Chapter 20

On bravely through the sunshine and the showers! Time hath his work to do, and we have ours. --EMERSON.

We enjoy ourselves only in our work, our doing; and our best doing is our best enjoyment.--JACOBI.

The modern majesty consists in work. What a man can do is his greatest ornament, and he always consults his dignity by doing it.--CARLYLE.

Work, according to my feeling, is as much of a necessity to man as eating and sleeping. Even those who do nothing which to a sensible man can be called work, still imagine that they are doing something. The world possesses not a man who is an idler in his own eyes.--WILHELM VON HUMBOLDT.

It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Work is healthy; you could hardly put more upon a man than he can bear. Worry is rust upon the blade. It is not the revolution that destroys the machinery, but the friction.--BEECHER.

WORLD.--The world is a country which nobody ever yet knew by description; one must travel through it one's self to be acquainted with it. The scholar, who in the dust of his closet talks or writes of the world, knows no more of it than that orator did of war, who judiciously endeavored to instruct Hannibal in it.--CHESTERFIELD.

To know the world, not love her, is thy point; She gives but little, nor that little long. --YOUNG.

I am not at all uneasy that I came into, and have so far passed my course in this world; because I have so lived in it that I have reason to believe I have been of some use to it; and when the close comes, I shall quit life as I would an inn, and not as a real home. For nature appears to me to have ordained this station here for us, as a place of sojournment, a transitory abode only, and not as a fixed settlement or permanent habitation.--CICERO.

The world is a fine thing to save, but a wretch to worship.--GEORGE MACDONALD.

The world is a bride superbly dressed; who weds her, for a dowry must pay his soul.--HAFIZ.

O who would trust this world, or prize what's in it, That gives and takes, and chops and changes, ev'ry minute? --QUARLES.

This world is God's world, after all.--CHARLES KINGSLEY.

There is another and a better world.--KOTZEBUE.

God, we are told, looked upon the world after he had created it and pronounced it good; but ascetic pietists, in their wisdom, cast their eyes over it, and substantially pronounce it a dead failure, a miserable production, a poor concern.--BOVEE.

The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.--LOCKE.

Take this as a most certain expedient to prevent many afflictions, and to be delivered from them: meddle as little with the world, and the honors, places and advantages of them, as thou canst. And extricate thyself from them as much, and as quickly as possible.--FULLER.

There is no knowledge for which so great a price is paid as a knowledge of the world; and no one ever became an adept in it except at the expense of a hardened or wounded heart.--LADY BLESSINGTON.

A good man and a wise man may at times be angry with the world, at times grieved for it; but be sure no man was ever discontented with the world who did his duty in it.--SOUTHEY.

Thou must content thyself to see the world so imperfect as it is. Thou wilt never have any quiet if thou vexest thyself, because thou canst not bring mankind to that exact notion of things and rule of life which thou hast formed in thy own mind.--FULLER.

I am glad to think I am not bound to make the world go right, but only to discover and to do, with cheerful heart, the work that God appoints.--JEAN INGELOW.

Everybody in this world wants watching, but nobody more than ourselves.--H.W. SHAW.

O what a glory doth this world put on, For him who with a fervent heart goes forth, Under the bright and glorious sky, and looks On duties well performed and days well spent. --LONGFELLOW.

Trust not the world, for it never payeth that it promiseth. --ST. AUGUSTINE.

WORSHIP.--The act of divine worship is the inestimable privilege of man, the only created being who bows in humility and adoration.--HOSEA BALLOU.

It is for the sake of man, not of God, that worship and prayers are required; not that God may be rendered more glorious, but that man may be made better,--that he may be confirmed in a proper sense of his dependent state, and acquire those pious and virtuous dispositions in which his highest improvement consists.--BLAIR.

Lord, let us to thy gates repair To hear the gladdening sound, That we may find salvation there, While yet it may be found.

There let us joy and comfort reap; There teach us how to pray, For grace to choose, and strength to keep The strait, the narrow way.

And so increase our love for Thee, That all our future days May one continued Sabbath be Of gratitude and praise. --OKE.

Remember that God will not be mocked; that it is the heart of the worshiper which He regards. We are never safe till we love Him with our whole heart whom we pretend to worship.--BISHOP HENSHAWE.

