James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
Prof. Blackie
Disorder makes nothing at all, but unmakes everything.
Healthy action is always a balance of forces; and all extremes are dangerous; the excess of a good thing being often more dangerous in its social consequences than the excess of what is radically bad.To young men.
Let prideful priests do battle about creeds, / The Church is mine that does most Christlike deeds.
Let whatever you are and whatever you do, grow out of a firm root of truth and a strong soil of reality.
Let your daily wisdom of life be in making a good use of the opportunities given you.
Let your rule in reference to your social sentiments be simply this; pray for the bad, pity the weak, enjoy the good, and reverence both the great and the small, as playing each his part aptly in the divine symphony of the universe.
Lies, mere show and sham, and hollow superficiality of all kinds, which is at the best a painted lie, avoid.To young men.
Life is an earnest business, and no man was ever made great or good by a diet of broad grins.
Make clean work, and leave no tags. Allow no delays when you are at a thing; do it and be done with it.
Miscellaneous reading avoid.To young men.
More than all things, avoid fault-finding and a habit of criticism.To young men.
Never desire to appear clever and make a show of your talents before men. Be honest, loving, kindly, and sympathetic in all you say and do. Cleverness will flow from you naturally if you have it, and applause will come to you unsought from those who know what to applaud; but the applause of fools is to be shunned.To young men.
Never forget St. Paul’s sentence, “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” This is the steam of the social machine; but the steam requires regulation; it is regulated by intelligence and moderation.To young men.
Never indulge the notion that you have any absolute right to choose the sphere or the circumstances in which you are to put forth your powers of social action.To young men.
Read nothing that you do not care to remember, and remember nothing you do not mean to use.To young men.
The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout man.
The nobility of life is work. We live in a working world. The lazy and idle man does not count in the plan of campaign. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” Let that text be enough.To young men.
We live in a real, and a solid, and a truthful world. In such a world only truth, in the long run, can hope to prosper.
Why seek at once to dive into / The depth of all that meets your view? / Wait for the melting of the snow, / And then you’ll see what lies below.From Goethe.