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HOME, Henry Quotes
(1696-1782), Scottish judge
We part more easily with what we possess than with our expectations of what we hope for: expectation always goes beyond enjoyment.
Benevolence is allied to few vices; selfishness to fewer virtues.
Many shining actions owe their success to chance, though the general or statesman runs away with the applause.
The truly generous is truly wise, and he who loves not others, lives unblest.
An infallible way to make your child miserable, is to satisfy all his demands.—Passion swells by gratification; and the impossibility of satisfying every one of his wishes will oblige you to stop short at last after he has become head-strong.
Civility is a charm that attracts the love of all men; and too much is better than to show too little.
It is expedient to have an acquaintance with those who have looked into the world; who know men, understand business, and can give you good intelligence and good advice when they are wanted.
Every man, however little, makes a figure in his own eyes.
A man of integrity will never listen to any reason against conscience.
When men cease to be faithful to their God, he who expects to find them so to each other will be much disappointed.
The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend, as to find a friend worth dying for.
The truly generous is the truly wise, and he who loves not others, lives unblest.
The shortest way to glory is to be guided by conscience.
In the heraldry of heaven goodness precedes greatness, and so on earth it is more powerful.—The lowly and lovely may often do more good in their limited sphere than the gifted.
Adversity borrows its sharpest sting from our impatience.
No man ever did a designed injury to another, but at the same time he did a greater to himself.
A man of integrity will never listen to any plea against conscience.
Human learning, with the blessing of God upon it, introduces us to divine wisdom, and while we study the works of nature, the God of nature will manifest himself to us.
When interest is at variance with conscience, any pretence that seems to reconcile them satisfies the hollow-hearted.
Human learning, with the blessing of God upon it, introduces us to divine wisdom; and while we study the works of nature, the God of nature will manifest himself to us; since, to a well-tutored mind, "The heavens declare his glory, and the firmament sheweth his handiwork."
Nothing more excites to all that is noble and generous, than virtuous love.
Luxury may possibly contribute to give bread to the poor; but if there were no luxury, there would be no poor.
A great mind will neither give an affront, nor bear it.
Meditation is that exercise of the mind by which it recalls a known truth, as some kind of creatures do their food, to be ruminated upon till all the valuable parts be extracted.
A newspaper is the history for one day of the world in which we live, and with which we are consequently more concerned than with those which have passed away, and exist only in remembrance.
The follies, vices, and consequent miseries of multitudes, displayed in a newspaper, are so many admonitions and warnings, so many beacons, continually burning, to turn others from the rocks on which they have been shipwrecked. What more powerful dissuasive from suspicion, jealousy, and anger, than the story of one friend murdered by another in a duel? What caution likely to be more effectual against gambling and profligacy than the mournful relation of an execution, or the fate of a despairing suicide? What finer lecture on the necessity of economy than an auction of estates, houses, and furniture? Talk they of morals? There is no need of Hutcheson, Smith, or Paley. Only take a newspaper, and consider it well; read it, and it will instruct thee.
Cheerfulness is the daughter of employment; and I have known a man come home, in high spirits, from a funeral, merely because he has had the management of it.
The admiration bestowed on former times is the bias of all times; the golden age never was the present age.
Patience strengthens the spirit, sweetens the temper, stifles anger, extinguishes envy, subdues pride, bridles the tongue, restrains the hand, and tramples upon temptations.
True praise is frequently the lot of the humble; false praise is always confined to the great.
To preach practical sermons, as they are called, that is sermons upon virtues and vices, without inculcating those great Scripture truths of redemption which alone can incite and enable us to forsake sin and follow righteousness, is but to put together the wheels, and set the hands of the watch, forgetting the spring which is to make them all move.
Prosperity too often has the same effect on its possessor, that a calm at sea has on the Dutch mariner, who frequently, it is said, in these circumstances, ties up the rudder, gets drunk, and goes to sleep.
It is well known what strange work there has been in the world, under the name and pretence of reformation; how often it has turned out to be, in reality, deformation; or, at best, a tinkering sort of business, where, while one hole has been mended, two have been made.
The external part of religion is doubtless of little value in comparison with the internal; and so is the cask in comparison with the wine contained in it; but if the cask be staved in, the wine must perish.
When men cease to be faithful to God, he who expects to find them so to each other will be much disappointed.
Sorrow for having done amiss is fruitless if it issue not in doing so no more.
Nothing is so uncertain as general reputation.—A man injures me from humor, passion, or interest; hates me because he has injured me; and speaks ill of me because he hates me.
Resentment is, in every stage of the passion, painful, but it is not disagreeable, unless in excess.
No cloud can overshadow a true Christian but his faith will discern a rainbow upon it.
Riches, honors, and pleasures are the sweets which destroy the mind's appetite for heavenly food; poverty, disgrace, and pain are the bitters which restore it.
Ridicule, which chiefly arises from pride, a selfish passion, is but at best a gross pleasure, too rough an entertainment for those who are highly polished and refined.
Even dress is apt to inflame a man's opinion of himself.
The coward reckons himself cautious; the miser thinks himself frugal.
When you descant on the faults of others, consider whether you be not guilty of the same. To gain knowledge of ourselves, the best way is to convert the imperfections of others into a mirror for discovering our own.
Sincerity, thou first of virtues, let no mortal leave thy onward path, although the earth should gape, and from the gulf of hell destruction rise, to take dissimulation's winding way.
Our children, relations, friends, honors, houses, lands, and endowments, the goods of nature and fortune, nay, even of grace itself, are only lent. It is our misfortune, and our sin, to fancy they are given. We start, therefore, and are angry when the loan is called in. We think ourselves masters, when we are only stewards, and forget that to each of us it will one day be said, "Give an account of thy stewardship."
Observe a method in the distribution of your time. Every hour will then know its proper employment, and no time will be lost. Idleness will be shut out at every avenue, and with her, that numerous body of vices, that make up her train.
Great wants proceed from great wealth, but they are undutiful children, for they sink wealth down to poverty.
Among the sources of those innumerable calamities which from age to age have overwhelmed mankind, may be reckoned as one of the principal, the abuse of words.
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