Many Thoughts of Many Minds Part 48

Seek not the favor of the mult.i.tude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them.--KANT.

Those men who are commended by everybody must be very extraordinary men; or, which is more probable, very inconsiderable men.--LORD GREVILLE.

POVERTY.--Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.--DR. JOHNSON.

In one important respect a man is fortunate in being poor. His responsibility to G.o.d is so much the less.--BOVEE.

Morality and religion are but words to him who fishes in gutters for the means of sustaining life, and crouches behind barrels in the street for shelter from the cutting blasts of a winter night.--HORACE GREELEY.

Poverty is the only burden which is not lightened by being shared with others.--RICHTER.

We should not so much esteem our poverty as a misfortune, were it not that the world treats it so much as a crime.--BOVEE.

Poverty is the test of civility and the touchstone of friends.h.i.+p.

--HAZLITT.

There is not such a mighty difference as some men imagine between the poor and the rich; in pomp, show, and opinion there is a great deal, but little as to the pleasures and satisfactions of life: they enjoy the same earth and air and heavens; hunger and thirst make the poor man's meat and drink as pleasant and relis.h.i.+ng as all the varieties which cover the rich man's table; and the labor of a poor man is more healthful, and many times more pleasant, too, than the ease and softness of the rich.--SHERLOCK.

Want is a bitter and a hateful good, Because its virtues are not understood; Yet many things, impossible to thought, Have been by need to full perfection brought.

The daring of the soul proceeds from thence, Sharpness of wit, and active diligence; Prudence at once, and fort.i.tude it gives; And, if in patience taken, mends our lives.

--DRYDEN.

Few things in this world more trouble people than poverty, or the fear of poverty; and, indeed, it is a sore affliction; but, like all other ills that flesh is heir to, it has its antidote, its reliable remedy.

The judicious application of industry, prudence and temperance is a certain cure.--HOSEA BALLOU.

That man is to be accounted poor, of whatever rank he be, and suffers the pains of poverty, whose expenses exceed his resources; and no man is, properly speaking, poor, but he.--PALEY.

That some of the indigent among us die of scanty food is undoubtedly true; but vastly more in this community die from eating too much than from eating too little.--CHANNING.

Poverty is the only load which is the heavier the more loved ones there are to a.s.sist in supporting it.--RICHTER.

POWER.--Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads. No man is wise enough, nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power.--COLTON.

The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall.--BACON.

Even in war, moral power is to physical as three parts out of four.

--NAPOLEON.

The less power a man has, the more he likes to use it.--J. PEt.i.t-SENN.

The greater a man is in power above others, the more he ought to excel them in virtue. None ought to govern who is not better than the governed.--PUBLIUS SYRUS.

It is an observation no less just than common, that there is no stronger test of a man's real character than power and authority, exciting, as they do, every pa.s.sion, and discovering every latent vice.--PLUTARCH.

PRAISE.--Words of praise, indeed, are almost as necessary to warm a child into a genial life as acts of kindness and affection. Judicious praise is to children what the sun is to flowers.--BOVEE.

Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.--PROVERBS 27:2.

For if good were not praised more than ill, None would chuse goodness of his own free will.

--SPENSER.

Praise has different effects, according to the mind it meets with; it makes a wise man modest, but a fool more arrogant, turning his weak brain giddy.--FELTHAM.

Solid pudding against empty praise.--POPE.

It is always esteemed the greatest mischief a man can do to those whom he loves, to raise men's expectations of them too high by undue and impertinent commendations.--SPRAT.

Speak not in high commendation of any man to his face, nor censure any man behind his back; but if thou knowest anything good of him, tell it unto others; if anything ill, tell it privately and prudently to himself.--BURKITT.

As the Greek said, "Many men know how to flatter, few men know how to praise."--WENDELL PHILLIPS.

It is singular how impatient men are with overpraise of others, how patient of overpraise of themselves; and yet the one does them no injury, while the other may be their ruin.--LOWELL.

Good things should be praised.--SHAKESPEARE.

He hurts me most who lavishly commends.--CHURCHILL.

The love of praise, howe'er concealed by art, Reigns more or less and glows in every heart.

--YOUNG.

Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity.

It becomes cheap as it becomes vulgar, and will no longer raise expectation or animate enterprise.--DR. JOHNSON.

It is the greatest possible praise to be praised by a man who is himself deserving of praise.--FROM THE LATIN.

He who praises you for what you have not, wishes to take from you what you have.--MANUEL.

Thou may'st be more prodigal of praise when thou writest a letter than when thou speakest in presence.--FULLER.

Those who are greedy of praise prove that they are poor in merit.

--PLUTARCH.

What a person praises is perhaps a surer standard, even than what he condemns, of his own character, information and abilities.--HARE.

Allow no man to be so free with you as to praise you to your face.

--STEELE.

Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.--PSALM 150:6.

Whenever you commend, add your reasons for doing so; it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the flattery of sycophants and admiration of fools.--STEELE.

PRAYER.--The first pet.i.tion that we are to make to Almighty G.o.d is for a good conscience, the next for health of mind, and then of body.

--SENECA.