Don't let us rejoice in punishment, even when the hand of God alone inflicts it. The best of us are but poor wretches just saved from shipwreck: can we feel anything but awe and pity when we see a fellow-passenger swallowed by the waves? —George Eliot.
The work of eradicating crimes is not by making punishment familiar, but formidable. —Goldsmith.
The public have more interest in the punishment of an injury than he who receives it. —Cato.
The best of us being unfit to die, what an inexpressible absurdity to put the worst to death! —Hawthorne.
Puns.– I have very little to say about puns; they are in very bad repute, and so they ought to be. The wit of language is so miserably inferior to the wit of ideas, that it is very deservedly driven out of good company. Sometimes, indeed, a pun makes its appearance which seems for a moment to redeem its species; but we must not be deceived by them: it is a radically bad race of wit. —Sydney Smith.
Conceits arising from the use of words that agree in sound but differ in sense. —Addison.
Purposes.– Man proposes, but God disposes. —Thomas à Kempis.
A man's heart deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his steps. —Bible.
It is better by a noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half of the evils which we anticipate, than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what may happen. —Herodotus.
Purposes, like eggs, unless they be hatched into action, will run into decay. —Smiles.
Pursuit.– The rapture of pursuing is the prize the vanquished gain. —Longfellow.
The fruit that can fall without shaking, indeed is too mellow for me. —Lady Montagu.
Q
Quacks.– Pettifoggers in law and empirics in medicine have held from time immemorial the fee simple of a vast estate, subject to no alienation, diminution, revolution, nor tax – the folly and ignorance of mankind. —Colton.
Nothing more strikingly betrays the credulity of mankind than medicine. Quackery is a thing universal, and universally successful. In this case it becomes literally true that no imposition is too great for the credulity of men. —Thoreau.
Qualities.– Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it; and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him. —Goethe.
Quarrels.– Coarse kindness is, at least, better than coarse anger; and in all private quarrels the duller nature is triumphant by reason of its dullness. —George Eliot.
The quarrels of lovers are like summer storms. Everything is more beautiful when they have passed. —Mme. Necker.
Questions.– There are innumerable questions to which the inquisitive mind can, in this state, receive no answer: Why do you and I exist? Why was this world created? And, since it was to be created, why was it not created sooner? —Johnson.
Quotation.– In quoting of books, quote such authors as are usually read; others you may read for your own satisfaction, but not name them. —Selden.
If these little sparks of holy fire which I have thus heaped up together do not give life to your prepared and already enkindled spirit, yet they will sometimes help to entertain a thought, to actuate a passion, to employ and hallow a fancy. —Jeremy Taylor.
If the grain were separated from the chaff which fills the works of our National Poets, what is truly valuable would be to what is useless in the proportion of a mole-hill to a mountain. —Burke.
It is the beauty and independent worth of the citations, far more than their appropriateness, which have made Johnson's Dictionary popular even as a reading-book. —Coleridge.
Ruin half an author's graces by plucking bon-mots from their places. —Hannah More.
I take memorandums of the schools. —Swift.
The obscurest sayings of the truly great are often those which contain the germ of the profoundest and most useful truths. —Mazzini.
To select well among old things is almost equal to inventing new ones. —Trublet.
Why are not more gems from our great authors scattered over the country? Great books are not in everybody's reach; and though it is better to know them thoroughly than to know them only here and there, yet it is a good work to give a little to those who have neither time nor means to get more. Let every bookworm, when in any fragrant, scarce old tome he discovers a sentence, a story, an illustration, that does his heart good, hasten to give it. —Coleridge.
A couplet of verse, a period of prose, may cling to the rock of ages as a shell that survives a deluge. —Bulwer-Lytton.
Selected thoughts depend for their flavor upon the terseness of their expression, for thoughts are grains of sugar, or salt, that must be melted in a drop of water. —J. Petit Senn.
As people read nothing in these days that is more than forty-eight hours old, I am daily admonished that allusions, the most obvious, to anything in the rear of our own times need explanation. —De Quincey.
R
Rain.– Clouds dissolved the thirsty ground supply. —Roscommon.
The kind refresher of the summer heats. —Thomson.
Vexed sailors curse the rain for which poor shepherds prayed in vain. —Waller.
The spongy clouds are filled with gathering rain. —Dryden.
Rainbow.– That smiling daughter of the storm. —Colton.
Born of the shower, and colored by the sun. —J. C. Prince.
God's glowing covenant. —Hosea Ballou.
Rank.– If it were ever allowable to forget what is due to superiority of rank, it would be when the privileged themselves remember it. —Madame Swetchine.
I weigh the man, not his title; 'tis not the king's stamp can make the metal better. —Wycherley.
Of the king's creation you may be; but he who makes a count ne'er made a man. —Southerne.
