96 quotes
Governmental regulations all carry coercion to some degree, and even where they don't, they habituate man to expect teaching, guidance and help outside himself, instead of formulating his own.
Attributed
Work, according to my feeling, is as much of a necessity to man as eating and sleeping. Even those who do nothing which to a sensible man can be called work, still imagine that they are doing something. The world possesses not a man who is an idler in his own eyes.
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)
One cannot enough wonder or be thankful to Providence that from time to time he awakens in the spirits of a whole people, or of individuals, those truly godlike thoughts on which our inner being reposes.
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)
Sorrows and reverses spring up independently of external circumstances, and Heaven has dealt them out so wisely to man, that those who are to outward appearance most highly favoured by fortune, are yet not on that account more exempt from the causes that originate inward pain.
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)
The appearance of the heavens has under all circumstances a never-ending charm for me, in the clear starlight as well as in dark nights, in the soft blue as well as in the cloudy or dark-grey sky, in which the eye loses itself, without being able to distinguish anything.
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)
To me it has always appeared to he best to bow with heartfelt humility to the inscrutable but unerring counsels of Heaven, and to remember that we can only in this life see a small portion of man’s existence, and therefore can form no judgment of the whole.
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)
The mere reality of life would be inconceivably poor without the charm of fancy, which brings in its bosom, no doubt, as many vain fears as idle hopes, but lends much oftener to the allusions it calls up a gay flattering hue than one which inspires terror.
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)
Earnestness in life, even when carried to an extreme, is something very noble and great, but it must not be allowed to disturb the common business of life, else it will produce bitterness, producing injurious effects.
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)
The fate of no man, not even the happiest, is free from struggles and privation; for true happiness is only then attained, when by the government of the feelings we become independent of all the chances of life.
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)
The permission of the wicked in the world, the impunity of the vicious, as well as the misfortunes of the good, are some of those problems which man has tried to solve, sometimes this way, sometimes that, in considering the government of the world.
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)
Cheerfulness cannot be forced, and man has not much more power over the clouds that overshadow his mind than over those that darken the sky. Meanwhile man ought not to be altogether inactive, but must labour at his daily duties, and be watchful over himself.
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)
Resignation to whatever may happen, hope and trust that only that will happen which is good and beneficial, and firmness when adversity overtakes us: these are the only efficient bulwarks that we can raise against destiny.
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)
We are both the creatures of time; our fate rests upon it as upon an ever-agitated sea, as we never know whether we can safely trust the present, or whether a deceitful future may not yet be awaiting us.
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)
Even sleep is characteristic. How charming are children in their lovely innocence! how angel-like their blooming hue! how painful and anxious is the sleep and expression in the countenance of the guilty!
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)
My house and the things in it have always something pleasant to me. There is always a something about home which addresses us with a friendly air, and touches the heart, even after having just come from direct intercourse with objects that are great and beautiful.
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)
The man who allows himself to be deceived and carried away by his own weakness may be a very amiable person in other respects, but he cannot be called a man — only a sort of intermediate being between the two sexes.
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)
A taste for sculpture belongs to the best, purest, and noblest of our enjoyments; and we feel most reluctant to be separated from those forms, from which, however often we contemplate them, we derive renewed and indeed heightened pleasure.
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)
However great the power of time may be, yet it never entirely obliterates the remembrance and influences of the past; even though the mind may have long remained unoccupied by the emotions immediately produced by those events. With all its changes, it is time itself which has given that which may be regarded as true existence, and which may be justly said to be independent even of time.
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)
It is resignation and contentment that are best calculated to lead us safely through life. Whoever has not sufficient power to endure privations, and even suffering, can never feel that he is armour-proof against painful emotions — nay, he must attribute to himself, or at least to the morbid sensitiveness of his nature, every disagreeable feeling he may suffer.
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)
That all life is only an advancing towards apparent annihilation, can be nowhere so clearly seen as in the regular succession of the seasons. To behold the whole vegetable world starting forth into life with innocent unsuspecting joy, as if it did not once anticipate its wintry death, contains something as deeply affecting as the life of a child, who as yet has not dreamt of danger.
Attributed Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)