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William Gilmore Simms Quotes
1806–1870 United States
William Gilmore Simms (April 17, 1806 – June 11, 1870) was a poet, novelist, politician and historian from the American South. His writings achieved great prominence during the 19th century, with Edgar Allan Poe pronouncing him the best novelist America had ever produced.
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31 quotes
The only rational liberty is that which is born of subjection, reared in the fear of God and the love of man.
Most men remember obligations, but not often to be grateful; the proud are made sour by the remembrance, and the vain silent.
It should console us for the fact that sin has not totally disappeared from the world, that the saints are not wholly deprived of employment.
There is no doubt such a thing as chance, but I see no reason why Providence should not make use of it.
The only true source of politeness is consideration.
No doubt solitude is wholesome, but so is abstinence after a surfeit. The true life of man is in society.
The fool is willing to pay for anything but wisdom. No man buys that of which he supposes himself to have an abundance already.
It is a bird-flight of the soul, when the heart declares itself in song. The affections that clothe themselves with wings are passions that have been subdued to virtues.
He who would acquire fame must not show himself afraid of censure. The dread of censure is the death of genius.
To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary. They must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain.
Solitude bears the same relation to the mind that sleep does to the body. It affords it the necessary opportunities for repose and recovery.
The effect of character is always to command consideration. We sport and toy and laugh with men or women who have none, but we never confide in them.
Our cares are the mothers, not only of our charities and virtues, but of our best joys and most cheering and enduring pleasures.
Our possessions are wholly in our performances. He owns nothing to whom the world owes nothing.
The true law of the race is progress and development. Whenever civilization pauses in the march of conquest, it is overthrown by the barbarian.
We must calculate not on the weather, nor on fortune, but upon God and ourselves. He may fail us in the gratification of our wishes, but never in the encounter with our exigencies.
Neither praise nor blame is the object of true criticism. Justly to discriminate, firmly to establish, wisely to prescribe and honestly to award — these are the true aims and duties of criticism.
Vanity is so constantly solicitous of self, that even where its own claims are not interested, it indirectly seeks the aliment which it loves, by showing how little is deserved by others.
Tears are the natural penalties of pleasure. It is a law that we should pay for all that we enjoy.
Our true acquisitions lie only in our charities. We gain only as we give.
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