Frases de John Lancaster Spalding

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“Assim como a memória pode ser um paraíso do qual não podemos ser levados, ela pode também ser um infermo do qual não conseguimos escapar.”

“No sooner does a divine gift reveal itself in youth or maid than its market value becomes the decisive consideration, and the poor young creatures are offered for sale, as we might sell angels who had strayed among us.”

“Agitators and declaimers may heat the blood, but they do not illumine the mind.”

“The best book is but the record of the best life.”

“When the crowd acclaims its favorites it applauds itself.”

“It is held that one fulfils his whole duty when he is industrious in his business or vocation, observing also the decencies of domestic, civil, and religious life. But activity of this kind stirs only the surface of our being, leaving what is most divine to starve; and when it is made the one important thing, men lose sense for what is high and holy, and become commonplace, mechanical, and hard. Science is valuable for them as a means to comfort and wealth; morality, as an aid to success; religion, as an agent of social order. In their eyes those who devote themselves to ideal aims and ends are as foolish as the alchemists, since the only real world is that of business and politics, or of business simply, since politics is business.”

“When we have not the strength or the courage to grasp a new truth, we persuade ourselves that it is not a truth at all.”

“Faith, like love, unites; opinion, like hate, separates.”

“We do not see rightly until we learn to eliminate what we expect or wish to see from what we really see.”

“Folly will run its course and it is the part of wisdom not to take it too seriously.”

“Each individual bears within himself an ideal man, and to bring him forth in perfect form is his divinely imposed life-work.”

“How is it possible not to strive to know what the awakening minds of the young are eager to learn from us? It is little less than criminal that we should put them off with foolish speech or lies.”

“What matter that the man stands for much I cannot love—the moment he touches the realms of truth he enters my world and is my friend.”

“Each one fashions and bears his world with him, and that unless he himself become wise, strong and loving, no change in his circumstances can make him rich or free or happy.”

“What we think out for ourselves forms channels in which other thoughts will flow.”

“To cultivate the memory we should confide to it only what we understand and love: the rest is a useless burden; for simply to know by rote is not to know at all.”

“If thy words are wise, they will not seem so to the foolish: if they are deep the shallow will not appreciate them. Think not highly of thyself, then, when thou art praised by many.”

“Though what we accept be true, it is a prejudice unless we ourselves have considered and understood why and how it is true.”

“Taste, of which the proverb says there should be no dispute, is precisely the subject which needs discussion.”

“The study of science, dissociated from that of philosophy and literature, narrows the mind and weakens the power to love and follow the noblest ideals: for the truths which science ignores and must ignore are precisely those which have the deepest bearing on life and conduct.”

“The innocence which is simply ignorance is not virtue.”

“What we enjoy, not what we possess, is ours, and in labouring for the possession of many things, we lose the power to enjoy the best.”

“The ploughman knows how many acres he shall upturn from dawn to sunset: but the thinker knows not what a day may bring forth.”

“To think of education as a means of preserving institutions however excellent, is to have a superficial notion of its end and purpose, which is to mould and fashion men who are more than institutions, who create, outgrow, and re-create them.”

“The highest strength is acquired not in overcoming the world, but in overcoming one’s self. Learn to be cruel to thyself, to withstand thy appetites, to bear thy sufferings, and thou shalt become free and able.”

“The power of free will is developed and confirmed by increasing the number of worthy motives which influence conduct.”

“We have lost the old love of work, of work which kept itself company, which was fair weather and music in the heart, which found its reward in the doing, craving neither the flattery of vulgar eyes nor the gold of vulgar men.”

“Let not what thou canst not prevent, though it be the ruin of thy home or country, draw thee from thy proper work.”

“When one sense has been bribed the others readily bear false witness.”

“We do not find it hard to bear with ourselves, though we are full of faults. Why then may we not learn to be tolerant of others?”