John Lancaster Spalding Quotes
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Altruism is a barbarism. Love is the word.
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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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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 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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If thou hast sought happiness and missed it, but hast found wisdom instead, thou art fortunate.
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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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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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The common man is impelled and controlled by interests; the superior, by ideas.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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We may outgrow the things of children, without acquiring sense and relish for those which become a man.
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They who can no longer unlearn have lost the power to learn.
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They who think they know all, learn nothing.
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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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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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The happiness of the ignorant is but an animal’s paradise.