Pearls of Thought Part 36

Pet.i.t Senn._

In all meanness there is a deficit of intellect as well as of heart, and even the cleverness of avarice is but the cunning of imbecility.--_Bulwer-Lytton._

~Misery.~--There are a good many real miseries in life that we cannot help smiling at, but they are the smiles that make wrinkles and not dimples.--_Holmes._

Misery is so little appertaining to our nature, and happiness so much so, that we in the same degree of illusion only lament over that which has pained us, but leave unnoticed that which has rejoiced us.--_Richter._

~Misfortune.~--If all the misfortunes of mankind were cast into a public stock, in order to be equally distributed among the whole species, those who now think themselves the most unhappy would prefer the share they are already possessed of before that which would fall to them by such a division.--_Socrates._

Depend upon it, that if a man _talks_ of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery, there never is any recourse to the mention of it.--_Johnson._

Flowers never emit so sweet and strong a fragrance as before a storm.

Beauteous soul! when a storm approaches thee be as fragrant as a sweet-smelling flower.--_Richter._

Our bravest lessons are not learned through success, but misadventure.--_Alcott._

There is a chill air surrounding those who are down in the world, and people are glad to get away from them, as from a cold room.--_George Eliot._

Men shut their doors against the setting sun.--_Shakespeare._

He that is down needs fear no fall.--_Bunyan._

~Moderation.~--Till men have been some time free, they know not how to use their freedom. The natives of wine countries are generally sober. In climates where wine is a rarity intemperance abounds. A newly liberated people may be compared to a Northern army encamped on the Rhine or the Xeres. It is said that, when soldiers in such a situation first find themselves able to indulge without restraint in such a rare and expensive luxury, nothing is to be seen but intoxication. Soon, however, plenty teaches discretion; and after wine has been for a few months their daily fare, they become more temperate than they had ever been in their own country. In the same manner, the final and permanent fruits of liberty are wisdom, moderation, and mercy.--_Macaulay._

The superior man wishes to be slow in his words, and earnest in his conduct.--_Confucius._

Let a man take time enough for the most trivial deed, though it be but the paring of his nails. The buds swell imperceptibly, without hurry or confusion; as if the short spring days were an eternity.--_Th.o.r.eau._

It is a little stream which flows softly, but freshens everything along its course.--_Madame Swetchine._

~Modesty.~--False modesty is the last refinement of vanity. It is a lie.--_Bruyere._

The first of all virtues is innocence; the next is modesty. If we banish Modesty out of the world, she carries away with her half the virtue that is in it.--_Addison._

He of his port was meek as is a maid.--_Chaucer._

Modesty is the lowest of the virtues, and is a confession of the deficiency it indicates. He who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others.--_Hazlitt._

Modesty, who, when she goes, is gone forever.--_Landor._

Modesty is the conscience of the body.--_Balzac._

There are as many kinds of modesty as there are races. To the English woman it is a duty; to the French woman a propriety.--_Taine._

Virtue which shuns the day.--_Addison._

Modesty and the dew love the shade. Each s.h.i.+ne in the open day only to be exhaled to heaven.--_J. Pet.i.t Senn._

Modesty is still a provocation.--_Poincelot._

Modesty is the chast.i.ty of merit, the virginity of n.o.ble souls.--_E. de Girardin._

~Money.~--Wisdom, knowledge, power--all combined.--_Byron._

Oh, what a world of vile ill-favored faults looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year!--_Shakespeare._

It is my opinion that a man's soul may be buried and perish under a dung-heap, or in a furrow of the field, just as well as under a pile of money.--_Hawthorne._

If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some; for he that goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing.--_Franklin._

Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.--_Wesley._

The avaricious love of gain, which is so feelingly deplored, appears to us a principle which, in able hands, might be guided to the most salutary purposes. The object is to encourage the love of labor, which is best encouraged by the love of money.--_Sydney Smith._

Ready money is Aladdin's lamp.--_Byron._

Money does all things; for it gives and it takes away, it makes honest men and knaves, fools and philosophers; and so forward, _mutatis mutandis_, to the end of the chapter.--_L'Estrange._

Mammon is the largest slave-holder in the world.--_Fred. Saunders._

But for money and the need of it, there would not be half the friends.h.i.+p in the world. It is powerful for good if divinely used. Give it plenty of air and it is sweet as the hawthorn; shut it up and it cankers and breeds worms.--_George MacDonald._

Money, the life-blood of the nation.--_Swift._

~Moon.~--The silver empress of the night.--_Tickell._

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank.--_Shakespeare._

Mysterious veil of brightness made.--_Butler._

Cynthia, fair regent of the night.--_Gay._

The maiden moon in her mantle of blue.--_Joaquin Miller._

~Morals.~--Every age and every nation has certain characteristic vices, which prevail almost universally, which scarcely any person scruples to avow, and which even rigid moralists but faintly censure. Succeeding generations change the fas.h.i.+on of their morals with the fas.h.i.+on of their hats and their coaches; take some other kind of wickedness under their patronage, and wonder at the depravity of their ancestors.--_Macaulay._

We like the expression of Raphael's faces without an edict to enforce it. I do not see why there should not be a taste in morals formed on the same principle.--_Hazlitt._

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.--_Th.o.r.eau._

~Morning.~--Vanished night, shot through with orient beams.--_Milton._

The dewy morn, with breath all incense, and with cheek all bloom.--_Byron._

Jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain top.--_Shakespeare._

When the glad sun, exulting in his might, comes from the dusky-curtained tents of night.--_Emma C. Embury._

The c.o.c.k, that is the trumpet of the morn, doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat awake the G.o.d of day.--_Shakespeare._