The world's a book, writ by th' eternal art The sceptred king, the burdened slave, Every rose must have its thorn, And every heart must have its care; The sweetest draught hath bitter dregs, Which all alike on earth must share. "Tis not the fairest form that holds I'd rather sit in my old chair, And see the coals glow in the grate, And chat with one I think is fair, Than sit upon a throne of state. A woman with a winning face, Time to me this truth hath taught, Oft unknowingly the tongue Pains the heart almost to breaking, Many a beauteous flower decays, Which no human aid can touch. Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed. Couper. Idleness is the sepulchre of a living man. Men are so constituted that everybody undertakes what he sees another successful in, whether he has aptitude for it or not. Goethe. A man should be careful never to tell tales of himself to his own disadvantage; people may be amused and laugh at the time, but they will be remembered and brought up against him on some subsequent occasion. Johnson. There is very little influence where there is not great sympathy. Hence we are seldom influenced much by those who are greatly our seniors in age. Trifles light as air Are to the jealous confirmation strong Bulwer, Shakspeare. Every one complains of his memory, and no one of his judgment. La Rochefoucauld. Pope. 'Tis with our judgments as our watches-none Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men- Cowper. When I hear a man talk of an unalterable law, I think he is an unalterable fool. Man is the only creature endowed with the power of laughter; is he not also the only one that deserves to be laughed at ? Greville. The every day cares and duties, which men call drudgery, are the weights and counterpoises of the clock of time; giving its pendulum a true vibration and its hands a regular motion; and when they cease to hang upon its wheels, the pendulum no longer swings, the hands no longer move, the clock stands still. Longfellow. The three things most difficult to do, are-to keep a secret, to forget an injury, and to make good use of leisure. It is one of the worst effects of prosperity to make a man a vortex instead of a fountain; so that, instead of throwing out, he learns only to draw in. Beecher. I live for those who love me, Whose hearts are kind and true; For all human ties that bind me, A useless life is but an early death. Goethe We live in deeds, not years-in thoughts, not breaths— In feelings, not in figures on a dial; We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. Bailey. The twenty-third psalm is the nightingale of the psalms. It is small, of a homely feather, singing shyly out of obscurity; but, oh, it has filled the air of the whole world with melodious joy, greater than the heart can conceive. Blessed he the day on which that psalm was born. Beecher. Success prompts to exertion, and habit facilitates success. Hazlitt. Were we as eloquent as angels, yet should we please some men and some women much more by listening than by talking. Colton. Complaisance renders a superior amiable, an equal agreeable, and an inferior acceptable. It smooths distinctions, sweetens conversation, and makes every one pleased with himself. It produces good nature and mutual benevolence, encourages the timorous, soothes the turbulent, humanizes the fierce, and distinguishes a society of civilized persons from a confusion of savages. Addison. A man's good breeding is the best security against another's bad manners. Chesterfield. Nothing so much prevents our being natural as the desire of being so. La Rochefoucauld. We sleep, but the loom of life never stops; and the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up to-morrow. Beecher. Never write on a subject until you have first read yourself full on it, and never read on a subject until you have first thought yourself hungry on it. Jean Paul. He who is false to present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and will find the flaw when he may have forgotten its cause. Beecher. Some men are like pyramids, which are very broad where they touch the ground, but grow narrower as they reach the sky. Beecher. We are never so ridiculous from the qualities we have, as from those we affect to have. La Rochefoucauld. There's naught so much disturbs one's patience 'Tis like that sort of painful wonder Enormous arches give beholders. Moore. He that will not reason is a bigot, he that cannot reason is a fool, and he that dares not reason is a slave. Drummond. Religious contention is the devil's harvest. French Proverb. Everybody knows worse of himself than he knows of other men. Johnson. By affecting to be worse than we are, we become popular and get credit for being honest fellows. Be frank in words, and nobody will suspect hypocrisy in your designs. Bulwer. He who lacks strength must attain his purpose by skill. Scott. Never seem wiser or more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket, and bring it out when called for. Chesterfield. Can wealth give happiness? Look around and see The mind annihilates, and asks for more. Young. Those who have finished by making all others think with them, have usually been those who began by daring to think for themselves. Colton. Man never fastened one end of a chain around the neck of his brother, that God's own hand did not fasten the other end around the neck of the oppressor. There is no difficulty to him who wills. Lamartine. Kossuth Dr. Tyng met an emigrant family going West. On one of the wagons there hung a jug with the bottom knocked out. "What is that?" asked the Doctor. "Why, that is my Taylor jug," said the man. "And what is a Taylor jug?" asked the doctor again. "I had a son in General Taylor's army in Mexico," said the man, "and the general always told him to carry his whiskey jug with a hole in the bottom, and that's it. It is the best invention I ever met with for hard drinkers." An Italian, in his one hundred and tenth year, being asked the secret of his living so long, replied: When hungry, of the best I eat, And dry and warm I keep my feet, I screen my head from sun and rain, A preacher, raising his eyes from his desk in the midst of his sermon, was paralyzed with amazement to see his rude boy in the gallery pelting the hearers in the pews below with horse-chestnuts. But while the good man was preparing a frown of reproof, the young hopeful cried out: "You tend to your preaching, daddy; I'll keep 'em awake." Old master Brown brought his ferule down; His face was angry and red; "Anthony Blair, go sit you there, Among the girls," he said. So Anthony Blair, with a mortified air, With the girl who loved him best. Brown is very proud of his argumentative powers. "I always carry my p'int," he says. Jones thinks he has seen Brown when he was carrying a good deal more than that. "O tell me where is fancy bred ?" She asked; and, getting bolder, She placed her little darling head And chignon on my shoulder; And I, with no more poetry in My soul than in a Shaker's, Replied with idiotic grin, "You'll find it at the baker's." A paper out West advertises as lost, a cloth cloak, belonging to a gentleman lined with blue. |