Many Thoughts of Many Minds A Treasury of Quotations from the Literature of Every Land and Every Age

That man is to be accounted poor, of whatever rank he be, and suffers the pains of poverty, whose expenses exceed his resources; and no man is, properly speaking, poor, but he.-...

I would be virtuous for my own sake, though nobody were to know it; as I would be clean for my own sake, though nobody were to see me. --SHAFTESBURY.

The love of liberty that is not a real principle of dutiful behavior to authority is as hypocritical as the religion that is not productive of a good life.--BISHOP BUTLER.

Fortitude implies a firmness and strength of mind, that enables us to do and suffer as we ought. It rises upon an opposition, and, like a river, swells the higher for having its...

All is of God. If He but wave His hand, The mists collect, the rains fall thick and loud; Till, with a smile of light on sea and land, Lo! He looks back from the departing cloud.

I will to-morrow, that I will, I will be sure to do it; To-morrow comes, to-morrow goes, And still thou art to do it. Thus still repentance is deferred. From one day to another:...

There is but one thing that can free a man from superstition, and that is belief. All history proves it. The most sceptical have ever been the most credulous.--GEORGE MACDONALD.

The motives and purposes of authors are not always so pure and high, as, in the enthusiasm of youth, we sometimes imagine. To many the trumpet of fame is nothing but a tin horn...

Let us beware of losing our enthusiasms. Let us ever glory in something, and strive to retain our admiration for all that would ennoble, and our interest in all that would enric...

The wisest man may be wiser to-day than he was yesterday, and to-morrow than he is to-day. Total freedom from change would imply total freedom from error; but this is the prerog...

People have generally three epochs in their confidence in man. In the first they believe him to be everything that is good, and they are lavish with their friendship and confide...

He who seldom thinks of heaven is not likely to get thither; as the only way to hit the mark is to keep the eye fixed upon it.--BISHOP HORNE.

Meditation is the life of the soul; action is the soul of meditation; honor is the reward of action; so meditate, that thou mayst do; so do, that thou mayst purchase honor; for...

Infidelity and faith look both through the perspective glass, but at contrary ends. Infidelity looks through the wrong end of the glass; and, therefore, sees those objects near...

To arrive at perfection, a man should have very sincere friends, or inveterate enemies; because he would be made sensible of his good or ill conduct either by the censures of th...

Weak men often, from the very principle of their weakness, derive a certain susceptibility, delicacy and taste which render them, in those particulars, much superior to men of s...

Next to theology I give to music the highest place and honor. And we see how David and all the saints have wrought their godly thoughts into verse, rhyme, and song.--LUTHER.

Patience is the guardian of faith, the preserver of peace, the cherisher of love, the teacher of humility; Patience governs the flesh, strengthens the spirit, sweetens the tempe...

In the limited compass of this small volume, the compiler has endeavored to employ only such material as is likely to prove of service to the largest circle of readers. Nearly f...

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...