THINGS THOUGHTFUL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 26 June 1943, Page 6

THINGS THOUGHTFUL

A MAN ON MEN I have no respect for men as they are and would not give a drop of blood for them, but I would drain my heart to make them what they should be.—Robert Southey. SWEET CONTENT Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content; The quiet mind is richer than a crown; Sweet are the nights in careless slumber spent; The poor estate scorns fortune’s angry frown; Such sweet content, such minds, such sleep, such bliss. Beggars enjoy, when princes oft do miss. —Robert Greene. DIFFERENCE OF OPINION The only sin which we never forgive in each other is difference of opinion. We know before hand that yonder man must think as we do. Has he not two hands—two feet—hair and nails? Does he not eat—bleed—laugh—cry? His dissent from me is the veriest affectation. This conclusion is at once the logic of persecution and of love. And the ground of our indignation is our conviction that his dissent is some wilfulness he practices on himself.—Emerson. TRUTH BEFORE ALL A truth that disheartens, because it is true, is still of far more value than the most stimulating of falsehoods. —Maeterlinck. HEREAFTER ’Tis the Divinity that stirs within us, ’Tis heaven itself that points out an hereafter, And intimates eternity to man. —Addison. GIVE AND TAKE No man is so foolish but may give good counsel sometimes; and no man is so wise but may easily err, if he will take no others’ counsel but his own.—Ben Jonson. COURAGE OR PRINCIPLE LACKS To see what is right, and not to do it, is want of courage or of principle. —Confucius. WHEN PRAYING In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.—Bunyan. FAULTS NECESSARY Certain faults are necessary to the existence of the individual. We should not like to see old friends lay aside certain of their peculiarities. —Goethe. CHARMS AND KNOTS “Who reads a chapter when they rise, Shall ne’er be troubled with ill eyes. Who shuts his hand hath lost his gold; Who opens it hath it twice-told. Who goes to bed and doth not pray Maketh two nights to ev’ry day. Who by aspersions throw a stone At th’ head of others, hit their own.” —George Herbert. HEIR OF THE AGES The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future; and that his thoughts are as children born to him, which he may not carelessly let die.—Herbert Spencer. AS LIFE GOES BY What seems to grow fairer to me as life goes by is the love and grace and tenderness of it; not its wit and cleverness and grandeur of knowledge (grand as knowledge is), but just the laughter of little children and the friendship of friends—the cosy talk by the fireside; the sight of flowers and the sound of music.— John Richard Green. WHAT INDUSTRY WILL DO If you have got talents, industry will improve them; if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiencies. —Sir Joshua Reynolds. WORK AND PLAY When a man’s busy, why, leisure Strikes him as a wonderful pleasure; ’Faith, and at leisure once is he? Straightway he wants to be busy. —Browning. THE GOOD MOTORIST’S PRAYER Grant me a steady hand and watchful eye, That no man shall be hurt when I pass by. Thou gavest life, and I pray no act of mine May take away or mar that gift of Thine. Shelter those, dear Lord, who bear me company From the evils of fire and all calamity. Teach me to use my car for others’ need, Nor miss through love of speed The beauties of Thy world; that thus I may With joy and courtesy go on my way. —The “Children’s Newspaper.” THE CELESTIAL FIRE Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire—conscience.—George Washington. HEAVEN’S OPEN FACE To one who has been long in city pent, ’Tis very sweet to look into the fair And open face of heaven to breathe a prayer Full in the smile of the blue firmament.—Keats. THE SLANDER ’Twas but a breath, And yet the fair good name was wilted; And life was worse than death. One venomed word That struck its coward, poisoned blow In craven whispers, hushed and low And yet the wide world heard! ’Twas but one whisper, one That muttered low, for very shame, The thing the slanderer dare not name, And yet the work was done. A hint so slight, And yet so mighty in its power: A human soul in one short hour Lies crushed beneath its blight. —By a writer unknown. TWO TRIBES IN SOCIETY Society is now one polish’d horde Form’d of two mighty tribes, the bores and bored.—Byron. WISE THINGS AND FOOLISH Your wit makes wise things foolishwhen we greet With eyes best seeing heaven’s fiery eye, By light we lose light; your capacity Is of that nature, that to your huge store Wise things seem foolish, and rich things but poor.—Shakespeare. LOOK WITHIN Within is the fountain of good and it will ever bubble up if thou wilt ever dig.—Marcus Aurelius.