Pearls of Thought by Maturin Murray Ballou (inspirational books to read .txt) 📕

Genius has no brother, no co-mate; the love it inspires is that of a pupil or a son.--_Bulwer-Lytton._

The firmest friendships have been formed in mutual adversity; as iron is most strongly united by the fiercest flame.--_Colton._

Never contract a friendship with a man that is not better than thyself.--_Confucius._

There are three friendships which are advantageous, and three which are injurious. Friendship with the upright, friendship with the sincere, and friendship with the man of much information,--these are advantageous. Friendship with the man of specious airs, friendship with the insinuatingly soft, friendship with the glib-tongued,--these are injurious.--_Confucius._

Friendship survives death better than absence.--_J. Petit Senn._

This communicating of a man's self to his friend works two contrary effects, for it redoubleth joys and cutteth griefs in half: for there is no man that imparteth his joys to his friend, but he joyeth the more; and no man that imparteth his griefs to his friend, but he grieveth the less.--_Bacon._

Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the declining sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart.--_Washington Irving._

It may be worth noticing as a curious circumstance, when persons past forty before they were at all acquainted form together a very close intimacy of friendship. For grafts of _old_ wood to _take_, there must be a wonderful congeniality between the trees.--_Whately._

An old friend is not always the person whom it is easiest to make a confidant of.--_George Eliot._

~Fun.~--There is nothing like fun, is there? I haven't any myself, and I do like it in others. Oh, we need it,--we need all the counter-weights we can muster to balance the sad relations of life. God has made sunny spots in the heart; why should we exclude the light from them?--_Haliburton._

~Futurity.~--The best preparation for the future is the present well seen to, the last duty done.--_George MacDonald._

We always live prospectively, never retrospectively, and there is no abiding moment.--_Jacobi._

Another life, if it were not better than this, would be less a promise than a threat.--_J. Petit Senn._

The spirit of man, which God inspired, cannot together perish with this corporeal clod.--_Milton._


G.

~Gambling.~--Gaming is a kind of tacit confession that the company engaged therein do, in general, exceed the bounds of their respective fortunes, and therefore they cast lots to determine upon whom the ruin shall at present fall, that the rest may be saved a little longer.--_Blackstone._

A mode of transferring property without producing any intermediate good.--_Johnson._

~Gems.~--How very beautiful these gems are! It is strange how deeply colors seem to penetrate one, like scent. I suppose that is the reason why gems are used as spiritual emblems in the Revelation of St. John. They look like fragments of heaven.--_George Eliot._

~Generosity.~--A friend to everybody is often a friend to nobody, or else in his simplicity he robs his family to help strangers, and becomes brother to a beggar. There is wisdom in generosity as in everything else.--_Spurgeon._

Generosity is the accompaniment of high birth; pity and gratitude are its attendants.--_Corneille._

It is good to be unselfish and generous; but don't carry that too far. It will not do to give yourself to be melted down for the benefit of the tallow-trade; you must know where to find yourself.--_George Eliot._

If cruelty has its expiations and its remorses, generosity has its chances and its turns of good fortune; as if Providence reserved them for fitting occasions, that noble hearts may not be discouraged.--_Lamartine._

~Genius.~--Genius is rarely found without some mixture of eccentricity, as the strength of spirit is proved by the bubbles on its surface.--_Mrs. Balfour._

All great men are in some degree inspired.--_Cicero._

This is the highest miracle of genius: that things which are not should be as though they were; that the imaginations of one mind should become the personal recollections of another.--_Macaulay._

The path of genius is not less obstructed with disappointment than that of ambition.--_Voltaire._

One misfortune of extraordinary geniuses is that their very friends are more apt to admire than love them.--_Pope._

Genius speaks only to genius.--_Stanislaus._

A nation does wisely, if not well, in starving her men of genius. Fatten them, and they are done for.--_Charles Buxton._

Genius has no brother.--_Bulwer-Lytton._

Genius never grows old; young to-day, mature yesterday, vigorous to-morrow: always immortal. It is peculiar to no sex or condition, and is the divine gift to woman no less than to man.--_Juan Lewis._

~Gentleman.~--A gentleman's first characteristic is that fineness of structure in the body which renders it capable of the most delicate sensation; and of structure in the mind which renders it capable of the most delicate sympathies; one may say, simply, "fineness of nature." This is of course compatible with heroic bodily strength and mental firmness; in fact, heroic strength is not conceivable without such delicacy.--_Ruskin._

It is a grand old name, that of gentleman, and has been recognized as a rank and power in all stages of society. To possess this character is a dignity of itself, commanding the instinctive homage of every generous mind, and those who will not bow to titular rank will yet do homage to the gentleman. His qualities depend not upon fashion or manners, but upon moral worth; not on personal possessions, but on personal qualities. The Psalmist briefly describes him as one "that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart."--_Samuel Smiles._

There is no man that can teach us to be gentlemen better than Joseph Addison.--_Thackeray._

