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.”

“The test of the worth of a school is not the amount of knowledge it imparts, but the self-activity it calls forth.”

“The narrow-minded and petty sticklers for the formalities which hedge rank and office are the true vulgarians, however observant they be of etiquette.”

“Culture makes the whole world our dwelling place; our palace in which we take our ease and find ourselves at one with all things.”

“The first requisite of a gentleman is to be true, brave and noble, and to be therefore a rebuke and scandal to venal and vulgar souls.”

“If our opinions rest upon solid ground, those who attack them do not make us angry, but themselves ridiculous.”

“Believe in no triumph which is won by the deadening of human faculty or the dwarfing of human life. Strive for truth and love, not for victory.”

“Thy money, thy office, thy reputation are nothing; put away these phantom clothings, and stand like an athlete stripped for the battle.”

“Beauty least adorned is most adorned”

“The will—the one thing it is most important to educate—we neglect.”

“As children must have the hooping cough, the college youth must pass through the stage of conceit in which he holds in slight esteem the wisdom of the best.”

“They whom trifles distract and nothing occupies are but children.”

“When we have attained success, we see how inferior it is to the hope, yearning and enthusiasm with which we started forth in life’s morning.”

“A liberal education is that which aims to develop faculty without ulterior views of profession or other means of gaining a livelihood. It considers man an end in himself and not an instrument whereby something is to be wrought. Its ideal is human perfection.”

“If we are disappointed that men give little heed to what we utter is it for their sake or our own?”

“Insight makes argument ridiculous.”

“Rules of grammar can not give us a mastery of language, rules of rhetoric can not make us eloquent, rules of conduct can not make us good.”

“It is difficult to be sure of our friends, but it is possible to be certain of our loyalty to them.”

“God has not made a world which suits all; how shall a sane man expect to please all?”

“Mercenary is whoever thinks less of his work than of the money he receives for doing it; and social conditions which impose tasks that make this inevitable are barbarous.”

“As a brave man goes into fire or flood or pestilence to save a human life, so a generous mind follows after truth and love, and is not frightened from the pursuit by danger or toil or obloquy.”

“The happiness of the ignorant is but an animal’s paradise.”

“As our power over others increases, we become less free; for to retain it, we must make ourselves its servants.”

“We are not masters of the truth which is borne in upon us: it overpowers us.”

“The seeking for truth is better than its loveless possession.”

“What purifies the heart refines language.”

“When with all thy heart thou strivest to live with truth and love, couldst thou do anything better? … If this be thy life, thou shalt not deem it a misfortune to lack the things men most crave and toil for.”

“If thou wouldst be implacable, be so with thyself.”

“Conversation injures more than it benefits. Men talk to escape from themselves, from sheer dread of silence. Reflection makes them uncomfortable, and they find distraction in a noise of words. They seek not the company of those who might enlighten and improve them, but that of whoever can divert and amuse them. Thus the intercourse which ought to be a chief means of education, is for the most part, the occasion of mental and moral enfeeblement.”

“The value of a mind is measured by the nature of the objects it habitually contemplates. They whose thoughts are of trifles are trifling: they who dwell with what is eternally true, good and fair, are like unto God.”