Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Zeal
There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country.
Addison—Freeholder. No. 5.
Zealous, yet modest.
Beattie—The Minstrel. Bk. I. St. 11.
Through zeal knowledge is gotten, through lack of zeal knowledge is lost; let a man who knows this double path of gain and loss thus place himself that knowledge may grow.
Buddha.
For zeal’s a dreadful termagant,
That teaches saints to tear and cant.
Butler—Hudibras. Pt. III. Canto II. L. 673.
Awake, my soul! stretch every nerve,
And press with vigour on;
A heavenly race demands thy zeal,
And an immortal crown.
Philip Doddridge—Zeal and Vigour in the Christian Race.
It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing.
Galatians. IV. 18.
I remember a passage in Goldsmith’s “Vicar of Wakefield,” which he was afterwards fool enough to expunge: “I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing.”
Samuel Johnson—Boswell’s Life of Johnson. (1779).
Blinder Eifer schadet nur.
Blind zeal can only do harm.
Lichtwer—Die Katzen und der Hausherr.
A Spirit, zealous, as he seemed, to know
More of the Almighty’s works, and chiefly Man,
God’s latest image.
Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. IV. L. 565.
But his zeal
None seconded, as out of season judged,
Or singular and rash.
Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. V. L. 849.
But zeal moved thee;
To please thy gods thou didst it!
Milton—Samson Agonistes. L. 895.
Zeal is very blind, or badly regulated, when it encroaches upon the rights of others.
Pasquier Quesnel.
Zeal then, not charity, became the guide.
Pope—Essay on Man. Ep. III. L. 261.
I have more zeal than wit.
Pope—Imitations of Horace. Bk. II. Satire VI. L. 56.
Poets heap virtues, painters gems, at will,
And show their zeal, and hide their want of skill.
Pope—Moral Essays. Ep. II. L. 185.
A zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
Romans. X. 2.
My hat is in the ring.
Roosevelt. Said in Cleveland, when on his way to Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 21, 1912.
Der Freunde Eifer ist’s, der mich
Zu Grunde richtet, nicht der Hass der Feinde.
The zeal of friends it is that razes me,
And not the hate of enemies.
Schiller—Wallenstein’s Tod. III. 18. Last lines.
We do that in our zeal our calmer moment would be afraid to answer.
Scott—Woodstock. Heading of Ch. XVII.
If I had obeyed God, as I have obeyed him,
He would not have punished me.
Swamwra to the Governor of Basra when deposed by the Caliph. (675). See Ibnu’l Athir. Vol. III. P. 412. (Ed. Tomberg.)
Terms ill defined, and forms misunderstood,
And customs, when their reasons are unknown,
Have stirred up many zealous souls
To fight against imaginary giants.
Tupper—Proverbial Philosophy. Of Tolerance.
Press bravely onward!—not in vain
Your generous trust in human kind;
The good which bloodshed could not gain
Your peaceful zeal shall find.
Whittier—To the Reformers of England.