Essays: First SeriesD. McKay, 1888 - 396 pages |
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Page 59
... Virtues are in the popular estimate rather the exception than the rule . There is the man and his virtues . Men do what is called a good action , as some piece of courage or charity , much as they would pay a fine in expiation of daily ...
... Virtues are in the popular estimate rather the exception than the rule . There is the man and his virtues . Men do what is called a good action , as some piece of courage or charity , much as they would pay a fine in expiation of daily ...
Page 66
... virtue or vice only by overt actions and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every mo- ment . Fear never but you shall be consistent in whatever variety of actions , so they be each honest and natural in their hour . For of one ...
... virtue or vice only by overt actions and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every mo- ment . Fear never but you shall be consistent in whatever variety of actions , so they be each honest and natural in their hour . For of one ...
Page 67
... virtue work their health into this . What makes the majesty of the heroes of the senate and the field , which so fills the imagina- tion ? The consciousness of a train of great days and victories behind . There they all stand and shed ...
... virtue work their health into this . What makes the majesty of the heroes of the senate and the field , which so fills the imagina- tion ? The consciousness of a train of great days and victories behind . There they all stand and shed ...
Page 69
... virtue and the possible of man . An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man ; as , the Reformation , of Luther ; Quakerism , of Fox ; Methodism , of Wesley ; Abolition , of Clarkson . Scipio , Milton called " the height of Rome ...
... virtue and the possible of man . An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man ; as , the Reformation , of Luther ; Quakerism , of Fox ; Methodism , of Wesley ; Abolition , of Clarkson . Scipio , Milton called " the height of Rome ...
Page 70
... is the same . Why all this deference to Alfred , and Scander- beg , and Gustavus ? Suppose they were vir- tuous : did they wear out virtue ? As great a : original stake depends on your private act to - day 70 ESSAY II .
... is the same . Why all this deference to Alfred , and Scander- beg , and Gustavus ? Suppose they were vir- tuous : did they wear out virtue ? As great a : original stake depends on your private act to - day 70 ESSAY II .
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Common terms and phrases
action affection appear beautiful soul beauty becomes behold better black event Bonduca Cæsar Calvinistic character child circle conversation divine doctrine Egypt Epaminondas eternal evanescent fact fear feel friendship genius gifts give Greek hand heart heaven Heraclitus heroism hour human instinct intel intellect less light live look lose man's marriage ment mind moral nature ness never noble object OVER-SOUL painted pass perception perfect persons Petrarch Phidias Phocion Pindar Plato Plotinus Plutarch poet poetry proverb prudence Pyrrhonism relations religion Rome sculpture secret seek seems seen sense sensual Shakspeare society Socrates Sophocles soul speak Spinoza spirit stand stoicism sweet talent teach thee things thou thought tion to-day true truth ture universal virtue whilst whole wisdom wise words Xenophon youth
Popular passages
Page 64 - A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.
Page 52 - There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide ; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion ; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.
Page 52 - A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.
Page 75 - These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are ; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose ; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.
Page 128 - Some damning circumstance always transpires. The laws and substances of nature water, snow, wind, gravitation - become penalties to the thief. On the other hand, the law holds with equal sureness for all right action. Love, and you shall be loved. All love is mathematically just, as much as the two sides of an algebraic equation.
Page 78 - Why, then, do we prate of self-reliance ? Inasmuch as the soul is present, there will be power not confident but agent. To talk of reliance is a poor external way of speaking. Speak rather of that which relies, because it works and is.
Page 121 - As no man had ever a point of pride that was not injurious to him, so no man had ever a defect that was not somewhere made useful to him. The stag in the fable admired his horns and blamed his feet, but when the hunter came, his feet saved him, and afterwards, caught in the thicket, his horns destroyed him.
Page 60 - What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.
Page 53 - Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events.
Page 81 - O father, O mother, O wife, O brother, O friend, I have lived with you after appearances hitherto. Henceforward I am the truth's. Be it known unto you that henceforward I obey no law less than the eternal law.