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He who is without vices probably doesn't have any virtues either.
A. Lincoln

The last thing that we find in making a book is to know what we must put first.
Blaise Pascal 1623 -1662 Thoughts, chap. 9,30

The best of healers is good cheer.
Pindar 518 - 438 BC Nemean ode 4

Please all and you will please none.
Aesop circa 550 BC The man, the boy and the donkey

If a man destroy the eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye.
Hammurabi circa 1955 - 1913 BC The code of Hammurabi King of Babylon about 2250 BC

People who have no weaknesses are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them.
Anatole France 1844 - 1924 The daughter of Cementine Chap. 4

Error is the force that welds men together; truth is communicated to men only by deeds of truth.
Count Lyof Nikolayevitch tolstoi 1828 - 1910 My Religion, chp 12

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
Arthur Schopenhauer 1788 - 1860 Studies in Pessimism

To him who looks upon the world rationally, the world in its turn presents a rational aspect. The Relation is mutual
Georg Wilhelm ?Friedrich Hegel 1770 - 1831 Philosophy of History

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
Jean Jacques Rousseau 1712 - 1778 Emile, or Education

I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Francois M.A. Voltaire 1694 - 1778 To Helvetius

The more intelligible a thing is, the more easily it is retained in the memory, and contrariwise, the less intelligible is is, the more easily we forget it.
Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza 1623 -1677 Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione Xi, 81

Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.
Michel de Montaigne 1533 - 1592 Works. Book II

I sent my Soul through the Invisible,
Some letter of that After-life to spell:
An by and by my Soul return'd to me,
And answer'd "I Myself am Heav'n and Hell."
Omaar Khayyam 1070 - 1123 Rubaiyat stanza 66

Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way to flutter
and the Bird is on the wing.
Omar Khayyam Tubaiyat Stanza 7

Let not thy mind run on what thou lackest as much as on what thou has already
Marcus aurelius Antoninus 121-180 Meditations

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
Epictetus circa AD 60 Concerning such as Read and Dispute Ostentatiously

It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's oration, -- nay, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in its place is a work extremely troublesome.
Plutarch 46 - 120 Of Hearing

The best ideas are common property.
Seneca 8 BC -65 AD Epistles

Speech is a mirror of the soul: as a man speaks, so is he.
Publilius Syrus circa 42 BC Maxim 1073

This day I've lived.
Horace 65 - 8 BC Odes, Book III xxix, to Maecanas, line 43

Criticism comes easier than craftsmanship.
Zeuxis circa 400 BC as quoted by Pliny in Natural History

Talk Happiness. The world is sad enough
without your woe. No path is wholly rough.
ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 1919 Speech, Stanza 1

Talk faith. The world is better off without
your uttered ignorance and morbid doubt
ibid stanza 2

Talk health. The dreary, never-ending tale
of mortal malaadies is more than stale;
You cannot charm or interest or please
by harping on that minor chord, disease.
Say you are well, or all is well with you
and God shall hear your words and make them true
ibid stanza 3

Laugh and the world laughs with you;
weep and you weep alone;
for the sad old earth must borrow its mirth
but has trouble enough of its own
Ella Wheeler Wilcox Solitude Stanza 1

Feast and your halls are crowded;
fast and the world goes by.
ibid stanza3

So many gods, so many creeds,
so many paths that wind and wind,
When just the art of being kind
is all this sad world needs
Ella Wheeler Wilcox the worlds need

We flatter those we scarcely know,
we please the fleeting guest,
and deal full many a thoughtless blow
to those who love us best.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox Life's scars, stanza 3

It is easy to sit in the sunshine
and talk to the man in the shade
It is easy to float in a well-trimmed boat
and point out the places to wade.
ella wheeler wilcox Practice vs. preaching stanza 1

Since life is short, we need to make it broad;
since life is brief, we need to make it bright.
Then keep the old king's motto well in sight
And let its meaning permeate each day
Whatever comes---"This, too, shall pass away."
ella wheeler wilcox This, Too, Shall Pass Away. stanza 7

The Green One, the symbol of Elijah, whose "eye shall see" where good begins and evil ends.
noted from page 594 of "Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton" by Edward Rice.

