John Lancaster Spalding Quotes
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Have as little suspicion as possible and conceal that.
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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.|
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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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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 not worth while to consider whether a truth be useful-it is enough that it is a truth.
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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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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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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 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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What we acquire with joy, we possess with indifference.
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Not to be able to utter one’s thought without giving offence, is to lack culture.
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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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Taste, of which the proverb says there should be no dispute, is precisely the subject which needs discussion.
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The common man is impelled and controlled by interests; the superior, by ideas.
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We are more disturbed by a calamity which threatens us than by one which has befallen us.
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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.