Quotes to inspire and reflect

The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords, in such a just and charitable war.

I am not bound to please thee with my answers.

Grief is the agony of an instant, the indulgence of grief the blunder of a life.

Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood.

A wretched soul, bruised with adversity, we bid be quiet when we hear it cry; But where we burdened with like weight of pain, as much or more we should ourselves complain.

Without an adversary prowess shrivels. We see how great and efficient it really is only when it shows by endurance what it is capable of.

Of writing well, the source and fountainhead is wise thinking.

Men decide far more problems by hate, love, lust, rage, sorrow, joy, hope, fear, illusion, or some other inward emotion, than by reality, authority, any legal standard, judicial precedent, or statute.

To someone seeking power, the poorest man is the most useful.

The name of peace is sweet, and the thing itself is beneficial, but there is a great difference between peace and servitude. Peace is freedom in tranquility, servitude is the worst of all evils, to be resisted not only by war, but even by death.

I pray you bear me henceforth from the noise and rumor of the field, where I may think the remnant of my thoughts in peace, and part of this body and my soul with contemplation and devout desires.

What a mistake to suppose that the passions are strongest in youth! The passions are not stronger, but the control over them is weaker! They are more easily excited, they are more violent and apparent; but they have less energy, less durability, less intense and concentrated power than in the mature life.

How sweet and soothing is this hour of calm! I thank thee, night! for thou have chased away these horrid bodements which, amidst the throng, I could not dissipate; and with the blessing of thy benign and quiet influence now will I to my couch, although to rest is almost wronging such a night as this.

But O the truth, the truth. The many eyes That look on it! The diverse things they see.

The conscience of a people is their power.

One man may hit the mark, another blunder; but heed not these distinctions. Only from the alliance of the one, working with and through the other, are great things born.

The wise are instructed by reason; ordinary minds by experience; the stupid, by necessity; and brutes by instinct.

He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself.

Conscience and reputation are two things. Conscience is due to yourself, reputation to your neighbor.

Advice is judged by results, not by intentions.

Men keep agreements when it is to the advantage of neither to break them.

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.

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

For they are yet ear-kissing arguments.

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.

You must lose a fly to catch a trout.

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

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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