Many Thoughts of Many Minds Part 43

The crowning fortune of a man is to be born to some pursuit which finds him employment and happiness, whether it be to make baskets, or broadswords, or ca.n.a.ls, or statues, or songs.--EMERSON.

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. He has a work, a life purpose. Labor is life.--CARLYLE.

One only "right" we have to a.s.sert in common with mankind--and that is as much in our hands as theirs--is the right of having something to do.--MISS MULOCK.

OPINION.--Opinions should be formed with great caution, and changed with greater.--H.W. SHAW.

Do not think of knocking out another person's brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago.--HORACE MANN.

He who has no opinion of his own, but depends upon the opinion and taste of others, is a slave.--KLOPSTOCK.

To maintain an opinion because it is thine, and not because it is true, is to prefer thyself above the truth.--VENNING.

We should always keep a corner of our heads open and free, that we may make room for the opinions of our friends. Let us have heart and head hospitality.--JOUBERT.

No liberal man would impute a charge of unsteadiness to another for having changed his opinion.--CICERO.

Who observes not that the voice of the people, yea of that people that voiced themselves the people of G.o.d, did prosecute the G.o.d of all people, with one common voice, "He is worthy to die." I will not, therefore, ambitiously beg their voices for my preferment; nor weigh my worth in that uneven balance, in which a feather of opinion shall be moment enough to turn the scales and make a light piece go current, and a current piece seem light.--ARTHUR WARWICK.

It is not only arrogant, but it is profligate, for a man to disregard the world's opinion of himself.--CICERO.

In the minds of most men, the kingdom of opinion is divided into three territories,--the territory of yes, the territory of no, and a broad, unexplored middle ground of doubt.--JAMES A. GARFIELD.

The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinion.--LOWELL.

Public opinion, though often formed upon a wrong basis, yet generally has a strong underlying sense of justice.--ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

OPPORTUNITY.--Opportunity is rare, and a wise man will never let it go by him.--BAYARD TAYLOR.

Many do with opportunities as children do at the seash.o.r.e; they fill their little hands with sand, and then let the grains fall through, one by one, till all are gone.--REV. T. JONES.

Do not wait for extraordinary circ.u.mstances to do good actions; try to use ordinary situations.--RICHTER.

The best men are not those who have waited for chances, but who have taken them,--besieged the chance, conquered the chance, and made the chance their servitor.--CHAPIN.

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows, and in miseries: And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.

--SHAKESPEARE.

The opportunity to do mischief is found a hundred times a day, and that of doing good once a year.--VOLTAIRE.

There is an hour in each man's life appointed to make his happiness, if then he seize it.--BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

There is no man whom fortune does not visit once in his life; but when she does not find him ready to receive her, she walks in at the door and flies out at the window.--CARDINAL IMPERIALI.

Nothing is so often irrevocably neglected as an opportunity of daily occurrence.--MARIE EBNER-ESCHENBACH.

Give me a chance, says Stupid, and I will show you. Ten to one he has had his chance already, and neglected it.--HALIBURTON.

That policy that can strike only while the iron is hot will be overcome by that perseverance which, like Cromwell's, can make the iron hot by striking; and he that can only rule the storm must yield to him who can both raise and rule it.--COLTON.

Opportunity has hair in front; behind she is bald. If you seize her by the forelock, you may hold her; but if suffered to escape, not Jupiter himself can catch her again.--SENECA.

OPPOSITION.--The effects of opposition are wonderful. There are men who rise refreshed on hearing of a threat; men to whom a crisis which intimidates and paralyzes the majority--demanding, not the faculties of prudence and thrift, but comprehension, immovableness, the readiness of sacrifice,--comes graceful and beloved as a bride.

--EMERSON.

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.--BURKE.

A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against and not with the wind. Even a head wind is better than none.

No man ever worked his pa.s.sage anywhere in a dead calm. Let no man wax pale, therefore, because of opposition.--JOHN NEAL.

It is not ease, but effort,--not facility, but difficulty, that makes men. There is, perhaps, no station in life in which difficulties have not to be encountered and overcome before any decided measure of success can be achieved.--SAMUEL SMILES.

To make a young couple love each other, it is only necessary to oppose and separate them.--GOETHE.

ORDER.--Order is heaven's first law.--POPE.

Order is to arrangement what the soul is to the body, and what mind is to matter.--JOUBERT.

Order is the sanity of the mind, the health of the body, the peace of the city, the security of the State. As the beams to a house, as the bones to the microcosm of man, so is order to all things.--SOUTHEY.

The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre, Observe degree, priority, and place, Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, Office, and custom, in all line of order.

--SHAKESPEARE.

Fretfulness of temper will generally characterize those who are negligent of order.--BLAIR.

Let all things be done decently and in order.--1 CORINTHIANS 14:40.

PARADISE.--Every man has a paradise around him till he sins, and the angel of an accusing conscience drives him from his Eden.--LONGFELLOW.

Gentleness and kindness will make our homes a paradise upon earth.

--BARTOL.

PARENTS.--The sacred books of the ancient Persians say: "If you would be holy instruct your children, because all the good acts they perform will be imputed to you."--MONTESQUIEU.

Of all hardness of heart there is none so inexcusable as that of parents toward their children. An obstinate, inflexible, unforgiving temper is odious upon all occasions; but here it is unnatural.--ADDISON.

Children, honor your parents in your hearts; bear them not only awe and respect, but kindness and affection: love their persons, fear to do anything that may justly provoke them; highly esteem them as the instruments under G.o.d of your being: for "Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father."--JEREMY TAYLOR.

Next to G.o.d, thy parents.--WILLIAM PENN.

Whoever makes his father's heart to bleed, Shall have a child that will revenge the deed.

--RANDOLPH.