Rashness.– Rashness and haste make all things insecure. —Denham.
We may outrun by violent swiftness that which we run at, and lose by overrunning. —Shakespeare.
Reading.– Read, and refine your appetite; learn to live upon instruction; feast your mind and mortify your flesh; read, and take your nourishment in at your eyes, shut up your mouth, and chew the cud of understanding. —Congreve.
Deep versed in books, but shallow in himself. —Milton.
The love of reading enables a man to exchange the wearisome hours of life, which come to every one, for hours of delight. —Montesquieu.
There was, it is said, a criminal in Italy, who was suffered to make his choice between Guicciardini and the galleys. He chose the history. But the war of Pisa was too much for him. He changed his mind, and went to the oars. —Macaulay.
Exceedingly well read and profited in strange concealments. —Shakespeare.
The reader, who would follow a close reasoner to the summit of the absolute principle of any one important subject, has chosen a chamois-hunter for his guide. He cannot carry us on his shoulders; we must strain our sinews, as he has strained his; and make firm footing on the smooth rock for ourselves, by the blood of toil from our own feet. —Coleridge.
Reason.– Reason lies between the spur and the bridle. —George Herbert.
Many are destined to reason wrongly; others not to reason at all; and others to persecute those who do reason. —Voltaire.
If reasons were as plenty as blackberries I would give no man a reason upon compulsion. —Shakespeare.
We can only reason from what is; we can reason on actualities, but not on possibilities. —Bolingbroke.
I do not call reason that brutal reason which crushes with its weight what is holy and sacred; that malignant reason which delights in the errors it succeeds in discovering; that unfeeling and scornful reason which insults credulity. —Joubert.
I have no other but a woman's reason: I think him so, because I think him so. —Shakespeare.
Reason 's progressive; instinct is complete: swift instinct leaps; slow reason feebly climbs. —Young.
Faith evermore looks upward and descries objects remote; but reason can discover things only near, – sees nothing that's above her. —Quarles.
How can finite grasp infinity? —Dryden.
Let us not dream that reason can ever be popular. Passions, emotions, may be made popular, but reason remains ever the property of the few. —Goethe.
Reason is, so to speak, the police of the kingdom of art, seeking only to preserve order. In life itself a cold arithmetician who adds up our follies. Sometimes, alas! only the accountant in bankruptcy of a broken heart. —Heinrich Heine.
Sure He that made us with such large discourse, looking before and after, gave us not that capability and godlike reason to rust in us unused. —Shakespeare.
Reason may cure illusions but not suffering. —Alfred de Musset.
Reciprocity.– There is one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life, that word is reciprocity. What you do not wish done to yourself, do not do to others. —Confucius.
Reconciliation.– It is much safer to reconcile an enemy than to conquer him; victory may deprive him of his poison, but reconciliation of his will. —Owen Feltham.
Rectitude.– The great high-road of human welfare lies along the highway of steadfast well-doing, and they who are the most persistent, and work in the truest spirit, will invariably be the most successful. —Samuel Smiles.
If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see. —Thoreau.
No man can do right unless he is good, wise, and strong. What wonder we fail? —Charles Buxton.
Refinement.– Refinement that carries us away from our fellow-men is not God's refinement. —Beecher.
Refinement is the lifting of one's self upwards from the merely sensual, the effort of the soul to etherealize the common wants and uses of life. —Beecher.
Reflection.– We are told, "Let not the sun go down on your wrath." This, of course, is best; but, as it generally does, I would add, never act or write till it has done so. This rule has saved me from many an act of folly. It is wonderful what a different view we take of the same event four-and-twenty hours after it has happened. —Sydney Smith.
Reform.– We are reformers in spring and summer; in autumn and winter we stand by the old – reformers in the morning, conservatives at night. Reform is affirmative, conservatism is negative; conservatism goes for comfort, reform for truth. —Emerson.
Long is the way and hard, that out of hell leads up to light. —Milton.
Conscious remorse and anguish must be felt, to curb desire, to break the stubborn will, and work a second nature in the soul. —Rowe.
They say best men are moulded out of faults, and, for the most, become much more the better for being a little bad! —Shakespeare.
Regret.– Why is it that a blessing only when it is lost cuts as deep into the heart as a sharp diamond? Why must we first weep before we can love so deeply that our hearts ache? —Richter.
Religion.– Natural religion supplies still all the facts which are disguised under the dogma of popular creeds. The progress of religion is steadily to its identity with morals. —Emerson.
I endeavor in vain to give my parishioners more cheerful ideas of religion; to teach them that God is not a jealous, childish, merciless tyrant; that He is best served by a regular tenor of good actions, not by bad singing, ill-composed prayers, and eternal apprehensions. But the luxury of false religion is to be unhappy! —Sydney Smith.
