what he is worth.--_Emerson._

Life is noble in proportion to the nobleness of faith; it is successful in proportion to the fixedness of faith.--_Joseph Le Conte._

We should tell ourselves once for all that it is the first duty of the soul to become as happy, complete, independent, and great as lies in its power.--_Maurice Materlinck._

“Cold and reserved natures should remember that though not infrequently flowers may be found beneath the snow, it is chilly work to dig for them, and few care to take the trouble.”

Whenever we send out loving thought in generous profusion, every part of our environment echoes back a sweet benediction.--_Henry Wood._

A good book, whether a novel or not, is one that leaves you farther on than when you took it up. If when you drop it, it drops you down in the same old spot, with no finer outlook, no clearer vision, no stimulated desires for that which is better and higher, it is in no sense a good book.--_Anna Warner._

Silence is a great peacemaker.--_Longfellow._

Each act of humble service is that divine touching of the ground which enables one to get the spring whereby he leaps to greater heights.--_R. W. Trine._

Every noble life leaves the fibre of it interwoven forever in the works of the world.--_Ruskin._

“It is no use running; to set out betimes is the main point.”

One ought never to speak of the faults of one’s friends; it mutilates them. They can never be the same afterward.--_William D. Howells._

Whatever betide, every misfortune must be overcome by enduring it.--_Virgil._

“Never argue with a man who talks loud. You couldn’t convince him in a thousand years.”

The new science perceives that instincts and aspirations in the mind are facts of nature that must be interpreted and accounted for by reason as truly as a stone in the hand.--_Newell Dwight Hillis._

Work and love: that is the body and soul of the human being. Happy he where they are one.--_Auerbach._

You picture to yourself the beauty of bravery and steadfastness. And then some little, wretched, disagreeable duty comes which is your martyrdom, the lamp for your oil; and if you do not do it, your oil is spilled.--_Phillips Brooks._

“Watch the thought you hold for the neighbor who is yet living in the consciousness of truth as you understand it. As you are taught of the Spirit, so will he be taught in the way best adapted to him.”

Why do we so often prefer to believe in the necessity of suffering and weakness rather than in the possibility of strength and gladness?--_C. B. Newcomb._

Great powers and natural gifts do not bring privileges to their possessor, so much as they bring duties.--_Henry Ward Beecher._

Every day should have some part
Free for the Sabbath of the heart.
--_Wordsworth._

The beautiful is as useful as the useful.--_Victor Hugo._

The higher education of women means more for the future than all conceivable legislative reforms. Its influence does not stop with the home.--_David Starr Jordan._

“It is not the spurt at the start, but the continued, unresting, unhasting advance that wins the day.”

That which is past is gone and irrevocable, and wise men have enough to do with things present and to come.--_Francis Bacon._

Whichever way the wind doth blow
Some heart is glad to have it so;
Then blow it east or blow it west,
The wind that blows, that wind is best.
--_Caroline A. Mason._

A lady’s dress should be such as to please God, not laying aside taste, for is He not much more pleased when His children look well than otherwise? I have no idea that Christ was negligent of his dress. His garment was one counted worthy of casting lots upon.--_Mary Lyon._

Experience shows that success is due less to ability than to zeal. The winner is he who gives himself to his work, body and soul.--_Charles Buxton._

“The smelter bends above his pot of silver
Watching its restless heavings to and fro,
’Till ready for the careful coiner,
His face reflected, the fused metal show.”

It is monotony which eats the heart out of joy, destroys the buoyancy of the spirit, and turns hope to ashes; it is monotony which saps the vitality of the emotions; depletes the energy of the will, and finally turns the miracle of daily existence into dreary commonplace. And monotony has its roots, not in our conditions, but in ourselves.--_Hamilton Wright Mabie._

Begin, therefore, with little things. Is it a little oil spilt or a little wine stolen? Say to yourself, this is the price paid for peace and tranquillity; and nothing is to be had for nothing. And when you call your servant, consider that it is possible he may not come at your call, or, if he does, that he may not do what you wish. But it is not at all desirable for him, and very undesirable for you, that it should be in his power to cause you any disturbance.--_Epictetus._

Let us never forget that an act of goodness is of itself an act of happiness. No reward coming after the event can compare with the sweet reward that went with it.--_Maurice Materlinck._

I said, “I will go out and look for mine enemies,” and that day I found no friends. Again, I said, “I will go out and look for my friends,” and that day I found no enemies.--_Gertrude R. Lewis._

Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind, for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.--_Marcus Aurelius._

Have faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.--_Confucius._

“If you will call your ‘troubles’ ‘experiences,’ and remember that every experience develops some latent force within you, you will grow vigorous and happy, however adverse your circumstances may seem to be.”

