The Elements of Character |
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abstract acter attain beauty become believe body brotherly love cause ceive Char Character charity Christian Companionship Conversation courage creed cultivate desire Divine duty earnest earth effort egoism evil external fact faculties faith falsehood fancy fear feel fellow-beings garden of Eden give habit happy heart heaven heavenly human ical idea idle Imagination indifference indolence indulgence infinite influence intellectual kingdom of heaven labor lence less lives look Lord Mammon mands Manners marriage meekness ment mind moral nature neighbor ness never opinions ourselves Paul Leicester Ford perceive perfect perhaps perpetually persons possess quires relations religious reward rude seek selfish small sin society soul spiritual strength strive sure tain things Thought and Affection thoughtless tion tivate traits true truly truth understand unless vices vidual virtue wealth weariness whole wisdom wise words worldly York Public Library
Popular passages
Page 51 - ... frequently from lack of temptation than from any worthier reason. The thoughtless person can never be depended upon for anything. We never know where to find him, or what he will do in any particular position or relation of life. All we can anticipate of him is, that he will probably do something bad, or silly, or improper ; accordingly as the act may bear upon morality, sense, or manners. Before going further, let it be understood that a thoughtless person is not one without Thought. A human...
Page 49 - Whenever we talk in ordinary language of seeking information or gaining knowledge, we understand the words as connected with something of absolute novelty. But it is the grandeur of all truth which can occupy a very high place in human interests, that it is never absolutely novel to the meanest of minds: it exists eternally by way of germ or latent principle in the lowest as in the highest, needing to be developed but never to be planted.
Page 212 - Might I give counsel to any young hearer, I would say to him, try to frequent the company of your betters. In books and life that is the most wholesome society ; learn to admire rightly ; the great pleasure of life is that. Note what the great men admired ; they admired great things : narrow spirits admire basely, and worship meanly.
Page 198 - Manners are of more importance than laws. Upon' them, in a great measure, the laws depend. The law touches us but here and there, and now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in. They give their whole form and colour to our lives. According to their quality, they aid morals, they supply them, or they totally destroy them.
Page 171 - ... a mind full of ideas, will be apt in speaking to hesitate upon the choice of both ; whereas common speakers have only one set of ideas, and one set of words to clothe them in; and these are always ready at the mouth : so people come faster out of...
Page 7 - ... to that height which many longer lives could never reach ; and had I but the power of rightly disposing and relating them, his single example would be more instructive...
Page 133 - Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment; thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor.
Page 45 - ... are wronging our neighbor. Many persons are so fortunate, women especially almost always so, as to have enough employment placed before them by the circumstances of their position, without any effort of choice on their part, to occupy their time, and to train their faculties. Those who are not thus set to work by circumstance should be governed in the selection of their employment by their own inclination and talents. What we love to do we can learn to do well, and our work will then be agreeable...
Page 7 - Spirit ; therefore, in the head of all his virtues, I shall set that which was the head and spring of them all — his Christianity — for this alone is the true royal blood that runs through the whole body of virtue, and every pretender to that glorious family, who hath no tincture of it, is an impostor and a spurious brat. This is that sacred fountain which baptizeth all the gentle virtues that so immortalize the names of Cicero, Plutarch, Seneca, and all the old philosophers...
Page 76 - Just in proportion to the energy with which they strove to impress themselves upon the people through these creeds was their indifference to that life of holiness which should be the end of all creeds. The centuries that have passed since the Christian dispensation was proclaimed have many of them been darkened even to blackness by insane endeavors to write creeds of man's devising, in letters of fire and blood, upon the nations. The day for such deeds has passed away from most lands calling themselves...