~Gentleness.~--Fearless gentleness is the most beautiful of feminine attractions, born of modesty and love.--_Mrs. Balfour._

Gentleness is far more successful in all its enterprises than violence; indeed, violence generally frustrates its own purpose, while gentleness scarcely ever fails.--_Locke._

Sweet speaking oft a currish heart reclaims.--_Sidney._

The golden beams of truth and the silken cords of love, twisted together, will draw men on with a sweet violence, whether they will or not.--_Cudworth._

~Gifts.~--One must be poor to know the luxury of giving!--_George Eliot._

Riches, understanding, beauty, are fair gifts of God.--_Luther._

And with them words of so sweet breath composed as made the things more rich.--_Shakespeare._

How can that gift leave a trace which has left no void?--_Madame Swetchine._

The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity.--_Mrs. Balfour._

Examples are few of men ruined by giving. Men are heroes in spending, very cravens in what they give.--_Bovee._

When a friend asks, there is no to-morrow.--_George Herbert._

Strange designs lurk under a gift. "Give the horse to his Holiness," said the cardinal. "I cannot serve you!"--_Zimmermann._

~Glory.~--To a father who loves his children victory has no charms. When the heart speaks, glory itself is an illusion.--_Napoleon._

Those who start for human glory, like the mettled hounds of Actaeon, must pursue the game not only where there is a path, but where there is none. They must be able to simulate and dissimulate, to leap and to creep; to conquer the earth like Caesar, or to fall down and kiss it like Brutus; to throw their sword like Brennus into the trembling scale; or, like Nelson, to snatch the laurels from the doubtful hand of Victory, while she is hesitating where to bestow them.--_Colton._

Obloquy is a necessary ingredient in the composition of all true glory.--_Burke._

The best kind of glory is that which is reflected from honesty,--such as was the glory of Cato and Aristides; but it was harmful to them both, and is seldom beneficial to any man whilst he lives; what it is to him after his death I cannot say, because I love not philosophy merely notional and conjectural, and no man who has made the experiment has been so kind as to come back to inform us.--_Cowley._

Nothing is so expensive as glory.--_Sydney Smith._

The love of glory can only create a hero, the contempt of it creates a wise man.--_Talleyrand._

~Gluttony.~--Whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame.--_Bible._

The kitchen is their shrine, the cook their priest, the table their altar, and their belly their god.--_Buck._

~God.~--He that doth the ravens feed, yea, providentially caters for the sparrow, be comfort to my age!--_Shakespeare._

To escape from evil, we must be made as far as possible like God; and this resemblance consists in becoming just and holy and wise.--_Plato._

Whenever I think of God I can only conceive him as a Being infinitely great and infinitely good. This last quality of the divine nature inspires me with such confidence and joy that I could have written even a _miserere_ in _tempo allegro_.--_Haydn._

All flows out from the Deity, and all must be absorbed in him again.--_Zoroaster._

It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such an opinion as is unworthy of him; for the one is unbelief, and the other is contumely; and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity.--_Bacon._

I have seen two miracles lately. I looked up, and saw the clouds above me in the noontide; and they looked like the sea that was hanging over me, and I could see no cord on which they were suspended, and yet they never fell. And then when the noontide had gone, and the midnight came, I looked again, and there was the dome of heaven, and it was spangled with stars, and I could see no pillars that held up the skies, and yet they never fell. Now He that holds the stars up and moves the clouds in their course can do all things, and I trust Him in the sight of these miracles.--_Luther._

This avenging God, rancorous torturer who burns his creatures in a slow fire! When they tell me that God made himself a man, I prefer to recognize a man who made himself a god.--_Alfred de Musset._

This is one of the names which we give to that eternal, infinite, and incomprehensible being, the Creator of all things, who preserves and governs everything by his almighty power and wisdom, and is the only object of our worship.--_Cruden._

~Gold.~--Midas longed for gold. He got gold so that whatever he touched became gold, and he, with his long ears, was little the better for it.--_Carlyle._

A mask of gold hides all deformities.--_Dekker._

There are two metals, one of which is omnipotent in the cabinet, and the other in the camp,--gold and iron. He that knows how to apply them both may indeed attain the highest station, but he must know something more to keep it.--_Colton._

Thou true magnetic pole, to which all hearts point duly north, like trembling needles!--_Byron._

Judges and senates have been bought for gold.--_Pope._

Gold is, in its last analysis, the sweat of the poor, and the blood of the brave.--_Joseph Napoleon._

Gold all is not that doth golden seem.--_Spenser._

There is no place so high that an ass laden with gold cannot reach it.--_Rojas._

~Good.~--When what is good comes of age and is likely to live, there is reason for rejoicing.--_George Eliot._

How indestructibly the good grows, and propagates itself, even among the weedy entanglements of evil!--_Carlyle._

Good, the more communicated, more abundant grows.--_Milton._

Whatever mitigates the woes or increases the happiness of others is a just criterion of goodness; and whatever injures society at large, or any individual in it, is a criterion of iniquity. One should not quarrel with a dog