Part 13

We ought to regard books as we do sweetmeats, not wholly to aim at the pleasantest, but chiefly to respect the wholesomest; not forbidding either, but approving the latter most.--Plutarch.

To buy books only because they were published by an eminent printer, is much as if a man should buy clothes that did not fit him, only because made by some famous tailor.--Pope.

The medicine of the mind.--Diodorus.

Let every man, if possible, gather some good books under his roof.--Channing.

Wise books for half the truths they hold are honored tombs.--George Eliot.

~Bores.~--I am constitutionally susceptible of noises. A carpenter's hammer, in a warm summer's noon, will fret me into more than midsummer madness. But those unconnected, unset sounds are nothing to the measured malice of music.--Lamb.

These, wanting wit, affect gravity, and go by the name of solid men.--Dryden.

If we engage into a large acquaintance and various familiarities, we set open our gates to the invaders of most of our time; we expose our life to a quotidian ague of frigid impertinences which would make a wise man tremble to think of.--Cowley.

The symptoms of compassion and benevolence, in some people, are like those minute guns which warn you that you are in deadly peril!--Madame Swetchine.

~Borrowing.~--You should only attempt to borrow from those who have but few of this world's goods, as their chests are not of iron, and they are, besides, anxious to appear wealthier than they really are.--Heinrich Heine.

According to the security you offer to her, Fortune makes her loans easy or ruinous.--Bulwer-Lytton.

~Bravery.~--True bravery is shown by performing without witnesses what one might be capable of doing before all the world.--Rochefoucauld.

'Tis late before the brave despair.--Thompson.

The bravest men are subject most to chance.--Dryden.

The truly brave are soft of heart and eyes.--Byron.

People glorify all sorts of bravery except the bravery they might show on behalf of their nearest neighbors.--George Eliot.

~Brevity.~--To make pleasures pleasant shorten them.--Charles Buxton.

Was there ever anything written by mere man that was wished longer by its readers, excepting Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, and the Pilgrim's Progress?--Johnson.

A sentence well couched takes both the sense and understanding. I love not those cart-rope speeches that are longer than the memory of man can fathom.--Feltham.

I saw one excellency was within my reach--it was brevity, and I determined to obtain it.--Jay.

Be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams--the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.--Southey.

Concentration alone conquers.--Charles Buxton.

The more an idea is developed, the more concise becomes its expression: the more a tree is pruned, the better is the fruit.--Alfred Bougeart.

Oratory, like the Drama, abhors lengthiness; like the Drama, it must be kept doing. It avoids, as frigid, prolonged metaphysical soliloquy. Beauties themselves, if they delay or distract the effect which should be produced on the audience, become blemishes.--Bulwer-Lytton.

The fewer words the better prayer.--Luther.

~Business.~--Not because of any extraordinary talents did he succeed, but because he had a capacity on a level for business and not above it.--Tacitus.

~Calumny.~--Neglected calumny soon expires; show that you are hurt, and you give it the appearance of truth.--Tacitus.

Calumny crosses oceans, scales mountains, and traverses deserts with greater ease than the Scythian Abaris, and, like him, rides upon a poisoned arrow.--Colton.