Many Thoughts of Many Minds Part 4

AUTHORS.--Choose an author as you choose a friend.--EARL OF ROSCOMMON.

The motives and purposes of authors are not always so pure and high, as, in the enthusiasm of youth, we sometimes imagine. To many the trumpet of fame is nothing but a tin horn to call them home, like laborers from the field, at dinner-time, and they think themselves lucky to get the dinner.--LONGFELLOW.

It is a doubt whether mankind are most indebted to those who, like Bacon and Butler, dig the gold from the mine of literature, or to those who, like Paley, purify it, stamp it, fix its real value, and give it currency and utility.--COLTON.

Twenty to one offend more in writing too much than too little.--ROGER ASCHAM.

He who proposes to be an author should first be a student.--DRYDEN.

Nothing is so beneficial to a young author as the advice of a man whose judgment stands const.i.tutionally at the freezing-point.--DOUGLAS JERROLD.

No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind.--CERVANTES.

There are three difficulties in authors.h.i.+p--to write anything worth the publis.h.i.+ng, to find honest men to publish it, and to get sensible men to read it.--COLTON.

An author! 'Tis a venerable name!

How few deserve it, and what numbers claim!

Unblest with sense above their peers refin'd, Who shall stand up, dictators to mankind?

Nay, who dare s.h.i.+ne, if not in virtue's cause?

That sole proprietor of just applause.

--YOUNG.

Never write on a subject without having first read yourself full on it; and never read on a subject till you have thought yourself hungry on it.--RICHTER.

How many great ones may remember'd be, Which in their days most famously did flourish, Of whom no word we hear, nor sign now see, But as things wip'd out with a sponge do perish, Because the living cared not to cherish No gentle wits, through pride or covetize, Which might their names for ever memorize!

--SPENSER.

The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, and familiar things new.--THACKERAY.

To write well is to think well, to feel well, and to render well; it is to possess at once intellect, soul and taste.--BUFFON.

Young authors give their brains much exercise and little food.--JOUBERT.

AVARICE.--It is surely very narrow policy that supposes money to be the chief good.--JOHNSON.

Poverty is in want of much, but avarice of everything.--PUBLIUS SYRUS.

There are two considerations which always imbitter the heart of an avaricious man--the one is a perpetual thirst after more riches, the other the prospect of leaving what he has already acquired.--FIELDING.

O cursed l.u.s.t of gold: when for thy sake The fool throws up his interest in both worlds, First starved in this, then d.a.m.n'd in that to come.

--BLAIR.

Many have been ruined by their fortunes; many have escaped ruin by the want of fortune. To obtain it, the great have become little, and the little great.--ZIMMERMANN.

Avarice is the vice of declining years.--GEORGE BANCROFT.

Riches, like insects, when conceal'd they lie, Wait but for wings, and in their season fly.

Who sees pale Mammon pine amidst his store, Sees but a backward steward for the poor; This year a reservoir, to keep and spare; The next a fountain, spouting thro' his heir In lavish streams to quench a country's thirst, And men and dogs shall drink him till they burst.

--POPE.

The love of money is the root of all evil.--1 TIMOTHY 6:10.

The avaricious man is like the barren, sandy ground of the desert, which sucks in all the rain and dews with greediness, but yields no fruitful herbs or plants for the benefit of others.--ZENO.

Avarice in old age, is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road, the nearer we approach to our journey's end?--CICERO.

Poverty wants some, luxury many, and avarice all things.--COWLEY.

BASHFULNESS.--Modesty is the graceful, calm virtue of maturity; bashfulness the charm of vivacious youth.--MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT.

As those that pull down private houses adjoining to the temples of the G.o.ds, prop up such parts as are contiguous to them; so, in undermining bashfulness, due regard is to be had to adjacent modesty, good-nature and humanity.--PLUTARCH.

Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.

--ARISTOTLE.

Women who are the least bashful are not unfrequently the most modest; and we are never more deceived than when we would infer any laxity of principle from that freedom of demeanor which often arises from a total ignorance of vice.--COLTON.

BEAUTY.--It is beauty that begins to please, and tenderness that completes the charm.--FONTENELLE.

Keats spoke for all time when he said, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."--THACKERAY.

Beauty is an outward gift which is seldom despised except by those to whom it has been refused.--GIBBON.

What is beauty? Not the show Of shapely limbs and features. No.

These are but flowers That have their dated hours To breathe their momentary sweets, then go.

'Tis the stainless soul within That outs.h.i.+nes the fairest skin.

--SIR A. HUNT.

I pray Thee, O G.o.d, that I may be beautiful within.--SOCRATES.

Happily there exists more than one kind of beauty. There is the beauty of infancy, the beauty of youth, the beauty of maturity, and, believe me, ladies and gentlemen, the beauty of age.--G.A. SALA.

There is no beauty on earth which exceeds the natural loveliness of woman.--J. PEt.i.t-SENN.

There is a self-evident axiom, that she who is born a beauty is half married.--OUIDA.

Beauty attracts us men, but if, like an armed magnet it is pointed with gold or silver beside, it attracts with tenfold power.--RICHTER.

If thou marry beauty, thou bindest thyself all thy life for that which, perchance, will neither last nor please thee one year.--RALEIGH.

It is seldom that beautiful persons are otherwise of great virtue.

--BACON.

The most natural beauty in the world is honesty and moral truth.

--SHAFTESBURY.