John Lancaster Spalding Quotes
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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 disinterested love of truth which culture fosters is akin to the unselfishness which is a characteristic of the good.
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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 teacher does best, not when he explains, but when he impels his pupils to seek themselves the explanation.
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Insight makes argument ridiculous.
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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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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 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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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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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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They who can no longer unlearn have lost the power to learn.
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The common man is impelled and controlled by interests; the superior, by ideas.
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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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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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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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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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The best money can procure for thee is freedom to live in thy true self. It is more apt however to enslave than to liberate. It is good also when thou makest it a means to help thy fellow men; but here too it is easier to harm than to benefit: for the money thou givest another is useful to him only when it stimulates him to self-activity.
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The happiness of the ignorant is but an animal’s paradise.
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We are more disturbed by a calamity which threatens us than by one which has befallen us.