Part 37

There is no man that can teach us to be gentlemen better than Joseph Addison.--Thackeray.

~Gentleness.~--Fearless gentleness is the most beautiful of feminine attractions, born of modesty and love.--Mrs. Balfour.

Gentleness is far more successful in all its enterprises than violence; indeed, violence generally frustrates its own purpose, while gentleness scarcely ever fails.--Locke.

Sweet speaking oft a currish heart reclaims.--Sidney.

The golden beams of truth and the silken cords of love, twisted together, will draw men on with a sweet violence, whether they will or not.--Cudworth.

~Gifts.~--One must be poor to know the luxury of giving!--George Eliot.

Riches, understanding, beauty, are fair gifts of God.--Luther.

And with them words of so sweet breath composed as made the things more rich.--Shakespeare.

How can that gift leave a trace which has left no void?--Madame Swetchine.

The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity.--Mrs. Balfour.

Examples are few of men ruined by giving. Men are heroes in spending, very cravens in what they give.--Bovée.

When a friend asks, there is no to-morrow.--George Herbert.

Strange designs lurk under a gift. "Give the horse to his Holiness," said the cardinal. "I cannot serve you!"--Zimmermann.

~Glory.~--To a father who loves his children victory has no charms. When the heart speaks, glory itself is an illusion.--Napoleon.

Those who start for human glory, like the mettled hounds of Actæon, must pursue the game not only where there is a path, but where there is none. They must be able to simulate and dissimulate, to leap and to creep; to conquer the earth like Cæsar, or to fall down and kiss it like Brutus; to throw their sword like Brennus into the trembling scale; or, like Nelson, to snatch the laurels from the doubtful hand of Victory, while she is hesitating where to bestow them.--Colton.

Obloquy is a necessary ingredient in the composition of all true glory.--Burke.

The best kind of glory is that which is reflected from honesty,--such as was the glory of Cato and Aristides; but it was harmful to them both, and is seldom beneficial to any man whilst he lives; what it is to him after his death I cannot say, because I love not philosophy merely notional and conjectural, and no man who has made the experiment has been so kind as to come back to inform us.--Cowley.

Nothing is so expensive as glory.--Sydney Smith.

The love of glory can only create a hero, the contempt of it creates a wise man.--Talleyrand.

~Gluttony.~--Whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame.--Bible.

The kitchen is their shrine, the cook their priest, the table their altar, and their belly their god.--Buck.

~God.~--He that doth the ravens feed, yea, providentially caters for the sparrow, be comfort to my age!--Shakespeare.

To escape from evil, we must be made as far as possible like God; and this resemblance consists in becoming just and holy and wise.--Plato.

Whenever I think of God I can only conceive him as a Being infinitely great and infinitely good. This last quality of the divine nature inspires me with such confidence and joy that I could have written even a miserere in tempo allegro.--Haydn.

All flows out from the Deity, and all must be absorbed in him again.--Zoroaster.

It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such an opinion as is unworthy of him; for the one is unbelief, and the other is contumely; and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity.--Bacon.

I have seen two miracles lately. I looked up, and saw the clouds above me in the noontide; and they looked like the sea that was hanging over me, and I could see no cord on which they were suspended, and yet they never fell. And then when the noontide had gone, and the midnight came, I looked again, and there was the dome of heaven, and it was spangled with stars, and I could see no pillars that held up the skies, and yet they never fell. Now He that holds the stars up and moves the clouds in their course can do all things, and I trust Him in the sight of these miracles.--Luther.

This avenging God, rancorous torturer who burns his creatures in a slow fire! When they tell me that God made himself a man, I prefer to recognize a man who made himself a god.--Alfred de Musset.