Many Thoughts of Many Minds Part 40

Let there be an entire abstinence from intoxicating drinks throughout this country during the period of a single generation, and a mob would be as impossible as combustion without oxygen.--HORACE MANN.

MODERATION.--Unlimited activity, of whatever kind, must end in bankruptcy.--GOETHE.

A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.--THOMAS PAINE.

The boundary of man is moderation. When once we pa.s.s that pale our guardian angel quits his charge of us.--FELTHAM.

Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues.--BISHOP HALL.

The superior man wishes to be slow in his words and earnest in his conduct.--CONFUCIUS.

Moderation resembles temperance. We are not unwilling to eat more, but are afraid of doing ourselves harm.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.

To go beyond the bounds of moderation is to outrage humanity. The greatness of the human soul is shown by knowing how to keep within proper bounds. So far from greatness consisting in going beyond its limits, it really consists in keeping within it.--PASCAL.

MODESTY.--A modest person seldom fails to gain the goodwill of those he converses with, because n.o.body envies a man who does not appear to be pleased with himself.--STEELE.

Modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with n.o.bler virtues.--GOLDSMITH.

True modesty avoids everything that is criminal; false modesty everything that is unfas.h.i.+onable.--ADDISON.

You little know what you have done, when you have first broke the bounds of modesty; you have set open the door of your fancy to the devil, so that he can, almost at his pleasure ever after, represent the same sinful pleasure to you anew.--BAXTER.

Modesty once extinguished knows not how to return.--SENECA.

Modesty never rages, never murmurs, never pouts when it is ill-treated.

--STEELE.

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of; it heightens all the virtues which it accompanies; like the shades in paintings, it raises and rounds every figure, and makes the colors more beautiful, though not so glaring as they would be without.

--ADDISON.

The first of all virtues is innocence; the next is modesty. If we banish modesty out of the world, she carries away with her half the virtue that is in it.--ADDISON.

The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech; he takes a low business tone, avoids all brag, is n.o.body, dresses plainly, promises not at all, performs much, speaks in monosyllables, hugs his fact. He calls his employment by its lowest name, and so takes from evil tongues their sharpest weapon.--EMERSON.

G.o.d intended for women two preventatives against sin, modesty and remorse; in confession to a mortal priest the former is removed by his absolution, the latter is taken away.--MIRANDA OF PIEDMONT.

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

But for money and the need of it, there would not be half the friends.h.i.+p in the world. It is powerful for good if divinely used.

Give it plenty of air, and it is sweet as the hawthorn; shut it up, and it cankers and breeds worms.--GEORGE MACDONALD.

Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.--WESLEY.

What a dignity it gives an old lady, that balance at the bankers! How tenderly we look at her faults if she is a relative; what a kind, good-natured old creature we find her!--THACKERAY.

Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants.

Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. If it satisfies one want, it doubles and trebles that want another way. That was a true proverb of the wise man, rely upon it: "Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith."--FRANKLIN.

A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.--SWIFT.

We must learn that competence is better than extravagance, that worth is better than wealth, that the golden calf we have wors.h.i.+ped has no more brains than that one of old which the Hebrews wors.h.i.+ped. So beware of money and of money's worth as the supreme pa.s.sion of the mind. Beware of the craving for enormous acquisition.--BARTOL.

Money is a good servant, but a dangerous master.--BOUHOURS.

By doing good with his money, a man as it were stamps the image of G.o.d upon it, and makes it pa.s.s current for the merchandise of heaven.

--RUTLEDGE.

To cure us of our immoderate love of gain, we should seriously consider how many goods there are that money will not purchase, and these the best; and how many evils there are that money will not remedy, and these the worst.--COLTON.

The deepest depth of vulgarism is that of setting up money as the ark of the covenant.--CARLYLE.

MORALITY.--In cases of doubtful morality, it is usual to say, Is there any harm in doing this? This question may sometimes be best answered by asking ourselves another: Is there any harm in letting it alone?

--COLTON.

To give a man a full knowledge of true morality, I would send him to no other book than the New Testament.--LOCKE.

Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.--WAs.h.i.+NGTON.

Ten men have failed from defect in morals where one has failed from defect in intellect.--HORACE MANN.

Socrates taught that true felicity is not to be derived from external possessions, but from wisdom, which consists in the knowledge and practice of virtue; that the cultivation of virtuous manners is necessarily attended with pleasure as well as profit; that the honest man alone is happy; and that it is absurd to attempt to separate things which are in nature so closely united as virtue and interest.

--ENFIELD.

The moral law is written on the tablets of eternity. For every false word or unrighteous deed, for cruelty and oppression, for l.u.s.t or vanity, the price has to be paid at last.--FROUDE.

Morality without religion, is only a kind of dead reckoning,--an endeavor to find our place on a cloudy sea by measuring the distance we have to run, but without any observation of the heavenly bodies.

--LONGFELLOW.

The system of morality which Socrates made it the business of his life to teach was raised upon the firm basis of religion. The first principles of virtuous conduct which are common to all mankind are, according to this excellent moralist, laws of G.o.d; and the conclusive argument by which he supports this opinion is, that no man departs from these principles with impunity.--ENFIELD.

All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from G.o.d.--VOLTAIRE.

MOTHER.--The mother in her office holds the key of the soul.--OLD PLAY.

There is a sight all hearts beguiling-- A youthful mother to her infant smiling, Who with spread arms and dancing feet, A cooing voice, returns its answer sweet.

--BAILLIE.

"What is wanting," said Napoleon one day to Madame Campan, "in order that the youth of France be well educated?" "Good mothers," was the reply. The emperor was most forcibly struck with this answer. "Here,"

said he, "is a system in one word."--ABBOTT.

A mother is a mother still, The holiest thing alive.

--COLERIDGE.