John Lancaster Spalding Quotes
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They who no longer believe in principles still proclaim them, to conceal, both from themselves and others, the selfishness of the motives by which they are dominated.
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No sooner does a divine gift reveal itself in youth or maid than its market value becomes the decisive consideration, and the poor young creatures are offered for sale, as we might sell angels who had strayed among us.
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Insight makes argument ridiculous.
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We do not find it hard to bear with ourselves, though we are full of faults. Why then may we not learn to be tolerant of others?
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If thou canst not hold the golden mean, say and do too little rather than too much.
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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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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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Altruism is a barbarism. Love is the word.
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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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God has not made a world which suits all; how shall a sane man expect to please all?
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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 exercise of authority is odious, and they who know how to govern, leave it in abeyance as much as possible.
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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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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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It is the business of the teacher … to fortify reason and to make conscience sovereign.
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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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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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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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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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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.