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MATHEWS, William Quotes
(1818-1909), American author
The crown of all faculties is common sense.—It is not enough to do the right thing, it must be done at the right time and place.—Talent knows what to do; tact knows when and how to do it.
Difficulty is the soil in which all manly and womanly qualities best flourish; and the true worker, in any sphere, is continually coping with difficulties. His very failures, throwing him upon his own resources, cultivate energy and resolution; his hardships teach him fortitude; his successes inspire self-reliance.
It cannot be too often repeated that it is not helps, but, obstacles, not facilities, but difficulties that make men.
The countenance is the title-page which heralds the contents of the human volume, but like other title-pages it sometimes puzzles, often misleads, and often says nothing to the purpose.
The difficulties, hardships, and trials of life, the obstacles one encounters on the road to fortune, are positive blessings.—They knit the muscles more firmly, and teach self-reliance.—Peril is the element in which power is developed.
It is not helps, but obstacles, not facilities but difficulties, that make men.
All maxims have their antagonist maxims; proverbs should be sold in pairs, a single one being but a half truth.
Be methodical if you would succeed in business, or in anything.—Have a work for every moment, and mind the moment's work.—Whatever your calling, master all its bearings and details, its principles, instruments, and applications.—Method is essential if you would get through your work easily and with economy of time.
Unless a man has trained himself for his chance, the chance will only make him ridiculous. A great occasion is worth to a man exactly what his antecedents hive enabled him to make of it.
The countenance may be defined as the title-page which heralds the contents of the human volume, but like other title-pages, it sometimes puzzles, often misleads, and often says nothing to the purpose.
Proverbs, it has well been said, should be sold in pairs, a single one being but half a truth.
Nothing inspires confidence in a business man sooner than punctuality, nor is there any habit which sooner saps his reputation than that of being always behind time.
Knowledge is acquired by study and observation, but wisdom cometh by opportunity of leisure; the ripest thought comes from the mind which is not always on the stretch, but fed, at times, by a wise passiveness.
What lasting progress was ever made in social reformation, except when every step was ensured by appeals to the understanding and the will?
In the world a man lives in his own age; in solitude in all ages.
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