Many Thoughts of Many Minds Part 31

--PUBLIUS SYRUS.

INNOCENCE.--We have not the innocence of Eden; but by G.o.d's help and Christ's example we may have the victory of Gethsemane.--CHAPIN.

True, conscious honor, is to feel no sin; He's arm'd without that's innocent within.

--HORACE.

Innocence is a flower which withers when touched, but blooms not again, though watered with tears.--HOOPER.

To be innocent is to be not guilty; but to be virtuous is to overcome our evil inclinations.--WILLIAM PENN.

How many bitter thoughts does the innocent man avoid! Serenity and cheerfulness are his portion. Hope is continually pouring its balm into his soul. His heart is at rest, whilst others are goaded and tortured by the stings of a wounded conscience, the remonstrances and risings up of principles which they cannot forget; perpetually teased by returning temptations, perpetually lamenting defeated resolutions.

--PALEY.

Oh, keep me innocent; make others great!--CAROLINE OF DENMARK.

There are some reasoners who frequently confound innocence with the mere incapacity of guilt; but he that never saw, or heard, or thought of strong liquors, cannot be proposed as a pattern of sobriety.

--DR. JOHNSON.

Let our lives be pure as snow-fields, where our footsteps leave a mark, but not a stain.--MADAME SWETCHINE.

There is no courage but in innocence, no constancy but in an honest cause.--SOUTHERN.

INSPIRATION.--Do we not all agree to call rapid thought and n.o.ble impulse by the name of inspiration?--GEORGE ELIOT.

The glow of inspiration warms us; this holy rapture springs from the seeds of the Divine mind sown in man.--OVID.

No man was ever great without divine inspiration.--CICERO.

A lively and agreeable man has not only the merit of liveliness and agreeableness himself, but that also of awakening them in others.

--GREVILLE.

INTELLECT.--If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him.--FRANKLIN.

Alexander the Great valued learning so highly, that he used to say he was more indebted to Aristotle for giving him knowledge than to his father Philip for life.--SAMUEL SMILES.

A man cannot leave a better legacy to the world than a well-educated family.--REV. THOMAS SCOTT.

Times of general calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm.--COLTON.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think.--EMERSON.

G.o.d has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.--BACON.

Every mind was made for growth, for knowledge; and its nature is sinned against when it is doomed to ignorance.--CHANNING.

To be able to discern that what is true is true, and that what is false is false,--this is the mark and character of intelligence.

--EMERSON.

INTEMPERANCE.--A man may choose whether he will have abstemiousness and knowledge, or claret and ignorance.--DR. JOHNSON.

Intemperance weaves the winding-sheet of souls.--JOHN B. GOUGH.

Drunkenness calls off the watchman from the towers; and then all the evils that proceed from a loose heart, an untied tongue, and a dissolute spirit, we put upon its account.--JEREMY TAYLOR.

It is little the sign of a wise or good man, to suffer temperance to be transgressed in order to purchase the repute of a generous entertainer.--ATTERBURY.

Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?

They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.

Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright: at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.--PROVERBS 23:29-32.

O, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains!--SHAKESPEARE.

I never drink. I cannot do it, on equal terms with others. It costs them only one day; but me three,--the first in sinning, the second in suffering, and the third in repenting.--STERNE.

Wise men mingle mirth with their cares, as a help either to forget or overcome them; but to resort to intoxication for the ease of one's mind is to cure melancholy by madness.--CHARRON.

Greatness of any kind has no greater foe than a habit of drinking.

--WALTER SCOTT.

Intemperance is a great decayer of beauty.--JUNIUS.

Sinners, hear and consider; if you wilfully condemn your souls to b.e.s.t.i.a.lity, G.o.d will condemn them to perpetual misery.--BAXTER.

The habit of using ardent spirits, by men in office, has occasioned more injury to the public, and more trouble to me, than all other causes. And were I to commence my administration again, the first question I would ask, respecting a candidate for office would be, "Does he use ardent spirits?"--JEFFERSON.

JEALOUSY.--People who are jealous, or particularly careful of their own rights and dignity, always find enough of those who do not care for either to keep them continually uncomfortable.--BARNES.

It is with jealousy as with the gout. When such distempers are in the blood, there is never any security against their breaking out, and that often on the slightest occasions, and when least suspected.

--FIELDING.

All the other pa.s.sions condescend at times to accept the inexorable logic of facts; but jealousy looks facts straight in the face, ignores them utterly, and says that she knows a great deal better than they can tell her.--HELPS.

The jealous man's disease is of so malignant a nature that it converts all it takes into its own nourishment.--ADDISON.

Trifles light as air Are to the jealous confirmations strong As proofs of holy writ.

--SHAKESPEARE.

Jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.--SONG OF SOLOMON 8:6.

Yet is there one more cursed than they all, That canker-worm, that monster, jealousie, Which eats the heart and feeds upon the gall, Turning all love's delight to misery, Through fear of losing his felicity.

--SPENSER.

JOY.--The very society of joy redoubles it; so that, whilst it lights upon my friend it rebounds upon myself, and the brighter his candle burns the more easily will it light mine.--SOUTH.