Nowhere would there be consolation if religion were not. —Jacobi.
Monopolies are just as injurious to religion as to trade. With competition religions preserve their strength, but they will never again flourish in their original glory until religious freedom, or, in other words, free trade among the gods, is introduced. —Heinrich Heine.
A religion giving dark views of God, and infusing superstitious fear of innocent enjoyment, instead of aiding sober habits, will, by making men abject and sad, impair their moral force, and prepare them for intemperance as a refuge from depression or despair. —Channing.
Religion is the hospital of the souls that the world has wounded. —J. Petit Senn.
Ah! what a divine religion might be found out if charity were really made the principle of it instead of faith. —Shelley.
The ship retains her anchorage yet drifts with a certain range, subject to wind and tide. So we have for an anchorage the cardinal truths of the gospel. —Gladstone.
The best religion is the most tolerant. —Emile de Girardin.
Remembrance.– The greatest comfort of my old age, and that which gives me the highest satisfaction, is the pleasing remembrance of the many benefits and friendly offices I have done to others. —Cato.
Pleasure is the flower that fades; remembrance is the lasting perfume. —Boufflers.
Remorse.– Remorse is the punishment of crime; repentance its expiation. The former appertains to a tormented conscience; the latter to a soul changed for the better. —Joubert.
Remorse sleeps in the atmosphere of prosperity. —Rousseau.
Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles. Infected minds to their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. —Shakespeare.
Truth severe, by fairy fiction drest. —Gray.
Repartee.– The impromptu reply is precisely the touchstone of the man of wit. —Molière.
Repentance.– Repentance clothes in grass and flowers the grave in which the past is laid. —Sterling.
He repents on thorns that sleeps in beds of roses. —Quarles.
Beholding heaven, and feeling hell. —Moore.
Is it not in accordance with divine order that every mortal is thrown into that situation where his hidden evils can be brought forth to his own view, that he may know them, acknowledge them, struggle against them, and put them away? —Anna Cora Ritchie.
Repentance is second innocence. —De Bonald.
Repose.– Repose is agreeable to the human mind; and decision is repose. A man has made up his opinions; he does not choose to be disturbed; and he is much more thankful to the man who confirms him in his errors, and leaves him alone, than he is to the man who refutes him, or who instructs him at the expense of his tranquillity. —Sydney Smith.
Rest is the sweet sauce of labor. —Plutarch.
Reproach.– Few love to hear the sins they love to act. —Shakespeare.
The silent upbraiding of the eye is the very poetry of reproach; it speaks at once to the imagination. —Mrs. Balfour.
Republic.– Though I admire republican principles in theory, yet I am afraid the practice may be too perfect for human nature. We tried a republic last century and it failed. Let our enemies try next. I hate political experiments. —Walpole.
The same fact that Boccaccio offers in support of religion, might be adduced in behalf of a republic: "It exists in spite of its ministers." —Heinrich Heine.
At twenty, every one is republican. —Lamartine.
Reputation.– Reputation is one of the prizes for which men contend: it is, as Mr. Burke calls it, "the cheap defence and ornament of nations, and the nurse of manly exertions;" it produces more labor and more talent then twice the wealth of a country could ever rear up. It is the coin of genius; and it is the imperious duty of every man to bestow it with the most scrupulous justice and the wisest economy. —Sydney Smith.
An eminent reputation is as dangerous as a bad one. —Tacitus.
Reputation is but the synonym of popularity; dependent on suffrage, to be increased or diminished at the will of the voters. —Washington Allston.
My name and memory I leave to men's charitable speeches, to foreign nations, and to the next age. —Bacon.
The blaze of reputation cannot be blown out, but it often dies in the socket. —Johnson.
One may be better than his reputation or his conduct, but never better than his principles. —Laténa.
Request.– No music is so charming to my ear as the requests of my friends, and the supplications of those in want of my assistance. —Cæsar.
He who goes round about in his requests wants commonly more than he chooses to appear to want. —Lavater.
Resignation.– O Lord, I do most cheerfully commit all unto Thee. —Fénelon.
Let God do with me what He will, anything He will; and, whatever it be, it will be either heaven itself, or some beginning of it. —Mountford.
A man that fortune's buffets and rewards has ta'en with equal thanks. —Shakespeare.
Trust in God, as Moses did, let the way be ever so dark; and it shall come to pass that your life at last shall surpass even your longing. Not, it may be, in the line of that longing, that shall be as it pleaseth God; but the glory is as sure as the grace, and the most ancient heavens are not more sure than that. —Robert Collyer.
Vulgar minds refuse to crouch beneath their load; the brave bear theirs without repining. —Thomson.
"My will, not thine, be done," turned Paradise into a desert. "Thy will, not mine, be done," turned the desert into a paradise, and made Gethsemane the gate of heaven. —Pressense.
