John Lancaster Spalding Quotes
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To how much lying, extravagance, hypocrisy and servilism does not the fear of ridicule lead? Human respect makes us cowards and slaves. It may deter from evil, but much oftener it drives to baseness. 'We are too much afraid,' said Cato, 'of death, exile and poverty.'
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Wouldst thou bestow some precious gift upon thy fellows, make thyself a noble man.
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The writers who accomplish most are those who compel thought on the highest and most profoundly interesting subjects.
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True readers … are ready to go through a whole volume, if there be but hope of finding in it a single genuine thought or the mere suggestion even of a truth which has some fresh application to life.
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Thy money, thy office, thy reputation are nothing; put away these phantom clothings, and stand like an athlete stripped for the battle.
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If our opinions rest upon solid ground, those who attack them do not make us angry, but themselves ridiculous.
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It is the business of culture to make us able to consider with intelligent interest all real opinions, even those we do not and can not accept.
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The exercise of authority is odious, and they who know how to govern, leave it in abeyance as much as possible.
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Altruism is a barbarism. Love is the word.
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It is the business of the teacher … to fortify reason and to make conscience sovereign.
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When with all thy heart thou strivest to live with truth and love, couldst thou do anything better? … If this be thy life, thou shalt not deem it a misfortune to lack the things men most crave and toil for.
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There is some lack either of sense or of character in one who becomes involved in difficulties with the worthless or the vicious.
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Say not thou lackest talent. What talent had any of the greatest, but passionate faith in the efficacy of work?
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The aim of education is to strengthen and multiply the powers and activities of the mind rather than to increase its possessions.
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The teacher does best, not when he explains, but when he impels his pupils to seek themselves the explanation.
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The disinterested love of truth which culture fosters is akin to the unselfishness which is a characteristic of the good.
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To think profoundly, to seek and speak truth, to love justice and denounce wrong is to draw upon one’s self the ill will of many.
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Each one fashions and bears his world with him, and that unless he himself become wise, strong and loving, no change in his circumstances can make him rich or free or happy.
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Each individual bears within himself an ideal man, and to bring him forth in perfect form is his divinely imposed life-work.
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A liberal education is that which aims to develop faculty without ulterior views of profession or other means of gaining a livelihood. It considers man an end in himself and not an instrument whereby something is to be wrought. Its ideal is human perfection.
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The common prejudice against philosophy is the result of the incapacity of the multitude to deal with the highest problems.
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Mercenary is whoever thinks less of his work than of the money he receives for doing it; and social conditions which impose tasks that make this inevitable are barbarous.
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The common man is impelled and controlled by interests; the superior, by ideas.
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The fields and the flowers and the beautiful faces are not ours, as the stars and the hills and the sunlight are not ours, but they give us fresh and happy thoughts.|