Part 48

People are so ridiculous with their illusions, carrying their fool's caps unawares, thinking their own lies opaque while everybody else's are transparent, making themselves exceptions to everything, as if when all the world looked yellow under a lamp they alone were rosy.--George Eliot.

~Inconstancy.~--The catching court disease.--Otway.

Nothing that is not a real crime makes a man appear so contemptible and little in the eyes of the world as inconstancy.--Addison.

~Indifference.~--Nothing for preserving the body like having no heart.--J. Petit Senn.

Indifference is the invincible giant of the world.--Ouida.

~Indigestion.~--Old friendships are destroyed by toasted cheese, and hard salted meat has led to suicide. Unpleasant feelings of the body produce correspondent sensations in the mind, and a great scene of wretchedness is sketched out by a morsel of indigestible and misguided food.--Sydney Smith.

~Individuality.~--There are men of convictions whose very faces will light up an era, and there are believing women in whose eyes you may almost read the whole plan of salvation.--T. Fields.

Individuality is everywhere to be spared and respected as the root of everything good.--Richter.

The epoch of individuality is concluded, and it is the duty of reformers to initiate the epoch of association. Collective man is omnipotent upon the earth he treads.--Mazzini.

~Indolence.~--I look upon indolence as a sort of suicide; for the man is effectually destroyed, though the appetite of the brute may survive.--Chesterfield.

Lives spent in indolence, and therefore sad.--Cowper.

Days of respite are golden days.--South.

So long as he must fight his way, the man of genius pushes forward, conquering and to conquer. But how often is he at last overcome by a Capua! Ease and fame bring sloth and slumber.--Charles Buxton.

Nothing ages like laziness.--Bulwer-Lytton.

~Indulgence.~--One wishes to be happy before becoming wise.--Mme. Necker.

~Industry.~--Mankind are more indebted to industry than ingenuity; the gods set up their favors at a price, and industry is the purchaser.--Addison.

Application is the price to be paid for mental acquisition. To have the harvest we must sow the seed.--Bailey.

~Infidelity.~--There is but one thing without honor; smitten with eternal barrenness, inability to do or to be,--insincerity, unbelief. He who believes no thing, who believes only the shows of things, is not in relation with nature and fact at all.--Carlyle.

I would rather dwell in the dim fog of superstition than in air rarefied to nothing by the air-pump of unbelief; in which the panting breast expires, vainly and convulsively gasping for breath.--Richter.

If on one side there are fair proofs, and no pretense of proof on the other, and that the difficulties are more pressing on that side which is destitute of proof, I desire to know whether this be not upon the matter as satisfactory to a wise man as a demonstration.--Tillotson.

The nurse of infidelity is sensuality.--Cecil.

Men always grow vicious before they become unbelievers; but if you would once convince profligates by topics drawn from the view of their own quiet, reputation, and health, their infidelity would soon drop off.--Swift.

Infidelity gives nothing in return for what it takes away. What, then, is it worth? Everything valuable has a compensating power. Not a blade of grass that withers, or the ugliest weed that is flung away to rot and die, but reproduces something.--Dr. Chalmers.

~Infirmities.~--Never mind what a man's virtues are; waste no time in learning them. Fasten at once on his infirmities.--Bulwer-Lytton.

~Influence.~--He who wishes to exert a useful influence must be careful to insult nothing. Let him not be troubled by what seems absurd, but let him consecrate his energies to the creation of what is good. He must not demolish, but build. He must raise temples where mankind may come and partake of the purest pleasures.--Goethe.

If I can put one touch of a rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, I shall feel that I have worked with God.--George MacDonald.

The city reveals the moral ends of being, and sets the awful problem of life. The country soothes us, refreshes us, lifts us up with religious suggestion.--Chapin.

It is the age that forms the man, not the man that forms the age. Great minds do indeed react on the society which has made them what they are, but they only pay with interest what they have received.--Macaulay.