Quotes to inspire and reflect

Glory built on selfish principles is shame and guilt.

Cowards are cruel, but the brave Love mercy, and delight to save.

Tis the witching hour of night, Orbed is the moon and bright, and the stars they glisten, glisten, Seeming with bright eyes to listen For what listen they?

The shortest and surest way to live with honour in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be; and if we observe, we shall find, that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice of them.

I pray thee cease thy counsel, which falls into mine ears as profitless as water in a sieve.

Remember this-that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.

For they are yet ear-kissing arguments.

Thou art all the comfort, The Gods will diet me with.

Talk not of wasted affection, affection never was wasted, If it enrich not the heart of another, its waters returning Back to their springs, like the rain shall fill them full of refreshment; That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain.

Let arms give place to the robe, and the laurel of the warriors yield to the tongue of the orator.

Thy words, I grant are bigger, for I wear not, my dagger in my mouth.

You must lose a fly to catch a trout.

Nothing is so dangerous as an ignorant friend; A wise enemy is worth more.

Discourtesy does not spring merely from one bad quality, but from several--from foolish vanity, from ignorance of what is due to others, from indolence, from stupidity, from distraction of thought, from contempt of others, from jealousy.

Nay, tempt me not to love again: There was a time when love was sweet; Dear Nea! had I known thee then, our souls had not been slow to meet! But oh! this weary heart hath run So many a time the rounds of pain, Not even for thee, thou lovely one! Would I endure such pangs again?

What though the radiance which was once so bright Be not forever taken from my sight, though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower; Grief not, rather find, Strength in what remains behind, In the primal sympathy Which having been must ever be, In the soothing thoughts that spring Out of Human suffering, In the faith that looks through death In years that bring philippic mind.

Few are agreeable in conversation, because each thinks of what he intends to say than of what others are saying, and listens no more when he himself has a chance to speak.

It is not growing like a tree in bulk doth make man better be; Or standing long an oak, three hundred years, to fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere, A lily of a day is fairer in May Although it falls and die that night, it was the plant of flower and light, in small proportions we just beauties see and in short measures, life may perfect be.

They envy the distinction I have won; let them therefore, envy my toils, my honesty, and the methods by which I gained it.

Nothing deters a good man from doing what is honorable.

The man who has received a benefit ought always to remember it, but he who has granted it ought to forget the fact at once.

The sufferings that fate inflicts on us should be borne with patience, what enemies inflict with manly courage.

He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss.

Rest assured that there is nothing which wounds the heart of a noble man more deeply than the thought his honour is assailed.

Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.

If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle.

But far more numerous was the herd of such, who think too little and who talk too much.

We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure.

In what concerns you much, do not think that you have companions: know that you are alone in the world.

For the sword outwears its sheath, And the soul wears out the breast, And the heart must pause for breath, And love itself have rest.

Lady you bereft me of all words, Only my blood speaks to you in my veins, and there is such confusion in my powers.

Grow old along with me the best is yet to be.

I wish you well and so I take my leave, I Pray you know me when we meet again.

We must, however, acknowledge as it seems to me, that a man with all his noble qualities...still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.

He who allows himself to be insulted, deserves to be.

Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.

The difference of race is one of the reasons why I fear war may always exist; because race implies difference, difference implies superiority, and superiority leads to predominance.

I show you doubt, to prove that faith exists.

The man who backbites an absent friend, nay, who does not stand up for him when another blames him, the man who angles for bursts of laughter and for the repute of a wit, who can invent what he never saw, who cannot keep a secret - that man is black at heart: mark and avoid him.

A really great man is known by three signs... generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, moderation in success.

Leisure is the mother of philosophy.

The proposition that the people are the best keepers of their own liberties is not true. They are the worst conceivable, they are no keepers at all; they can neither judge, act, think, or will, as a political body.

The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence. Thomas H.

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.

There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable.

A happy life consists in tranquility of mind.

The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader to self-activity.

Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee.