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.”

“To secure approval one must remain within the bounds of conventional mediocrity. Whatever lies beyond, whether it be greater insight and virtue, or greater stolidity and vice, is condemned. The noblest men, like the worst criminals, have been done to death.”

“If thou canst not hold the golden mean, say and do too little rather than too much.”

“Drunkards and sensualists have become heroes and saints; but sluggards have never risen to the significance and worth of human beings. Sloth enfeebles the root of life, and degrades more surely, if less swiftly, than the sins of passion.”

“In giving us dominion over the animal kingdom God has signified His will that we subdue the beast within ourselves.”

“A gentleman does not appear to know more or to be more than those with whom he is thrown into company.”

“Base thy life on principle, not on rules.”

“No pure delight cheers the farmer whose mind is intent on the price he shall get for his crops rather than on the joy there is in tilling them and seeing them grow and ripen: for such an one does not love the land nor his home nor any of the most beautiful and sacred things, but tends to become like the brute that eats and sleeps and dies. His thoughts are with what feeds the animal, and that which nourishes the human is hidden from him.”

“To view an object in the proper light we must stand away from it. The study of the classical literatures gives the aloofness which cultivates insight. In learning to live with peoples and civilizations that have long ceased to be alive, we gain a vantage point, acquire an enlargement and elevation of thought, which enable us to study with a more impartial and liberal mind the condition of the society around us.”

“Solitude is unbearable for those who can not bear themselves.”

“It is a common error to imagine that to be stirring and voluble in a worthy cause is to be good and to do good.”

“As the visit of one we love makes the whole day pleasant, so is it illumined and made fair by a brave and beautiful thought.”

“Those subjects have the greatest educational value, which are richest in incentives to the noblest self-activity.”

“It is the expensiveness of our pleasures that makes the world poor and keeps us poor in ourselves. If we could but learn to find enjoyment in the things of the mind, the economic problems would solve themselves.”

“It is a large part of learning to know what one wants, and where it may be found in its most authentic form.”

“Thought from which no emotion springs is sterile. The knowledge that has no bearing on the conduct of life is vain.”

“A Wise man knows that much of what he says and does is commonplace and trivial. His thoughts are not all solemn and sacred in his own eyes. He is able to laugh at himself and is not offended when others make him a subject whereon to exercise their wit.”

“However firmly thou holdest to thy opinions, if truth appears on the opposite side, throw down thy arms at once.”

“Be watchful lest thou lose the power of desiring and loving what appeals to the soul—this is the miser’s curse—this the chain and ball the sensualist drags.”

“The smaller the company, the larger the conversation.”

“The common prejudice against philosophy is the result of the incapacity of the multitude to deal with the highest problems.”

“If thou hast sought happiness and missed it, but hast found wisdom instead, thou art fortunate.”