Pearls of Thought Part 57

The vainest woman is never thoroughly conscious of her beauty till she is loved by the man who sets her own pa.s.sion vibrating in return.--_George Eliot._

Vanity is the quicksand of reason.--_George Sand._

To be vain is rather a mark of humility than pride. Vain men delight in telling what honors have been done them, what great company they have kept, and the like; by which they plainly confess that these honors were more than their due and such as their friends would not believe if they had not been told. Whereas a man truly proud thinks the greatest honors below his merits, and consequently scorns to boast. I, therefore, deliver it as a maxim, that whoever desires the character of a proud man ought to conceal his vanity.--_Swift._

~Vexations.~--Petty vexations may at times be petty, but still they are vexations. The smallest and most inconsiderable annoyances are the most piercing. As small letters weary the eye most, so also the smallest affairs disturb us most.--_Montaigne._

~Vice.~--As to the general design of providence, the two extremes of vice may serve (like two opposite biases) to keep up the balance of things.

When we speak against one capital vice, we ought to speak against its opposite; the middle betwixt both is the point for virtue.--_Pope._

This is the essential evil of vice; it debases a man.--_Chapin._

It is only in some corner of the brain which we leave empty that Vice can obtain a lodging. When she knocks at your door be able to say: "No room for your ladys.h.i.+p: pa.s.s on."--_Bulwer-Lytton._

I ne'er heard yet that any of these bolder vices wanted less impudence to gainsay what they did, than to perform it first.--_Shakespeare._

Wise men will apply their remedies to vices, not to names; to the causes of evil which are permanent, not the occasional organs by which they act, and the transitory modes in which they appear.--_Burke._

One vice worn out makes us wiser than fifty tutors.--_Bulwer-Lytton._

~Vicissitudes.~--We do not marvel at the sunrise of a joy, only at its sunset! Then, on the other hand, we are amazed at the commencement of a sorrow-storm; but that it should go off in gentle showers we think quite natural.--_Richter._

Who ordered toil as the condition of life, ordered weariness, ordered sickness, ordered poverty, failure, success,--to this man a foremost place, to the other a nameless struggle with the crowd; to that a shameful fall, or paralyzed limb, or sudden accident; to each some work upon the ground he stands on, until he is laid beneath it.--_Thackeray._

~Victory.~--Victory or Westminster Abbey.--_Nelson._

Victory may be honorable to the arms, but shameful to the counsels, of a nation.--_Bolingbroke._

Victory belongs to the most persevering.--_Napoleon._

It is more difficult to look upon victory than upon battle.--_Walter Scott._

~Villainy.~--Villainy, when detected, never gives up, but boldly adds impudence to imposture.--_Goldsmith._

Villainy that is vigilant will be an overmatch for virtue, if she slumber at her post.--_Colton._

~Violence.~--Nothing good comes of violence.--_Luther._

Violence does even justice unjustly.--_Carlyle._

Vehemence without feeling is rant.--_H. Lewes._

~Virtue.~--I willingly confess that it likes me better when I find virtue in a fair lodging than when I am bound to seek it in an ill-favored creature.--_Sir P. Sidney._

This is the tax a man must pay to his virtues--they hold up a torch to his vices, and render those frailties notorious in him which would have pa.s.sed without observation in another.--_Colton._

True greatness is sovereign wisdom. We are never deceived by our virtues.--_Lamartine._

It would not be easy, even for an unbeliever, to find a better translation of the rule of virtue from the abstract into the concrete, than to endeavor so to live that Christ would approve our life.--_John Stuart Mill._

Most men admire virtue, who follow not her lore.--_Milton._

To be able under all circ.u.mstances to practice five things const.i.tutes perfect virtue: these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.--_Confucius._

Of the two, I prefer those who render vice lovable to those who degrade virtue.--_Joubert._

No man can purchase his virtue too dear, for it is the only thing whose value must ever increase with the price it has cost us. Our integrity is never worth so much as when we have parted with our all to keep it.--_Colton._

Virtue can see to do what virtue would by her own radiant light, though sun and moon were in the flat sea sunk.--_Milton._

Virtue is voluntary, vice involuntary.--_Plato._

Virtue is a rough way but proves at night a bed of down.--_Wotton._

Is virtue a thing remote? I wish to be virtuous, and lo! virtue is at hand.--_Confucius._

Virtues that shun the day and lie concealed in the smooth seasons and the calm of life.--_Addison._

That virtue which requires to be ever guarded is scarce worth the sentinel.--_Goldsmith._

Why expect that extraordinary virtues should be in one person united, when one virtue makes a man extraordinary? Alexander is eminent for his courage; Ptolemy for his wisdom; Scipio for his continence; Trajan for his love of truth; Constantius for his temperance.--_Zimmermann._

Virtue dwells at the head of a river, to which we cannot get but by rowing against the stream.--_Feltham._

Our virtues live upon our income, our vices consume our capital.--_J.

Pet.i.t Senn._

Wealth is a weak anchor, and glory cannot support a man; this is the law of G.o.d, that virtue only is firm, and cannot be shaken by a tempest.--_Pythagoras._

All bow to virtue and then walk away.--_De Finod._

Virtue is an angel; but she is a blind one, and must ask of Knowledge to show her the pathway that leads to her goal. Mere knowledge, on the other hand, like a Swiss mercenary, is ready to combat either in the ranks of sin or under the banners of righteousness,--ready to forge cannon-b.a.l.l.s or to print New Testaments, to navigate a corsair's vessel or a missionary s.h.i.+p.--_Horace Mann._

~Vulgarity.~--The vulgarity of inanimate things requires time to get accustomed to; but living, breathing, bustling, plotting, planning, human vulgarity is a species of moral ipecacuanha, enough to destroy any comfort.--_Carlyle._

Dirty work wants little talent and no conscience.--_George Eliot._

W.

~Waiting.~--It is the slowest pulsation which is the most vital. The hero will then know how to wait, as well as to make haste. All good abides with him who waiteth wisely.--_Th.o.r.eau._

~Want.~--Nothing makes men sharper than want.--_Addison._

Hundreds would never have known _want_ if they had not first known _waste_.--_Spurgeon._

It is not from nature, but from education and habits, that our wants are chiefly derived.--_Fielding._