John Lancaster Spalding Quotes
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Passion is begotten of passion, and it easily happens, as with the children of great men, that the base is the offspring of the noble.
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If thy words are wise, they will not seem so to the foolish: if they are deep the shallow will not appreciate them. Think not highly of thyself, then, when thou art praised by many.
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What we enjoy, not what we possess, is ours, and in labouring for the possession of many things, we lose the power to enjoy the best.
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What purifies the heart refines language.
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They who see through the eyes of others are controlled by the will of others.
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If we fail to interest, whether because we are dull and heavy, or because our hearers are so, we teach in vain.
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The value of a mind is measured by the nature of the objects it habitually contemplates. They whose thoughts are of trifles are trifling: they who dwell with what is eternally true, good and fair, are like unto God.
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Exercise of body and exercise of mind are supplementary, and both may be made recreative and educative.
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Obedience is not servility. On the contrary the servile are never rightly obedient.
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As memory may be a paradise from which we cannot be driven, it may also be a hell from which we cannot escape.
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The genius is childlike. Like children he looks into the world as into a new creation and finds there a perennial source of wonder and delight.
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As we can not love what is hateful, let us accustom ourselves neither to think nor to speak of disagreeable things and persons.
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If thou wouldst be implacable, be so with thyself.
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How is it possible not to strive to know what the awakening minds of the young are eager to learn from us? It is little less than criminal that we should put them off with foolish speech or lies.
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Moral education is the development of individuality, and individuality can not be developed by formulas and mechanical processes: it is the work of the master who brings to his task a genuine and loving interest in the individual.
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A great man, who lives intimately with his admirers, with difficulty escapes being made ridiculous.
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It is a large part of learning to know what one wants, and where it may be found in its most authentic form.
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Nothing requires so little mental effort as to narrate or follow a story. Hence everybody tells stories and the readers of stories outnumber all others.
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To love the perfection with which we do our work, or the company of those with whom we work, is the secret of learning to love the work itself.
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The able have no desire to appear to be so, and this is part of their ability.
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Beauty least adorned is most adorned
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The important thing is how we know, not what or how much.
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As our power over others increases, we become less free; for to retain it, we must make ourselves its servants.
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They who admire and reverence noble and heroic men are akin to them.