Part 26

Do the duty which lies nearest to thee.--Goethe.

Those who do it always would as soon think of being conceited of eating their dinner as of doing their duty. What honest boy would pride himself on not picking a pocket? A thief who was trying to reform would.--George MacDonald.

To what gulfs a single deviation from the track of human duties leads!--Byron.

The duty of man is not a wilderness of turnpike gates, through which he is to pass by tickets from one to the other. It is plain and simple, and consists but of two points: his duty to God, which every man must feel; and, with respect to his neighbor, to do as he would be done by.--Thomas Paine.

There is not a moment without some duty.--Cicero.

If doing what ought to be done be made the first business, and success a secondary consideration,--is not this the way to exalt virtue?--Confucius.

The path of duty lies in what is near, and men seek for it in what is remote; the work of duty lies in what is easy, and men seek for it in what is difficult.--Mencius.

Duty does not consist in suffering everything, but in suffering everything for duty. Sometimes, indeed, it is our duty not to suffer.--Dr. Vinet.

He who is false to present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and will find the flaw when he may have forgotten its cause.--Beecher.

The primal duties shine aloft, like stars; the charities that soothe, and heal, and bless, are scattered at the feet of man, like flowers.--Wordsworth.

Can man or woman choose duties? No more than they can choose their birthplace, or their father and mother.--George Eliot.

~Ear.~--A side intelligencer.--Lamb.

Eyes and ears, two traded pilots 'twixt the dangerous shores of will and judgment.--Shakespeare.

The wicket of the soul.--Sir J. Davies.

The road to the heart.--Voltaire.

~Early-rising.~--Early-rising not only gives us more life in the same number of our years, but adds likewise to their number; and not only enables us to enjoy more of existence in the same measure of time, but increases also the measure.--Colton.

The famous Apollonius being very early at Vespasian's gate, and finding him stirring, from thence conjectured that he was worthy to govern an empire, and said to his companion, "This man surely will be emperor, he is so early."--Caussin.

When one begins to turn in bed, it is time to get up.--Wellington.

The difference between rising at five and seven o'clock in the morning, for the space of forty years, supposing a man to go to bed at the same hour at night, is nearly equivalent to the addition of ten years to a man's life.--Doddridge.

Whoever has tasted the breath of morning knows that the most invigorating and most delightful hours of the day are commonly spent in bed; though it is the evident intention of nature that we should enjoy and profit by them.--Southey.

~Economy.~--Economy is half the battle of life; it is not so hard to earn money as to spend it well.--Spurgeon.

Ere fancy you consult, consult your purse.--Franklin.

I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse; borrowing only lingers and lingers it out; but the disease is incurable.--Shakespeare.

The back-door robs the house.--George Herbert.

The world abhors closeness, and all but admires extravagance. Yet a slack hand shows weakness, a tight hand, strength.--Charles Buxton.

~Education.~--Education gives fecundity of thought, copiousness of illustration, quickness, vigor, fancy, words, images, and illustrations; it decorates every common thing, and gives the power of trifling without being undignified and absurd.--Sydney Smith.

Still I am learning.--Motto of Michael Angelo.

If we work upon marble, it will perish; if we work upon brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples, they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon immortal minds, if we imbue them with principles, with the just fear of God and love of our fellow-men, we engrave on those tablets something which will brighten to all eternity.--Daniel Webster.