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

last attainment. Men are very long afraid of being natural, from the dread of being taken for ordinary.--_Jeffrey._

Kings themselves cannot force the exquisite politeness of distance to capitulate, hid behind its shield of bronze.--_Balzac._

Comport thyself in life as at a banquet. If a plate is offered thee, extend thy hand and take it moderately; if it be withdrawn, do not detain it. If it come not to thy side, make not thy desire loudly known, but wait patiently till it be offered thee.--_Epictetus._

Good manners and good morals are sworn friends and firm allies.--_Bartol._

The "over-formal" often impede, and sometimes frustrate, business by a dilatory, tedious, circuitous, and (what in colloquial language is called) fussy way of conducting the simplest transactions. They have been compared to a dog which cannot lie down till he has made three circuits round the spot.--_Whately._

~Martyrs.~--Even in this world they will have their judgment-day, and their names, which went down in the dust like a gallant banner trodden in the mire, shall rise again all glorious in the sight of nations.--_Mrs. Stowe._

It is not the death that makes the martyr, but the cause.--_Canon Dale._

It is admirable to die the victim of one's faith; it is sad to die the dupe of one's ambition.--_Lamartine._

God discovers the martyr and confessor without the trial of flames and tortures, and will hereafter entitle many to the reward of actions which they had never the opportunity of performing.--_Addison._

~Matrimony.~--When a man and woman are married their romance ceases and their history commences.--_Rochebrune._

It resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot be separated; often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing any one who comes between them.--_S. Smith._

Married in haste, we repent at leisure.--_Congreve._

I believe marriages would in general be as happy, and often more so, if they were all made by the Lord Chancellor, upon a due consideration of the characters and circumstances, without the parties having any choice in the matter.--_Johnson._

Hanging and wiving go by destiny.--_Shakespeare._

The married man is like the bee that fixes his hive, augments the world, benefits the republic, and by a daily diligence, without wronging any, profits all; but he who contemns wedlock, like a wasp, wanders an offence to the world, lives upon spoil and rapine, disturbs peace, steals sweets that are none of his own, and, by robbing the hives of others, meets misery as his due reward.--_Feltham._

One can, with dignity, be wife and widow but once.--_Joubert._

Few natures can preserve through years the poetry of the first passionate illusion. That can alone render wedlock the seal that confirms affection, and not the mocking ceremonial that consecrates its grave.--_Bulwer-Lytton._

It's hard to wive and thrive both in a year.--_Tennyson._

Maids want nothing but husbands, and when they have them, they want everything.--_Shakespeare._

Wedlock's like wine, not properly judged of till the second glass.--_Douglas Jerrold._

A good wife is like the ivy which beautifies the building to which it clings, twining its tendrils more lovingly as time converts the ancient edifice into a ruin.--_Johnson._

He that marries is like the Doge who was wedded to the Adriatic. He knows not what there is in that which he marries: mayhap treasures and pearls, mayhap monsters and tempests, await him.--_Heinrich Heine._

A husband is a plaster that cures all the ills of girlhood.--_Moliere._

There is more of good nature than of good sense at the bottom of most marriages.--_Thoreau._

The love of some men for their wives is like that of Alfieri for his horse. "My attachment for him," said he, "went so far as to destroy my peace every time that he had the least ailment; but my love for him did not prevent me from fretting and chafing him whenever he did not wish to go my way."--_Bovee._

No navigator has yet traced lines of latitude and longitude on the conjugal sea.--_Balzac._

Has any one ever pinched into its pilulous smallness the cobweb of pre-matrimonial acquaintanceship?--_George Eliot._

~Mediocrity.~--Mediocrity is excellent to the eyes of mediocre people.--_Joubert._

Mediocrity is now, as formerly, dangerous, commonly fatal, to the poet; but among even the successful writers of prose, those who rise sensibly above it are the very rarest exceptions.--_Gladstone._

~Meditation.~--Chewing the cud of sweet and bitter fancy.--_Shakespeare._

'Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours, and ask them what report they bore to heaven, and how they might have borne more welcome news.--_Young._

