John Lancaster Spalding Quotes
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As the visit of one we love makes the whole day pleasant, so is it illumined and made fair by a brave and beautiful thought.
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The common man is impelled and controlled by interests; the superior, by ideas.
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The happiness of the ignorant is but an animal’s paradise.
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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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Friends humor and flatter us, they steal our time, they encourage our love of ease, they make us content with ourselves, they are the foes of our virtue and our glory.
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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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The common prejudice against philosophy is the result of the incapacity of the multitude to deal with the highest problems.
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The narrow-minded and petty sticklers for the formalities which hedge rank and office are the true vulgarians, however observant they be of etiquette.
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There are faults which show heart and win hearts, while the virtue in which there is no love, repels.
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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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It is not difficult to grasp and express thoughts that float on the stream of current opinion: but to think and rightly utter what is permanently true and interesting, what shall appeal to the best minds a thousand years hence, as it appeals to them to-day,-this is the work of genius.
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The weak, when they have authority, surround themselves with the weak. It is, indeed, a vice of rulers that men who have exceptional ability and worth are offensive to them, since they whose greatness is due to their position find it difficult to love those whom inner power makes great.
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If thy friends tire of thee, remember that it is human to tire of everything.
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They who think they know all, learn nothing.
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To secure approval one must remain within the bounds of conventional mediocrity. Whatever lies beyond, whether it be greater insight and virtue, or greater stolidity and vice, is condemned. The noblest men, like the worst criminals, have been done to death.
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Those subjects have the greatest educational value, which are richest in incentives to the noblest self-activity.
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The world is a mirror into which we look, and see our own image.
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To clothe truth in fitting words is to feel a satisfaction like that which comes of doing good deeds.
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If truth make us not truthful, what service can it render us?
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He who leaves school, knowing little, but with a longing for knowledge, will go farther than one who quits, knowing many things, but not caring to learn more.
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If thou need money, get it in an honest way-by keeping books, if thou wilt, but not by writing books.
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The highest strength is acquired not in overcoming the world, but in overcoming one’s self. Learn to be cruel to thyself, to withstand thy appetites, to bear thy sufferings, and thou shalt become free and able.
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It is unpleasant to turn back, though it be to take the right way.