Meat eaten without either mirth or music is ill of digestion.
Sir Walter Scott,1771 - 1832 The Monastery

What you don’t know would fill a great book.
Sydney Smith 1771- 1845, Lady Holland’s Memoir

He prayeth well who loveth well,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772 - 1834,

All things both great and small.
The Ancient Mariner

Alone, alone, all, all alone;
Alone on a wide, wide sea.
Coleridge, The Ancient Mariner

Veracity does not consist in saying,
but in the intention of communicating truth.
Coleridge, Biographia Literaria

Everything nourishes what is strong already.
Jane Austin 1775 - 1817 Pride and Prejudice

If once a man indulges himself in murder,
very soon he comes to think little of robbing;
and from robbing he next comes to drinking and Sabbath-breaking,
and from that to incivility and procrastination.
Thomas De Quincey, 1785 - 1859, On Murder

I leave this rule for others when I’m dead.
Be always sure you’re right—then go ahead.
David Crockett, 1786 - 1836 Autobiography

In solitude, where we are least alone.
George Noel Gordon, Lord Byron 1788-1824
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
Lord Byron, Don Juan

Teach me half the gladness
That my brain must know,
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow,
The world should listen then, as I am listening now.
Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792- 1822 To a Skylark

Aesop’s Fly, sitting on the axle of the chariot, has been much laughed at for exclaiming: What a dust I do raise!
Thomas Carlyle 1795-1881 Burns

A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases;
it will never Pass into nothingness.
John Keats, 1795-1821 Endymion, book 1, line 1

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.
Ralph waldo Emerson 1803-1882 Friendship

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Ralph waldo Emerson, Circles

The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.
RalphWaldo Emerson, Society and solitude.

Ignorance never settles a question.
Benjamin Disraeli 1804-1881 Address, House of Commons, May 1 1865

The secret of success is constancy of purpose.
Benjamin disraeli Speech, June 24, 1870

The easiest person to deceive is one’s own self.
Edward Bulwer Lytton, 1805-1873 The Disowned

Every wish is like a prayer, with God.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1806-1861 Aurora Leigh, Book II

God laughs in heaven when any man
Says “Here I’m learned; this I understand;
In that, I am never caught at fault or doubt.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, Book I

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807-1882 A Psalm of Life, Stanza 2

For time will teach thee soon the truth,
There are no birds in last year’s nest!
Henry wadsworth Longfellow. It is not always May, Stanza 6

Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Rainy Day, Stanza 3

The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Ladder of St. Augustine.

No endeavor is in vain;
Its reward is in the doing,
And the rapture of pursuing
Is the prize the vanquished gain.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Wind Over the Chimney

He speaketh not; and yet there lies
A conversation in his eyes.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Hanging of the Crane.III

Turn, turn, my wheel! ‘Tis nature’s plan
The child should grow into the man.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Keramos

Nothing that is can pause or stay;
The moon will wax, the moon will wane,
The mist and cloud will turn to rain,
The rain to mist and cloud again,
Tomorrow be today.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Keramos

Look not mournfully into the Past. It comes not back again.
Wisely improve the Present. It is thine.
Go forth to meet the shadowy Future, without fear, and with a manly heart.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Hyperion, book IV

Blessings on thee, little man,
Barefoot boy, with cheeks of tan!
John Greenleaf Whittier, 1807-1886 The Barefoot Boy, Stanza 1

Health that mocks the doctor’s rules,
Knowledge never learned of schools.
John Greenleaf Whittier, The barefoot boy, Stanza 2

For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
the saddest are these: “It might have been!”
John Greenleaf Whittier, Maud Muller, Stanza 53

Let the thick curtain fall;
I better know than all
How little I have gained,
How vast the unattained.
Stanza 7

Others shall sing the song,
Others shall right the wrong, --
Finish what I begin,
And all I fail of win.
Stanza 10
John Greenleaf Whittier, My Triumph

Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.
A. Lincoln, 1809-1865 Letter to Secretary Stanton refusing to dismiss Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, July 18, 1864

If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog?
Five?
No; calling a tail a leg don’t make it a leg.
Abraham Lincoln

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
Edgar Allan Poe 1809- 1849 Eleonora