The best way of worshiping God is in allaying the distress of the times and improving the condition of mankind.--ABULFAZZI.

YOUTH.--The strength of opening manhood is never so well employed as in practicing subserviency to God's revealed will; it lends a grace and a beauty to religion, and produces an abundant harvest.--BISHOP MANT.

He who cares only for himself in youth will be a very niggard in manhood, and a wretched miser in old age.--J. HAWES.

Unless a tree has borne blossoms in spring, you will vainly look for fruit on it in autumn.--HARE.

Youth, enthusiasm, and tenderness are like the days of spring. Instead of complaining, O my heart, of their brief duration, try to enjoy them.--RÜCKERT.

Every period of life has its peculiar temptations and dangers. But youth is the time when we are most likely to be ensnared. This, pre-eminently, is the forming, fixing period, the spring season of disposition and habit; and it is during this season, more than any other, that the character assumes its permanent shape and color, and the young are wont to take their course for time and for eternity. --J. HAWES.

The best rules to form a young man are, to talk little, to hear much, to reflect alone upon what has passed in company, to distrust one's own opinions, and value others' that deserve it.--SIR W. TEMPLE.

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.--ECCLESIASTES 12:1.

What we sow in youth we reap in age; the seed of the thistle always produces the thistle.--J.T. FIELDS.

I love the acquaintance of young people; because, in the first place, I do not like to think myself growing old. In the next place, young acquaintances must last longest, if they do last; and then, sir, young men have more virtue than old men; they have more generous sentiments in every respect.--DR. JOHNSON.

Girls we love for what they are; young men for what they promise to be.--GOETHE.

Reckless youth makes rueful age.--FRANKLIN.

Oh! the joy Of young ideas painted on the mind, In the warm glowing colors fancy spreads On objects not yet known, when all is new, And all is lovely. --HANNAH MORE.

In the lexicon of youth which fate reserves for a bright manhood, there is no such word as fail.--LYTTON.

If the world does improve on the whole, yet youth must always begin anew, and go through the stages of culture from the beginning.--GOETHE.

Young men think old men fools, and old men know young men to be so.--DR. METCALF.

As I approve of a youth, that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man, that has something of the youth.--CICERO.

Youth is not the era of wisdom; let us therefore have due consideration.--RIVAROL.

ZEAL.--Motives by excess reverse their very nature and instead of exciting, stun and stupefy the mind.--COLERIDGE.

Nothing has wrought more prejudice to religion, or brought more disparagement upon truth, than boisterous and unseasonable zeal.--BARROW.

Through zeal knowledge is gotten, through lack of zeal knowledge is lost; let a man who knows this double path of gain and loss thus place himself that knowledge may grow.--BUDDHA.

Zealous men are ever displaying to you the strength of their belief, while judicious men are showing you the grounds of it.--SHENSTONE.

He that does a base thing in zeal for his friend burns the golden thread that ties their hearts together.--JEREMY TAYLOR.

Never let your zeal outrun your charity. The former is but human, the latter is divine.--HOSEA BALLOU.

It is a coal from God's altar must kindle our fire; and without fire, true fire, no acceptable sacrifice.--WILLIAM PENN.

Every deviation from the rules of charity and brotherly love, of gentleness and forbearance, of meekness and patience, which our Lord prescribes to his disciples, however it may appear to be founded on an attachment to Him and zeal for His service, is in truth a departure from the religion of Him, "the Son of Man," who "came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them."--BISHOP MANT.

Violent zeal for truth has a hundred to one odds to be either petulancy, ambition, or pride.--SWIFT.

Zeal without knowledge is like expedition to a man in the dark.--NEWTON.

Zeal, unless it be rightly guided, when it endeavors the most busily to please God, forceth upon Him those unseasonable offices which please Him not.--HOOKER.

We do that in our zeal our calmer moments would be afraid to answer. --SCOTT.

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Transcriber's Notes: The following have been changed from the original book:

Publius Syrius (twice) changed to: Publius Syrus (for consistency). A shining glass, that fadeth suddenly; changed to A shining gloss, that fadeth suddenly; (typo). Proverbs 11:24 changed to Proverbs 11:25 (correct verse).