John Lancaster Spalding quotes - page 8

We neglect the opportunities which are always present, and imagine that if those that are rare were offered, we should put them to good use. Thus we waste life waiting for what if it came we should be unprepared for. (John Lancaster Spalding)
What a wise man knows seems so plain and simple to himself that he easily makes the mistake of thinking it to be so for others. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
The test of the worth of work is its effect on the worker. If it degrade him, it is bad; if it ennoble him, it is good. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
They who no longer believe in principles still proclaim them, to conceal, both from themselves and others, the selfishness of the motives by which they are dominated. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
O brave youth, how good for thee it were couldst thou be made to understand how infinitely precious are thy school years-years when thou hast leisure to grow, when new worlds break in upon thee, and thou fashionest thy being in the light of the ideals of truth and goodness and beauty! If now thou dost not fit thyself to become free and whole, thou shalt, when the doors of this fair mother-house of the mind, close behind thee, be driven into ways that lead to bondage, be compelled to do that which cripples and dwarfs; for the work whereby men gain a livelihood involves mental and moral mutilation, unless it be done in the spirit of religion and culture. Ah! well for thee, canst thou learn while yet there is time that it will profit thee nothing to become the possessor of millions, if the price thou payest is thy manhood. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
Be content that others have position, if thou hast ability: that others have riches, if thou hast virtue. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
In our thrifty populations of merchants, manufacturers, politicians, and professional men, there is little sense for beauty, little pure thought, little genuine culture; but they are prosperous and self-satisfied. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
To how much lying, extravagance, hypocrisy and servilism does not the fear of ridicule lead? Human respect makes us cowards and slaves. It may deter from evil, but much oftener it drives to baseness. "We are too much afraid,” said Cato, "of death, exile and poverty.”. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
The test of the worth of a school is not the amount of knowledge it imparts, but the self-activity it calls forth. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
The narrow-minded and petty sticklers for the formalities which hedge rank and office are the true vulgarians, however observant they be of etiquette. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
Believe in no triumph which is won by the deadening of human faculty or the dwarfing of human life. Strive for truth and love, not for victory. (John Lancaster Spalding)
Beauty least adorned is most adorned. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
Rules of grammar can not give us a mastery of language, rules of rhetoric can not make us eloquent, rules of conduct can not make us good. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
God has not made a world which suits all; how shall a sane man expect to please all? View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
Mercenary is whoever thinks less of his work than of the money he receives for doing it; and social conditions which impose tasks that make this inevitable are barbarous. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
The happiness of the ignorant is but an animal's paradise. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
The seeking for truth is better than its loveless possession. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
What purifies the heart refines language. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
When with all thy heart thou strivest to live with truth and love, couldst thou do anything better? ... If this be thy life, thou shalt not deem it a misfortune to lack the things men most crave and toil for. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
Conversation injures more than it benefits. Men talk to escape from themselves, from sheer dread of silence. Reflection makes them uncomfortable, and they find distraction in a noise of words. They seek not the company of those who might enlighten and improve them, but that of whoever can divert and amuse them. Thus the intercourse which ought to be a chief means of education, is for the most part, the occasion of mental and moral enfeeblement. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
The value of a mind is measured by the nature of the objects it habitually contemplates. They whose thoughts are of trifles are trifling: they who dwell with what is eternally true, good and fair, are like unto God. (John Lancaster Spalding)
It is the business of culture to make us able to consider with intelligent interest all real opinions, even those we do not and can not accept. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
If thou canst not hold the golden mean, say and do too little rather than too much. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
Drunkards and sensualists have become heroes and saints; but sluggards have never risen to the significance and worth of human beings. Sloth enfeebles the root of life, and degrades more surely, if less swiftly, than the sins of passion. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding
No pure delight cheers the farmer whose mind is intent on the price he shall get for his crops rather than on the joy there is in tilling them and seeing them grow and ripen: for such an one does not love the land nor his home nor any of the most beautiful and sacred things, but tends to become like the brute that eats and sleeps and dies. His thoughts are with what feeds the animal, and that which nourishes the human is hidden from him. View quote
John Lancaster Spalding