Wanting to have a friend is altogether different from wanting to be a friend. The former is a mere natural human craving, the latter is the life of Christ in the soul.--_J. R. Miller._

When we cultivate thoughts of strength for others, we ourselves grow strong. Habitual thoughts of peace bring us tranquillity.--_C. B. Newcomb._

All high happiness has in it some element of love; all love contains a desire for peace. One immediate effect of new happiness is to make us turn toward the past with a wish to straighten out its difficulties, heal its breaches and forgive its wrongs.--_James Lane Allen._

When I am very weary
I do not try to pray.
I only shut my eyes, and wait
To hear what God will say.
Such rest it is to wait for Him
As comes no other way.
--_Alice E. Worcester._

You have not fulfilled every duty unless you have fulfilled that of being pleasant.--_Charles Buxton._

We do a great deal of shirking in this life on the ground of not being geniuses.--_Rose E. Cleveland._

We never know for what God is preparing us in His schools--for what work on earth, for what work in the hereafter. Our business is to do our work well in the present place, whatever that may be.--_Dr. Lyman Abbott._

Health is the first of all liberties, and happiness gives us the energy which is the basis of health.--_Amiel’s Journal._

Not in the clamor of the crowded street,
Nor in the shouts and plaudits of the throng,
But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.
--_Longfellow._

Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this, that you are dreadfully like other people.--_James Russell Lowell._

There is a dust that settles on the heart as well as that which rests upon the ledge. It is better to wear out than to rust out.--_Sir John Lubbock._

How many a thing which we cast to the ground, when others pick it up becomes a gem.--_George Meredith._

_Success in life is a matter not so much of talent or opportunity as of concentration and perseverance._]

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.--_Ruskin._

A haze on the far horizon,
The infinite, tender sky;
The ripe, rich tint of the corn-fields,
And the wild geese sailing high;
And all over upland and lowland
The charm of the golden-rod,--
Some of us call it Autumn
And others call it God.
--_M. H. Carruth._

I built a chimney for a comrade old,
I did the service not for hope or hire,
And then I traveled on in winters cold;
Yet all the day I glowed before the fire.
--_Edwin Markham._

Flowers, says Ruskin, seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity. Children love them; quiet, tender, contented, ordinary people love them as they grow; they are the cottager’s treasure; and in the crowded town mark, as with a little broken fragment of rainbow, the windows of the workers in whose heart rests the covenant of peace.

Great privileges never go save in company with great responsibilities.--_Hamilton W. Mabie._

He who has a high standard of living and thinking will certainly do better than he who has none at all.--_Samuel Smiles._

You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments that stand out, the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love.--_Henry Drummond._

And let him go where he will, he can only find so much beauty or worth as he carries.--_Emerson._

As you grow ready for it, somewhere or other you will find what is needful for you--in a book, or a friend, or, best of all, in your own thoughts, the eternal thought speaking in your thought.--_George Macdonald._

Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life!
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away
And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray.
--_Byron._

Displays of moral excellence, truths set forth in living actions, are multiplied as they are shown. Men are won by what they approve. They are led to imitate what they admire. Laudable actions never stand alone. They go from eye to eye, from heart to heart, creating fresh copies of their immortal worth.--_Dr. Frothingham._

Wouldst shape a noble life? Then cast
No backward glances toward the past,
And though somewhat be lost and gone,
Yet do thou act as one new-born;
What each day needs, that shalt thou ask,
Each day will set its proper task.
--_Goethe._

We should think just as though our thought were visible to all about us. Real character is not outward conduct, but quality of thinking.--_Henry Wood._

It is a much shallower and more ignoble occupation to detect faults than to discover beauties.--_Carlyle._

Whatever you wish to accomplish, be willing to do, and to commence your work at once, right where you find yourself, and decide that you do not want anything better to begin with than the conditions that surround you, for God is with you.--_Raja Yoga._

No one is respectable who is not doing his best.--_Horace Fletcher._

The broad-minded see the truth in different religions; the narrow-minded see only their differences.--_Chinese Proverb._

The dawn is not distant,
Nor is the night starless;
Love is eternal!
God is still God, and
His faith shall not fail us;
Christ is eternal!
--_Longfellow._

Let us be like the bird for a moment perched
On a frail branch while he sings;
Though he feels it bend, yet he sings his song,
Knowing that he hath wings.
--_Victor Hugo._

Let us love so well
Our work shall still be sweeter for our love,
And still our love be sweeter for our work.
--_Elizabeth Barrett Browning._

“If you have gracious words to say
Oh, give them to our hearts to-day,
But if your words will cause us sorrow,
Pray keep them till the last to-morrow.”