C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Troubles
Troubles, like babies, grow larger by nursing.
Trifling trouble find utterance; deeply felt pangs are silent.
It is not designed that the road should be made too smooth for us here upon earth.
The true way to soften one’s troubles is to solace those of others.
No evil lost is wailed when it is gone.
Man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
Trouble and perplexity drive us to prayer, and prayer driveth away trouble and perplexity.
In this wild world the fondest and the best are the most tried, most troubled and distressed.
The greater our dread of crosses, the more necessary they are for us.
Know this, that troubles come swifter than the things we desire.
Crosses are of no use to us but inasmuch as we yield ourselves up to them and forget ourselves.
There are people who are always anticipating trouble, and in this way they manage to enjoy many sorrows that never really happen to them.
Many minds that have withstood the most severe trials have been broken down by a succession of ignoble cares.
Annoyance is man’s leaven; the element of movement, without which we would grow mouldy.
Troubles are exceedingly gregarious in their nature, and flying in flocks are apt to perch capriciously.
Are you borne down by trouble, remember the apt words of Carlyle: “The eternal stars shine out as soon as it is dark enough.”
We are born to trouble; and we may depend upon it, whilst we live in this world, we shall have it, though with intermissions.
Men are born to trouble at first, and exercised in it all their days. There is a cry at the beginning of life, and a groan at its close.
In adverse hours the friendship of the good shines most; each prosperous day commands its friends.
Thou art never at any time nearer to God than when under tribulation; which He permits for the purification and beautifying of thy soul.
Tribulation will not hurt you unless it does—what, alas! it too often does—unless it hardens you, and makes you sour and narrow and sceptical.
Men’s happiness springs mainly from moderate troubles, which afford the mind a healthful stimulus, and are followed by a reaction which produces a cheerful flow of spirits.
Petty vexations may at times be petty, but still they are vexations. The smallest and most inconsiderable annoyances are the most piercing. As small letters weary the eye most, so the smallest affairs disturb us.
Let a man who wants to find abundance of employment procure a woman and a ship: for no two things do produce more trouble if you begin to equip them; neither are these two things ever equipped enough.
Outward attacks and troubles rather fix than unsettle the Christian, as tempests from without only serve to root the oak faster; whilst an inward canker will gradually rot and decay it.
If you tell your troubles to God, you put them into the grave; they will never rise again when you have committed them to him. If you roll your burden anywhere else, it will roll back again, like the stone of Sisyphus.
Now, God hath bound thy troubles upon thee with a design to try thee, and with purposes to reward and crown thee. The cords thou canst not break; and therefore lie thou down gently, and suffer the hand of God to do what He please.
Troubles are usually the brooms and shovels that smooth the road to a good man’s fortune, of which he little dreams; and many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away hunger.
Quick is the succession of human events. The cares of to-day are seldom the cares of to-morrow; and when we lie down at night, we may safely say to most of our troubles, “Ye have done your worst, and we shall meet no more.”
Make up your mind to the prospect of sustaining a certain measure of pain and trouble in your passage through life. By the blessing of God this will prepare you for it; it will make you thoughtful and resigned without interfering with your cheerfulness.
You can imagine thistle-down so light that when you run after it your running motion would drive it away from you, and that the more you tried to catch it the faster it would fly from your grasp. And it should be with every man, that, when he is chased by troubles, they, chasing, shall raise him higher and higher.
I saw a delicate flower had grown up two feet high between the horse’s path and the wheel track. An inch more to the right or left had sealed its fate, or an inch higher; and yet it lived to flourish as much as if it had a thousand acres of untrodden space around it, and never knew the danger it incurred. It did not borrow trouble, nor invite an evil fate by apprehending it.