Resignation is the courage of Christian sorrow. —Dr. Vinet.
Responsibility.– Responsibility educates. —Wendell Phillips.
Restlessness.– The mind is found most acute and most uneasy in the morning. Uneasiness is, indeed, a species of sagacity – a passive sagacity. Fools are never uneasy. —Goethe.
Always driven towards new shores, or carried hence without hope of return, shall we never, on the ocean of age cast anchor for even a day? —Lamartine.
Retribution.– Nemesis is lame, but she is of colossal stature, like the gods; and sometimes, while her sword is not yet unsheathed, she stretches out her huge left arm and grasps her victim. The mighty hand is invisible, but the victim totters under the dire clutch. —George Eliot.
"One soweth and another reapeth" is a verity that applies to evil as well as good. —George Eliot.
Revenge.– Revenge at first, though sweet, bitter ere long back on itself recoils. —Milton.
Revenge is a debt, in the paying of which the greatest knave is honest and sincere, and, so far as he is able, punctual. —Colton.
There are some professed Christians who would gladly burn their enemies, but yet who forgive them merely because it is heaping coals of fire on their heads. —F. A. Durivage.
Revery.– In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts bring sad thoughts to the mind. —Wordsworth.
Revolution.– The working of revolutions, therefore, misleads me no more; it is as necessary to our race as its waves to the stream, that it may not be a stagnant marsh. Ever renewed in its forms, the genius of humanity blossoms. —Herder.
Great revolutions are the work rather of principles than of bayonets, and are achieved first in the moral, and afterwards in the material sphere. —Mazzini.
All experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. —Jefferson.
Nothing has ever remained of any revolution hut what was ripe in the conscience of the masses. —Ledru Rollin.
Revolution is the larva of civilization. —Victor Hugo.
We deplore the outrages which accompany revolutions. But the more violent the outrages, the more assured we feel that a revolution was necessary! The violence of these outrages will always lie proportioned to the ferocity and ignorance of the people: and the ferocity and ignorance of the people will be proportioned to the oppression and degradation under which they have been accustomed to live. —Macaulay.
Let them call it mischief; when it's past and prospered, 't will be virtue. —Ben Jonson.
Rhetoric.– In composition, it is the art of putting ideas together in graceful and accurate prose; in speaking, it is the art of delivering ideas with propriety, elegance, and force; or, in other words, it is the science of oratory. —Locke.
Rhetoric without logic is like a tree with leaves and blossoms, but no root; yet more are taken with rhetoric than logic, because they are caught with a free expression, when they understand not reason. —Selden.
The florid, elevated, and figurative way is for the passions; for love and hatred, fear and anger, are begotten in the soul by showing their objects out of their true proportion, either greater than the life, or less; but instruction is to be given by showing them what they naturally are. A man is to cheated into passion, but reasoned into truth. —Dryden.
All the art of rhetoric, besides order and clearness, are for nothing else but to insinuate wrong ideas, move the passions, and thereby mislead the judgment. —Locke.
Rhetoric is very good, or stark naught; there's no medium in rhetoric. —Selden.
Riches.– The shortest road to riches lies through contempt of riches. —Seneca.
One cause, which is not always observed, of the insufficiency of riches, is that they very seldom make their owner rich. —Johnson.
Of all the riches that we hug, of all the pleasures we enjoy, we can carry no more out of this world than out of a dream. —Bonnell.
If the search for riches were sure to be successful, though I should become a groom with a whip in my hand to get them, I will do so. As the search may not be successful, I will follow after that which I love. —Confucius.
I have a rich neighbor that is always so busy that he has no leisure to laugh; the whole business of his life is to get money, more money, that he may still get more. He is still drudging, saying what Solomon says, "The diligent hand maketh rich." And it is true, indeed; but he considers not that it is not in the power of riches to make a man happy; for it was wisely said by a man of great observation that "there be as many miseries beyond riches as on this side of them." —Izaak Walton.
Riches, though they may reward virtues, yet they cannot cause them; he is much more noble who deserves a benefit, than he who bestows one. —Owen Feltham.
In these times gain is not only a matter of greed, but of ambition. —Joubert.
Ridicule.– Some men are, in regard to ridicule, like tin-roofed buildings in regard to hail: all that hits them bounds rattling off, not a stone goes through. —Beecher.
Rogues.– Rogues are always found out in some way. Whoever is a wolf will act as a wolf; that is the most certain of all things. —La Fontaine.
Many a man would have turned rogue if he knew how. —Hazlitt.
Ruin.– To be ruined your own way is some comfort. When so many people would ruin us, it is a triumph over the villany of the world to be ruined after one's own pattern. —Douglas Jerrold.