A still small voice spake unto me,
“Thou art so full of misery,
Were it not better not to be?”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1809-1892 The Two Voices, Stanza 1

Sweet and low,
Wind of the western sea.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Princess. Part III

Not of the sunlight,
Not of the moonlight,
Not of the starlight!
O young Mariner,
Down to the haven,
Call your companions,
Launch your vessel
And crown your canvas,
And, ere it vanishes
Over the margin,
After it, follow it,
Follow the Gleam.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, merlin and the Gleam. Stanza 10

Respect all such as sing when all alone!
Robert Browning, 1812-1889 Paracelsus

Every joy is gain
and gain is gain, however small.
Robert Browning, Paracelsus

Be a god and hold me
With a charm!
Be a man and fold me
With thine arm!
Robert Browning, A woman’s Last Word.

Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what’s a heaven for?
Robert Browning, Andrea Del Sarto

The common problem, yours, mine, everyone’s
Is---not to fancy what were fair in lilfe
Provided it could be, --but, finding first
What may be, then find how to make it fair
Up to our means
Robert Browning, Bishop Blougram’s Apology

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
Charles Dickens, 1812-1870 A tale of two cities.

I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face. Don’t trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty will stare honesty out of countenance, any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it.
Charles Dickens, Hunted Down

They went to sea in a sieve, they did;
In a sieve they went to sea;
In spite of all their friends could say.
Edward Lear, 1812-1888 The Jumblies

There’s a castle in Spain, very charming to see,
Though built without money or toil;
Of this handsome estate I am owner in fee,
And paramount lord of the soil.
John Godfrey saxe, 1816-1887 My Castle in Spain

I wish that practising was not
So different from preaching
john Godfrey saxe, Wishing

Great God, I ask thee for no meaner pelf
Than that I may not dissapoint myself,
That in my action I may soar as high
As I can now discern with this clear eye
Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862 A prayer, Stanza 1

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Tis God gives skill, But not without men’s hands:
He could not make Antonio Stradivari’s Violins without Antonio.
Marian Evans Cross (George Eliot), 1819-1880 Stradivarius

It’s but little good you’ll do watering last years crops.
Marian Evans Cross (George Eliot), Adam Bede

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving in words evidence of the fact.
Marian Evans Cross (George Eliot), Impressions of Theophrastus Such

Heaven is not reached at a single bound;
But we build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,
And we mount to its summit round by round
Josia Gilbert Holland, 1819-1881 Gradatim, Stanza 1

It may be glorious to write
Thoughts that shall glad the two or three
High souls, like those far stars that come in sight
Once in a century.
James Russell Lowell, 1819-1891 An Incident in a Railroad Car

And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,
and over it softly her warm ear lays.
James Russell Lowell, The vision of Sir Launfal

When I was a beggarly boy,
And lived in a cellar damp,
I had not a friend nor a toy,
But i had Aladdin’s lamp.
James Russell Lowell, Aladdin, Stanza 1

Give me a condor’s quill! Give me Vesuvius’ crater for an inkstand!. . . . To produce a mighty book you must choose a mighty theme.
Herman Melville, 1819-1891 Moby Dick

The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion, all in one.
John Ruskin, 1819-1900 Modern Painters

The brightest flashes in the world of thought are incomplete until they have been proved to have their counterparts in the world of fact.
John Tyndall, 1820-1893 Fragments of Science, Scientific Materialism.

All faith is false, all Faith is true;
Truth is the shattered mirror strown
In myriad bits; while each believes
his little bit the whole to own.
Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton, 1821-1890 The Kasidah of Haji Abdu.

With dreamful eyes
My spirit lies
Under the walls of Paradise.
Thomas Buchanan Read, 1822-1872, Drifting

When a thought takes one’s breath away, a lesson on grammar seems an impertinence.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1823-1884 Preface to Emily Dickensons Poems, first series.

Love is the coldest of critics.
George William Curtis, 1824-1892 Prue and I

For every man the world is as fresh as it was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for him who has the eyes to see them.
Thomas henry Huxley, 1825-1895 A Liberal Education

If a little knowledger is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger?
Thomas Henry Huxley, On elemental Instruction in Physiology.