Meditation is that exercise of the mind by which it recalls a known truth, as some kind of creatures do their food, to be ruminated upon till all vicious parts be extracted.--_Bishop Horne._

~Meekness.~--The flower of meekness grows on a stem of grace.--_J. Montgomery._

A boy was once asked what meekness was. He thought for a moment and said, "Meekness gives smooth answers to rough questions."--_Mrs. Balfour._

~Melancholy.~--Melancholy is a fearful gift; what is it but the telescope of truth?--_Byron._

A lazy frost, a numbness of the mind.--_Dryden._

Demoniac frenzy, moping melancholy.--_Milton._

The noontide sun is dark, and music discord, when the heart is low.--_Young._

~Memory.~--Memory is what makes us young or old.--_Alfred de Musset._

No canvas absorbs color like memory.--_Willmott._

Of all the faculties of the mind, memory is the first that flourishes, and the first that dies.--_Colton._

Joy's recollection is no longer joy; but sorrow's memory is sorrow still.--_Byron._

A sealed book, at whose contents we tremble.--_L. E. Landon._

And fondly mourn the dear delusions gone.--_Prior._

How can such deep-imprinted images sleep in us at times, till a word, a sound, awake them?--_Lessing._

In literature and art memory is a synonym for invention; it is the life-blood of imagination, which faints and dies when the veins are empty.--_Willmott._

Memory is the scribe of the soul.--_Aristotle._

The memory has as many moods as the temper, and shifts its scenery like a diorama.--_George Eliot._

We must always have old memories and young hopes.--_Arsene Houssaye._

They teach us to remember; why do not they teach us to forget? There is not a man living who has not, some time in his life, admitted that memory was as much of a curse as a blessing.--_F. A. Durivage._

~Mercy.~--Mercy more becomes a magistrate than the vindictive wrath which men call justice!--_Longfellow._

Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.--_Shakespeare._

'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes the throned monarch better than his crown.--_Shakespeare._

Give money, but never lend it. Giving it only makes a man ungrateful; lending it makes him an enemy.--_Dumas._

Mercy among the virtues is like the moon among the stars,--not so sparkling and vivid as many, but dispensing a calm radiance that hallows the whole. It is the bow that rests upon the bosom of the cloud when the storm is past. It is the light that hovers above the judgment-seat.--_Chapin._

We hand folks over to God's mercy, and show none ourselves.--_George Eliot._

Among the attributes of God, although they are all equal, mercy shines with even more brilliancy than justice.--_Cervantes._

~Milton.~--His poetry reminds us of the miracles of Alpine scenery. Nooks and dells, beautiful as fairy land, are embosomed in its most rugged and gigantic elevations. The roses and myrtles bloom unchilled on the verge of the avalanche.--_Macaulay._

~Mind.~--It is with diseases of the mind as with diseases of the body, we are half dead before we understand our disorder, and half cured when we do.--_Colton._

The end which at present calls forth our efforts will be found when it is once gained to be only one of the means to some remoter end. The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.--_Johnson._

Minds filled with vivid, imaginative thoughts, are the most indolent in reproducing. Clear, cold, hard minds are productive. They have to retrace a very simple design.--_X. Doudan._

The mind is the atmosphere of the soul.--_Joubert._

What is this little, agile, precious fire, this fluttering motion which we call the mind?--_Prior._

Just as a particular soil wants some one element to fertilize it, just as the body in some conditions has a kind of famine for one special food, so the mind has its wants, which do not always call for what is best, but which know themselves and are as peremptory as the salt sick sailor's call for a lemon or raw potato.--_Holmes._

The best way to prove the clearness of our mind is by showing its faults; as when a stream discovers the dirt at the bottom, it convinces us of the transparency of the water.--_Pope._

A mind once cultivated will not lie fallow for half an hour.--_Bulwer-Lytton._

~Mischief.~--The opportunity to do mischief is found a hundred times a day, and that of doing good once a year.--_Voltaire._

~Miser.~--The miser swimming in gold seems to me like a thirsty fish.--_J. Petit 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.--_Thoreau._

It is a little stream which flows softly, but freshens everything along its