John Lancaster Spalding Quotes
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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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Let not what thou canst not prevent, though it be the ruin of thy home or country, draw thee from thy proper work.
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The common man is impelled and controlled by interests; the superior, by ideas.
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Solitude is unbearable for those who can not bear themselves.
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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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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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If thou hast sought happiness and missed it, but hast found wisdom instead, thou art fortunate.
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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 prejudice against philosophy is the result of the incapacity of the multitude to deal with the highest problems.
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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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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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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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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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What matter that the man stands for much I cannot love-the moment he touches the realms of truth he enters my world and is my friend.
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We may outgrow the things of children, without acquiring sense and relish for those which become a man.
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Thought from which no emotion springs is sterile. The knowledge that has no bearing on the conduct of life is vain.
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Not to be able to utter one’s thought without giving offence, is to lack culture.
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The happiness of the ignorant is but an animal’s paradise.
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They who think they know all, learn nothing.
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They who can no longer unlearn have lost the power to learn.
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What we acquire with joy, we possess with indifference.
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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.