BLAIR, Hugh (1718-1800), Scottish divine

Affectation
Affectation is certain deformity.—By forming themselves on fantastic models the young begin with being ridiculous, and often end in being vicious.

Anxiety
Anxiety is the poison of human life; the parent of many sins and of more miseries.—In a world where everything is doubtful, and where we may be disappointed, and be blessed in disappointment, why this restless stir and commotion of mind?—Can it alter the cause, or unravel the mystery of human events?

Calumny
To seem disturbed at calumny, is the way to make it believed, and stabbing your defamer, will not prove you innocent.—Live an exemplary life, and then your good character will overcome and refute the calumny.

Death
How shocking must thy summons be, O death, to him that is at ease in his possessions! who, counting on long years of pleasure here, is quite unfurnished for the world to come.

Discipline
The discipline which corrects the baseness of worldly passions, fortifies the heart with virtuous principles, enlightens the mind with useful knowledge, and furnishes it with enjoyment from within itself, is of more consequence to real felicity, than all the provisions we can make of the goods of fortune.

Dissimulation
Dissimulation in youth is the forerunner of perfidy in old age.—It degrades parts and learning, obscures the luster of every accomplishment, and sinks us into contempt.—The path of falsehood is a perplexing maze.—One artifice leads on to another, till, as the intricacy of the labyrinth increases, we are left entangled in our own snare.

Docility
Willingness to be taught what we do not know, is the sure pledge of growth both in knowledge  and wisdom.

Enjoyment
Only mediocrity of enjoyment is allowed to man.

Gentleness
True gentleness is founded on a sense of what we owe to him who made us, and to the common nature which we all share.—It arises from reflection on our own failings and wants, and from just views of the condition and duty of men.—It is native feeling heightened and improved by principle.

Gold
O cursed lust of gold! when, for thy sake, the fool throws up his interest in both worlds, first starved in this, then damned in that to come!

Guilt
Adversity, how blunt are all the arrows of thy quiver in comparison with those of guilt.

Justice
He who goes no further than bare justice, stops at the beginning of virtue.

Levity
Between levity and cheerfulness there is a wide distinction; the mind that is most open to the former is frequently a stranger to the latter.—Levity may be the offspring of folly or vice; cheerfulness is the natural offspring of wisdom and virtue.

Literature
The great standard of literature, as to purity and exactness of style, is the Bible.

Manners
Nothing, except what flows from the heart, can render even external manners truly pleasing.

Motives
In the eye of that Supreme Being to whom  our whole internal frame is uncovered, motives and dispositions hold the place of actions.

Offence
It is pride which plies the world with so much harshness and severity.—We are as rigorous to offences as if we had never offended.

Pleasure
The roses of pleasure seldom last long enough to adorn the brow of him who plucks them, and they are the only roses which do not retain their sweetness after they have lost their beauty.

Pride
Pride fills the world with harshness and severity; we are rigorous to offences as if we had never offended.

Religion
All the principles which religion teaches, and all the habits which it forms, are favorable to strength of mind. It will be found that whatever purifies, also fortifies the heart.

Self-Conceit
Of all the follies incident to youth, there are none which blast their prospects, or render them more contemptible, than self-conceit, presumption, and obstinacy. By checking progress in improvement, they fix one in long immaturity, and produce irreparable mischief.

Self-Improvement
That discipline which corrects the eagerness of worldly passions, which fortifies the heart with virtuous principles, which enlightens the mind with useful knowledge, and furnishes to it matter of enjoyment from within itself, is of more consequence to real felicity than all the provisions which we can make of the goods of fortune.

Sentiment
Sentiment and principle are often mistaken for each other, though, in fact, they widely differ.—Sentiment is the virtue of ideas; principle the virtue of action.— Sentiment has its seat in the head; principle, in the heart. Sentiment suggests fine harangues and subtle distinctions; principle conceives just notions, and performs good actions in consequence of them. Sentiment refines away the simplicity of truth, and the plainness of piety; and "gives us virtue in words, and vice in deeds." Sentiment may be called the Athenian who knew what was right; and principle, the Lacedemonian who practised it.

Silence
Silence is one of the great arts of conversation, as allowed by Cicero himself, who says "there is not only an art, but an eloquence in it." A well-bred woman may easily and effectually promote the most useful and elegant conversation without speaking a word.—The modes of speech are scarcely more variable than the modes of silence.

Style
The least degree of ambiguity, which leaves the mind in suspense as to the meaning, ought to be avoided with the greatest care.

Time
Time hurries on with a resistless, unremitting stream, yet treads more soft than e'er did midnight thief that slides his hand under the miser's pillow, and carries off his prize.

Vanity
Pride makes us esteem ourselves; vanity to desire the esteem of others.—It is just to say as Swift has done, that a proud man is too proud to be vain.

Worship
It is for the sake of man, not of God, that worship and prayers are required; that man may be made better—that he may be confirmed in a proper sense of his dependent state, and acquire those pious and virtuous dispositions in which his highest improvement consists.

Youth
The self-conceit of the young is the great source of those dangers to which they are exposed.