Many Thoughts of Many Minds Part 56

--COWPER.

G.o.d giveth quietness at last.--WHITTIER.

Of all our loving Father's gifts I often wonder which is best, And cry: Dear G.o.d, the one that lifts Our soul from weariness to rest, The rest of silence--that is best.

--MARY CLEMMER.

The word "rest" is not in my vocabulary.--HORACE GREELEY.

RETIREMENT.--How much they err who, to their interest blind, slight the calm peace which from retirement flows!--MRS. TIGHE.

Nature I'll court in her sequester'd haunts, By mountain, meadow, streamlet, grove or cell; Where the poised lark his evening ditty chaunts, And health, and peace, and contemplation dwell.

--SMOLLETT.

O, blest retirement! friend to life's decline-- How blest is he who crowns, in shades like these, A youth of labor with an age of ease!

--GOLDSMITH.

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

--GRAY.

Depart from the highway, and transplant thyself in some enclosed ground; for it is hard for a tree that stands by the wayside to keep her fruit till it be ripe.--ST. CHRYSOSTOM.

Exert your talents and distinguish yourself, and don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire.

I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.--DR. JOHNSON.

The statesman, lawyer, merchant, man of trade Pants for the refuge of some rural shade, Where all his long anxieties forgot Amid the charms of a sequester'd spot, Or recollected only to gild o'er And add a smile to what was sweet before, He may possess the joys he thinks he sees, Lay his old age upon the lap of ease, Improve the remnant of his wasted span.

And having lived a trifler, die a man.

--COWPER.

But what, it may be asked, are the requisites for a life of retirement? A man may be weary of the toils and torments of business, and yet quite unfit for the tranquil retreat. Without literature, friends.h.i.+p, and religion, retirement is in most cases found to be a dead, flat level, a barren waste, and a blank. Neither the body nor the soul can enjoy health and life in a vacuum.--RUSTICUS.

RICHES.--Riches exclude only one inconvenience,--that is, poverty.

--DR. JOHNSON.

Great abundance of riches cannot of any man be both gathered and kept without sin.--ERASMUS.

Riches, honors, and pleasures are the sweets which destroy the mind's appet.i.te for its heavenly food; poverty, disgrace, and pain are the bitters which restore it.--BISHOP HORNE.

A man's true wealth is the good he does in this world.--MOHAMMED.

Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer.

--SHAKESPEARE.

He is rich whose income is more than his expenses; and he is poor whose expenses exceed his income.--LA BRUYeRE.

No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger.

It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.--BEECHER.

Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.--FRANKLIN.

He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.--PROVERBS 28:20.

Riches without charity are nothing worth. They are a blessing only to him who makes them a blessing to others.--FIELDING.

SABBATH.--The Sunday is the core of our civilization, dedicated to thought and reverence. It invites to the n.o.blest solitude and to the n.o.blest society.--EMERSON.

Students of every age and kind, beware of secular study on the Lord's day.--PROFESSOR MILLER.

A world without a Sabbath would be like a man without a smile, like a summer without flowers, and like a homestead without a garden. It is the joyous day of the whole week.--BEECHER.

He who ordained the Sabbath loved the poor.--O.W. HOLMES.

SCANDAL.--If there is any person to whom you feel dislike, that is the person of whom you ought never to speak.--CECIL.

There is a l.u.s.t in man no charm can tame, Of loudly publis.h.i.+ng his neighbor's shame;-- On eagle's wings immortal scandals fly, While virtuous actions are but born and die.

--ELLA LOUISA HERVEY.

No one loves to tell of scandal except to him who loves to hear it.

Learn, then, to rebuke and check the detracting tongue by showing that you do not listen to it with pleasure.--ST. JEROME.

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.--EPHESIANS 4:31.

SCEPTICISM.--Scepticism has never founded empires, established principles, or changed the world's heart. The great doers in history have always been men of faith.--CHAPIN.

Scepticism is a barren coast, without a harbor or lighthouse.--BEECHER.

Freethinkers are generally those who never think at all.--STERNE.

I know not any crime so great that a man could contrive to commit as poisoning the sources of eternal truth.--DR. JOHNSON.

SECRECY.--The secret known to two is no longer a secret.--NINON DE LENCLOS.

Secrecy has been well termed the soul of all great designs. Perhaps more has been effected by concealing our own intentions, than by discovering those of our enemy. But great men succeed in both.

A woman can keep one secret,--the secret of her age.--VOLTAIRE.

To tell your own secrets is generally folly, but that folly is without guilt; to communicate those with which we are intrusted is always treachery, and treachery for the most part combined with folly.

--DR. JOHNSON.

To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.--HOLMES.

To whom you betray your secret you sell your liberty.--FRANKLIN.

He who trusts a secret to his servant makes his own man his master.