Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
... perhaps there is no conceit so arrogant as the conceit which follows a conviction of emancipation.
as everybody knows, truthfulness and agreeable manners are often divorced on the ground of incompatibility.
I'm not to blame for an old body, but I would be to blame for an old soul. An old soul is a shameful thing.
The anger of slow, mild, loving people has a lasting quality that mere bad-tempered folk cannot understand.
A sneer is like a flame; it may occasionally be curative because it cauterizes, but it leaves a bitter scar.
gossip, after it reaches a certain point of insult and falsehood, becomes a source of amusement to its victims.
If you give way to fear, you'll be a coward; and ... a coward is apt to be a liar. The devil's first name is Fear.
Of all the bitter and heavy things in this sorry old world, the not being necessary is the bitterest and heaviest.
When it comes to bombshells, there are few that can be more effective than that small, flat, frail thing, a letter.
the blue and cloudless day closes like the lid of a casket of jewels upon the violet rim of sea, and shuts out the light.
... Love never forgets; or if it does, it is an imperfect love, like the beautiful love of a dog, faithful and unreasoning.
What I object to in Mother is that she wants me to think her thoughts. Apart from the question of hypocrisy, I prefer my own.
Grandmother belongs to the generation of women who were satisfied to have men retain their vices, if they removed their hats.
There is no embarrassment quite like the embarrassment of listening to a person for whom one has a regard making a fool of himself.
... if a man really and truly believed that black was white, you might advise him to see an oculist, but you mustn't call him a liar.
as I get older there is nothing more constantly astonishing to me than the goodness of the Bad; - unless it is the badness of the Good.
... it is curious how fatal it is, either to a situation or to an individual, or even to a name, if in an evil moment it becomes funny.
... in a wicked way, it is an incentive to good living to observe the spice of enjoyment there is to a godly soul in a very little sin.
To talk over a quarrel, with its inevitable accompaniment of self-justification, is too much like handling cobwebs to be very successful.
Isn't there any statute of limitation in things spiritual? I don't believe any large mind dwells on its sins, any more than on its virtues!
War is wicked, beause it is murder and hate. And it is foolish, because hate and murder can only destroy people's bodies, not change their minds.
the profession of the ministry is like matrimony: if it is possible for you to keep out of it, it's a sign that you've no business to go into it!
faith, it seems to me, is not the holding of certain dogmas; it is simply openness and readiness of heart to believe any truth which God may show.
a great moment raises most of the people who experience it, to its own level; and that is why they do not always recognize its greatness - or their own.
... when personal happiness conflicts with any great human ideal, the right to claim such happiness is as nothing compared to the privilege of resigning it.
Age, per se, may claim tenderness and pity, but not respect; that only comes when the years have brought humanity and wisdom and the experience that worketh hope.
There is a bond, it appears, between mother and child which endures as long as they do. It is independent of love; reason cannot weaken it; hate cannot destroy it.
... is there anything more unjust than to build gold and brass and iron on poor, well-meaning clay, -- and then blame the clay when the whole image falls into dust?
Some time in our lives every man and woman of us, putting out our hands toward the stars, touch on either side our prison walls the immutable limitations of temperament
Absurdity is the one thing love can't stand; it can overlook anything else, -- coldness, or weakness, or viciousness, -- but just be ridiculous and that's the end of it!
Age, with shamefaced relief, has learned the solvent quality of Time. It is this quality which makes possible the contemplation of certain embarrassing heavenly reunions.
we middle-aged folk have the education of life, truly; we know the multiplication table of anxieties and sorrows, the subtraction table of loss, the division table of responsibility.
There's one thing that always interests me about you good people, not your certainty that the rest of us are swine, - no doubt we are, - but your certainty that your opinions are pearls.
there are few things that are more endearing than the grace of listening with attention; indeed, it is more than endearing, it is impressive - for no one knows what wisdom lies concealed in silence!
By some mysterious method, Susan Carr's gossip gave the listener a gentler feeling towards his kind. When she spoke of her neighbors' faults, one knew that somehow they were simply virtues gone to seed.
... there must be reserves -- except with God. The human soul is solitary. But for confession that is different; justice and reparation sometimes demand it; but, again, justice and courage sometimes forbid it.
Twenty-five years ago, Christmas was not the burden that it is now; there was less haggling and weighing, less quid pro quo, less fatigue of body, less weariness of soul; and, most of all, there was less loading up with trash.