John Lancaster Spalding Quotes
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What a wise man knows seems so plain and simple to himself that he easily makes the mistake of thinking it to be so for others.
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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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Love finds us young and keeps us so: immortal himself, he permits not age to enter the hearts where he reigns.
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It is the business of the teacher … to fortify reason and to make conscience sovereign.
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Insight makes argument ridiculous.
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The test of the worth of work is its effect on the worker. If it degrade him, it is bad; if it ennoble him, it is good.
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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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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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If our opinions rest upon solid ground, those who attack them do not make us angry, but themselves ridiculous.
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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 thou canst not hold the golden mean, say and do too little rather than too much.
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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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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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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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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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The teacher does best, not when he explains, but when he impels his pupils to seek themselves the explanation.
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A gentleman does not appear to know more or to be more than those with whom he is thrown into company.
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Altruism is a barbarism. Love is the word.
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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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Education would be a divine thing, if it did nothing more than help us to think and love great thoughts instead of little thoughts.
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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 disinterested love of truth which culture fosters is akin to the unselfishness which is a characteristic of the good.
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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.|