Pearls of Thought. Ballou Maturin Murray
oars the silver stream and greedily devour the treacherous bait. —Shakespeare.
Anticipation.– It has been well said that no man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when to-morrow's burden is added to the burden of to-day that the weight is more than a man can bear. —George MacDonald.
The craving for a delicate fruit is pleasanter than the fruit itself. —Herder.
The hours we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowned with fruition. In the first instance, we cook the dish to our own appetite; in the latter, nature cooks it for us. —Goldsmith.
We are apt to rely upon future prospects, and become really expensive while we are only rich in possibility. We live up to our expectations, not to our possessions, and make a figure proportionable to what we may be, not what we are. We outrun our present income, as not doubting to disburse ourselves out of the profits of some future place, project, or reversion that we have in view. —Addison.
Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand. —George Eliot.
Antiquarian.– A thorough-paced antiquarian not only remembers what all other people have thought proper to forget, but he also forgets what all other people think it proper to remember. —Colton.
The earliest and the longest has still the mastery over us. —George Eliot.
Antithesis.– Young people are dazzled by the brilliancy of antithesis, and employ it. —Bruyère.
Antithesis may be the blossom of wit, but it will never arrive at maturity unless sound sense be the trunk, and truth the root. —Colton.
Apology.– An apology in the original sense was a pleading off from some charge or imputation, by explaining or defending principles or conduct. It therefore amounted to a vindication. —Crabbe.
Brother, brother, we are both in the wrong. —Gay.
Apothegms.– Nor do apothegms only serve for ornament and delight, but also for action and civil use, as being the edge tools of speech, which cut and penetrate the knots of business and affairs. —Bacon.
Exclusively of the abstract sciences, the largest and worthiest portion of our knowledge consists of aphorisms, and the greatest and best of men is but an aphorism. —Coleridge.
Proverbs are potted wisdom. —Charles Buxton.
Appeal.– Seeing all men are not Œdipuses to read the riddle of another man's inside, and most men judge by appearances, it behooves a man to barter for a good esteem, even from his clothes and outside. We guess the goodness of the pasture by the mantle we see it wears. —Feltham.
Appearances.– It is the appearances that fill the scene; and we pause not to ask of what realities they are the proxies. When the actor of Athens moved all hearts as he clasped the burial urn, and burst into broken sobs, how few then knew that it held the ashes of his son! —Bulwer-Lytton.
What waste, what misery, what bankruptcy, come from all this ambition to dazzle others with the glare of apparent worldly success, we need not describe. The mischievous results show themselves in a thousand ways – in the rank frauds committed by men who dare to be dishonest, but do not dare to seem poor; and in the desperate dashes at fortune, in which the pity is not so much for those who fail, as for the hundreds of innocent families who are so often involved in their ruin. —Samuel Smiles.
Foolish men mistake transitory semblances for eternal fact, and go astray more and more. —Carlyle.
What is a good appearance? It is not being pompous and starchy; for proud looks lose hearts, and gentle words win them. It is not wearing fine clothes; for such dressing tells the world that the outside is the better part of the man. You cannot judge a horse by his harness; but a modest, gentlemanly appearance, in which the dress is such as no one could comment upon, is the right and most desirable thing. —Spurgeon.
He was a man who stole the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in. —Pollok.
I more and more see this, that we judge men's abilities less from what they say or do, than from what they look. 'T is the man's face that gives him weight. His doings help, but not more than his brow. —Charles Buxton.
Appetite.– Some people have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat. For my part, I mind very studiously; for I look upon it, that he who does not mind this, will hardly mind anything else. —Johnson.
Here's neither want of appetite nor mouths; pray Heaven we be not scant of meat or mirth. —Shakespeare.
This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers, or very honest men. —Izaak Walton.
And do as adversaries do in law, – strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends. —Shakespeare.
The table is the only place where we do not get weary during the first hour. —Brillat Savarin.
Appreciation.– Contemporaries appreciate the man rather than the merit; but posterity will regard the merit rather than the man. —Colton.
It so falls out that what we have we prize not to the worth while we enjoy it; but being lacked and lost, why, then we rack the value. —Shakespeare.
A man is known to his dog by the smell – to the tailor by the coat – to his friend by the smile; each of these know him, but how little or how much depends on the dignity of the intelligence. That which is truly and indeed characteristic of man is known only to God. —Ruskin.
He who seems not to himself more than he is, is more than he seems. —Goethe.
Light is above us, and color surrounds us; but if we have not light and color in our eyes, we shall not perceive them outside us. —Goethe.
When a nation gives birth to a man who is able to produce a great thought, another is born who is able to understand and admire it. —Joubert.
No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters. —George Eliot.
Next to invention is the power of interpreting invention; next to beauty the power of appreciating beauty. —Margaret Fuller.
You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some with you. —Joubert.
Architecture.– Architecture is the art which so disposes and adorns the edifices raised by man, for whatsoever uses, that the sight of them may contribute to his mental health, power, and pleasure. —Ruskin.
Argument.– There is no arguing with Johnson; for if his pistol misses fire he knocks you down with the butt end of it. —Goldsmith.
Weak arguments are often thrust before my path; but although they are most unsubstantial, it is not easy to destroy them. There is not a more difficult feat known than to cut through a cushion with a sword. —Bishop Whately.
Treating your adversary with respect is giving him an advantage to which he is not entitled. The greatest part of men cannot judge of reasoning, and are impressed by character; so that if you allow your adversary a respectable character, they will think that, though you differ from him, you may be in the wrong. Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in a battle. —Johnson.
The soundest argument will produce no more conviction in an empty head than the most superficial declamation; as a feather and a guinea fall with equal velocity in a vacuum. —Colton.
An ill argument introduced with deference will procure more credit than the profoundest science with a rough, insolent, and noisy management. —Locke.
One may say, generally, that no deeply rooted tendency was ever extirpated by adverse argument. Not having originally been founded on argument, it cannot be destroyed by logic. —G. H. Lewes.
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