John Lancaster Spalding Quotes
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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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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.|
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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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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 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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A Wise man knows that much of what he says and does is commonplace and trivial. His thoughts are not all solemn and sacred in his own eyes. He is able to laugh at himself and is not offended when others make him a subject whereon to exercise their wit.
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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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We do not see rightly until we learn to eliminate what we expect or wish to see from what we really see.
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When one sense has been bribed the others readily bear false witness.
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It is not worth while to consider whether a truth be useful-it is enough that it is a truth.
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Liberty is more precious than money or office; and we should be vigilant lest we purchase wealth or place at the price of inner freedom.
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The common man is impelled and controlled by interests; the superior, by ideas.
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As they are the bravest who require no witnesses to their deeds of daring, so they are the best who do right without thinking whether or not it shall be known.
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They who can no longer unlearn have lost the power to learn.
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The pessimist writes over the gates of life what the poet has inscribed on the portals of hell-'Abandon hope, ye who enter here.'
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States of soul rightly expressed, as the poet expresses them in moments of pure inspiration, retain forever the power of creating like states. It is this that makes genuine literature a vital force.
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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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As children must have the hooping cough, the college youth must pass through the stage of conceit in which he holds in slight esteem the wisdom of the best.
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It is the tendency of the study of science to make us patient, humble and attentive to the smallest things. Is not this part of religion?
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It is difficult to be sure of our friends, but it is possible to be certain of our loyalty to them.
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When guests enter the room their entertainers rise to receive them; and in all meetings men should ascend into their higher selves, imparting to one another only the best they know and love.
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If science were nothing more than the best means of teaching the love of the simple fact, the indispensable need of verification, of careful and accurate observation and statement, its value would be of the highest order.
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As a brave man goes into fire or flood or pestilence to save a human life, so a generous mind follows after truth and love, and is not frightened from the pursuit by danger or toil or obloquy.
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What we acquire with joy, we possess with indifference.