Best 111 quotes of John Lancaster Spalding on MyQuotes

A gentleman does not appear to know more or to be more than those with whom he is thrown into company.

Agitators and declaimers may heat the blood, but they do not illumine the mind.

A hobby is the result of a distorted view of things. It is putting a planet in the place of a sun.

A liberal education is that which aims to develop faculty without ulterior views of profession or other means of gaining a livelihood. It considers man an end in himself and not an instrument whereby something is to be wrought. Its ideal is human perfection.

Altruism is a barbarism. Love is the word.

A principal aim of education is to give students a taste for literature, for the books of life and power, and to accomplish this, it is necessary that their minds be held aloof from the babblement and discussions of the hour, that they may accustom themselves to take interest in the words and deeds of the greatest men, and so make themselves able and worthy to shape a larger and nobler future; but if their hours of leisure are spent over journals and reviews, they will, in later years, become the helpless victims of the newspaper habit.

As a brave man goes into fire or flood or pestilence to save a human life, so a generous mind follows after truth and love, and is not frightened from the pursuit by danger or toil or obloquy.

As children must have the hooping cough, the college youth must pass through the stage of conceit in which he holds in slight esteem the wisdom of the best.

As memory may be a paradise from which we cannot be driven, it may also be a hell from which we cannot escape.

As the visit of one we love makes the whole day pleasant, so is it illumined and made fair by a brave and beautiful thought.

As we can not love what is hateful, let us accustom ourselves neither to think nor to speak of disagreeable things and persons.

A Wise man knows that much of what he says and does is commonplace and trivial. His thoughts are not all solemn and sacred in his own eyes. He is able to laugh at himself and is not offended when others make him a subject whereon to exercise their wit.

Be suspicious of your sincerity when you are the advocate of that upon which your livelihood depends.

Be watchful lest thou lose the power of desiring and loving what appeals to the soul this is the miser's curse this the chain and ball the sensualist drags.

Break not the will of the young, but guide it to right ends.

Contradiction is the salt which keeps truth from corruption

Culture makes the whole world our dwelling place; our palace in which we take our ease and find ourselves at one with all things.

Dislike of another's opinions and beliefs neither justifies our own nor makes us more certain of them: and to transfer the repugnance to the person himself is a mark of a vulgar mind.

Each forward step we take we leave some phantom of ourselves behind.

Education would be a divine thing, if it did nothing more than help us to think and love great thoughts instead of little thoughts.

Faith, like love, unites; opinion, like hate, separates.

Few know the joys that spring from a disinterested curiosity. It is like a cheerful spirit that leads us through worlds filled with what is true and fair, which we admire and love because it is true and fair.

Folly will run its course and it is the part of wisdom not to take it too seriously.

Friends humor and flatter us, they steal our time, they encourage our love of ease, they make us content with ourselves, they are the foes of our virtue and our glory.

He who leaves school, knowing little, but with a longing for knowledge, will go farther than one who quits, knowing many things, but not caring to learn more.

If all were gentle and contented as sheep, all would be as feeble and helpless.

If ancient descent could confer nobility, the lower forms of life would possess it in a greater degree than man.

If a state should pass laws forbidding its citizens to become wise and holy, it would be made a byword for all time. But this, in effect, is what our commercial, social, and political systems do. They compel the sacrifice of mental and moral power to money and dissipation.

If I am not pleased with myself, but should wish to be other than I am, why should I think highly of the influences which have made me what I am?

If our opinions rest upon solid ground, those who attack them do not make us angry, but themselves ridiculous.

If science were nothing more than the best means of teaching the love of the simple fact, the indispensable need of verification, of careful and accurate observation and statement, its value would be of the highest order.

If there are but few who interest thee, why shouldst thou be disappointed if but few find thee interesting?

If there were nothing else to trouble us, the fate of the flowers would make us sad.

If thou need money, get it in an honest way by keeping books, if thou wilt, but not by writing books.

If thy friends tire of thee, remember that it is human to tire of everything.

If thy words are wise, they will not seem so to the foolish: if they are deep the shallow will not appreciate them. Think not highly of thyself, then, when thou art praised by many.

If we fail to interest, whether because we are dull and heavy, or because our hearers are so, we teach in vain.

If we learn from those only, of whose lives and opinions we altogether approve, we shall have to turn from many of the highest and profoundest minds.

In education, as in religion and love, compulsion thwarts the purpose for which it is employed.

Inferior thinking and writing will make a name for a man among inferior people, who in all ages and countries, are the majority.

In giving us dominion over the animal kingdom God has signified His will that we subdue the beast within ourselves.

Insight makes argument ridiculous.

In the world of thought a man's rank is determined, not by his average work, but by his highest achievement.

It is a common error to imagine that to be stirring and voluble in a worthy cause is to be good and to do good.

It is difficult to be sure of our friends, but it is possible to be certain of our loyalty to them.

It is not difficult to grasp and express thoughts that float on the stream of current opinion: but to think and rightly utter what is permanently true and interesting, what shall appeal to the best minds a thousand years hence, as it appeals to them to-day, this is the work of genius.

It is the business of the teacher ... to fortify reason and to make conscience sovereign.

It is the expensiveness of our pleasures that makes the world poor and keeps us poor in ourselves. If we could but learn to find enjoyment in the things of the mind, the economic problems would solve themselves.

Leave each one his touch of folly; it helps to lighten life's burden which, if he could see himself as he is, might be too heavy to carry.

Liberty is more precious than money or office; and we should be vigilant lest we purchase wealth or place at the price of inner freedom.