Part 82

We can only reason from what is; we can reason on actualities, but not on possibilities.--Bolingbroke.

I do not call reason that brutal reason which crushes with its weight what is holy and sacred; that malignant reason which delights in the errors it succeeds in discovering; that unfeeling and scornful reason which insults credulity.--Joubert.

I have no other but a woman's reason: I think him so, because I think him so.--Shakespeare.

Reason 's progressive; instinct is complete: swift instinct leaps; slow reason feebly climbs.--Young.

Faith evermore looks upward and descries objects remote; but reason can discover things only near,--sees nothing that's above her.--Quarles.

How can finite grasp infinity?--Dryden.

Let us not dream that reason can ever be popular. Passions, emotions, may be made popular, but reason remains ever the property of the few.--Goethe.

Reason is, so to speak, the police of the kingdom of art, seeking only to preserve order. In life itself a cold arithmetician who adds up our follies. Sometimes, alas! only the accountant in bankruptcy of a broken heart.--Heinrich Heine.

Sure He that made us with such large discourse, looking before and after, gave us not that capability and godlike reason to rust in us unused.--Shakespeare.

Reason may cure illusions but not suffering.--Alfred de Musset.

~Reciprocity.~--There is one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life, that word is reciprocity. What you do not wish done to yourself, do not do to others.--Confucius.

~Reconciliation.~--It is much safer to reconcile an enemy than to conquer him; victory may deprive him of his poison, but reconciliation of his will.--Owen Feltham.

~Rectitude.~--The great high-road of human welfare lies along the highway of steadfast well-doing, and they who are the most persistent, and work in the truest spirit, will invariably be the most successful.--Samuel Smiles.

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see.--Thoreau.

No man can do right unless he is good, wise, and strong. What wonder we fail?--Charles Buxton.

~Refinement.~--Refinement that carries us away from our fellow-men is not God's refinement.--Beecher.

Refinement is the lifting of one's self upwards from the merely sensual, the effort of the soul to etherealize the common wants and uses of life.--Beecher.

~Reflection.~--We are told, "Let not the sun go down on your wrath." This, of course, is best; but, as it generally does, I would add, never act or write till it has done so. This rule has saved me from many an act of folly. It is wonderful what a different view we take of the same event four-and-twenty hours after it has happened.--Sydney Smith.

~Reform.~--We are reformers in spring and summer; in autumn and winter we stand by the old--reformers in the morning, conservatives at night. Reform is affirmative, conservatism is negative; conservatism goes for comfort, reform for truth.--Emerson.

Long is the way and hard, that out of hell leads up to light.--Milton.

Conscious remorse and anguish must be felt, to curb desire, to break the stubborn will, and work a second nature in the soul.--Rowe.

They say best men are moulded out of faults, and, for the most, become much more the better for being a little bad!--Shakespeare.

~Regret.~--Why is it that a blessing only when it is lost cuts as deep into the heart as a sharp diamond? Why must we first weep before we can love so deeply that our hearts ache?--Richter.

~Religion.~--Natural religion supplies still all the facts which are disguised under the dogma of popular creeds. The progress of religion is steadily to its identity with morals.--Emerson.

I endeavor in vain to give my parishioners more cheerful ideas of religion; to teach them that God is not a jealous, childish, merciless tyrant; that He is best served by a regular tenor of good actions, not by bad singing, ill-composed prayers, and eternal apprehensions. But the luxury of false religion is to be unhappy!--Sydney Smith.

Nowhere would there be consolation if religion were not.--Jacobi.

Monopolies are just as injurious to religion as to trade. With competition religions preserve their strength, but they will never again flourish in their original glory until religious freedom, or, in other words, free trade among the gods, is introduced.--Heinrich Heine.

A religion giving dark views of God, and infusing superstitious fear of innocent enjoyment, instead of aiding sober habits, will, by making men abject and sad, impair their moral force, and prepare them for intemperance as a refuge from depression or despair.--Channing.