Life and Literature / Over two thousand extracts from ancient and modern writers, / and classified in alphabetical order

MAN.

—Shakespeare.

Direct not him, whose way himself will choose.

He that can please nobody, is not so much to be pitied as he that nobody can please.

—Colton.

To quarrel with a drunken man is harming the absent.

Goethe said that there is no man so commonplace that a wise man may not learn something from him. Sir Walter Scott could not travel in a coach without gleaning some information or discovering some new trait of character in his companions.

LIFE AND DEATH.

—Psalms xxxvii, 35-37v.

He who stands high is seen from afar.

—From the Danish.

I confess that increasing years bring with them an increasing respect for men who do not succeed in life, as those words are commonly used.

—G. S. Hillard.

Beauty is good for women, firmness for men.

—Bion.

A man who is always forgetting his best intentions may be said to be a thoroughfare of good resolutions.

It is a matter of the simplest demonstration, that no man can be really appreciated, but by his equal or superior.

—Ruskin.

It takes a great man to make a good listener.

—Sir Arthur Helps.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but rising every time we fall. A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor is a man perfected without trials.

—Goldsmith.

Be content with the day as it is; look for the good in everything.

An honest man is believed without an oath, for his reputation swears for him.

A thread will tie an honest man better than a rope will do a rogue.

—Robertson.

If there is any person to whom you unfortunately feel a dislike that is the person of whom you ought never to speak.

—Richard Cecil.

He is not yet born who can please everybody.

Fenimore Cooper asserts, in one of his books, that there is "an instinctive tendency in men to look at any man who has become distinguished." Said Carlyle: "True, surely, and moreover, an instinctive desire in men to become distinguished and be looked at, too!"

It is not what he has, nor even what he does, which directly expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

—Amiel.

Man is not allowed to know what will happen—tomorrow.

—Statius.

A horse is not known by his furniture, but by his qualities; so men should be esteemed for virtue, not wealth.

—Dryden's Ovid.

The best club for a married man is an armchair in front of a big fire-place at home.

Men take each other's measure when they meet for the first time.

Does one see wolves taking to the road in order to plunder other wolves, as does inhuman man?

No man can end with being superior, who will not begin with being inferior.

—Sydney Smith.

—Dr. Johnson.

No man is always wise.

—Pliny.

An obstinate man does not hold opinions, but they hold him.

They that stand high have many blasts to shake them.

—Shakespeare.

Men possessed with an idea cannot be reasoned with.

—Froude.

The life of an old man is like a lighted candle in a draft.

—Japanese.

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials.

—From the Chinese.

Some men remain poor because they haven't enough friends, and some because they have too many.

A poor man, though living in the crowded mart, no one will notice; a rich man, though dwelling amid the remote hills, his distant relative will visit.

Art may make a suit of clothes, but nature must produce the man.

—Hume.

The real man is one who always finds excuses for others, but never for himself.

It is not good that man should be alone.

—Genesis 2, 18v.

Silent men, like still waters, are sometimes deep and dangerous.

Man is a social creature, and we are made to be helpful to each other; we are like the wheels of a watch, that none of them can do their work alone, without the concurrence of the rest.

Strive not too anxiously for thy support, thy Maker will provide. No sooner is a man born, than milk for his support streams from the breast.

—Chinese.

He that swells in prosperity will be sure to shrink in adversity.

—Colton.

The difference, he, Johnson, observed between a well-bred and an ill-bred man is this: One immediately attracts your liking, the other your aversion. You love the one till you find reason to dislike him; you dislike the other till you find reason to love him.

—Boswell's Life of Johnson.

THE UNPUNCTUAL MAN.

He is a general disturber of other's peace and serenity. Everybody with whom he has to do is thrown from time to time into a state of fever; he is systematically late; regular only in his irregularity.

—Smiles.

NO.

No is a surly, honest fellow, speaks his mind rough and round at once.

A true man never frets about his place in the world, but just slides into it by the gravitation of his nature, and swings there as easily as a star.

He had nothing and was content. He became rich and is discontented.

Thou canst mould him into any shape like soft clay.

—Horace.

None but the well-bred man knows how to confess a fault, or acknowledge himself in error.

A well-bred man is always sociable and complaisant.

—Montaigne.

"HOW MUCH DID HE LEAVE?"

The question is asked concerning the property of every rich man who dies; and it was answered very happily by Cloots, who was executor upon the estate of the late Mr. Snodgrass. His neighbor, Mr. Nailroad, was an exceedingly inquisitive man. The day after the funeral, Nailroad visited Cloots, and, with an inspecting face, began to question him. "Mr. Cloots," says he, "if it is not improper, will you inform me how much my particular friend Snodgrass left?" "Certainly," said Cloots:—"He left every cent he was worth in the world, and didn't take a copper with him."

—Young.

If you would know a man truly, know him off duty, when the duties of the day are over and he has left his post.

—Observer.

Men who want to do everything their own way must make a world to suit them, for it can not be done in this.

The man whom I call deserving the name, is one whose thoughts and exertions are for others, rather than himself.

—Blanchard.

If a man write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the wilderness, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

—Emerson.

He who doth not speak an unkind word to his fellow-creatures is master of the whole world.

Those who think must govern those who toil.

The wise man shapes himself according to his environments, as water to the shape of the vessel into which it is poured.

—Japanese.

At the working-man's house hunger may look in, but dare not enter.

I am almost frozen by the distance you are from me.

Manners carry the world for the moment; character, for all time.

—Alcott.

Behavior is a mirror in which every one displays his image.

—Goethe.

MANNERS.

The distinguishing trait of people accustomed to good society is a calm, imperturbable quiet, which pervades all their actions and habits, from the greatest to the least. They eat in quiet, move in quiet, live in quiet, and lose their wife, or even their money in quiet; while others cannot take up either a spoon, or an affront, without making such an amazing noise about it.

—Bulwer-Lytton.

Manners are the shadows of virtue.

—Sydney Smith.

Vulgar people can't be still.

—O. W. Holmes.

In society want of sense is not so unpardonable as want of manners.

—Lavater.

The wealthy and the noble when they expend large sums in decorating their houses with the rare and costly efforts of genius, with busts, and with cartoons from the pencil of a Raphael, are to be commended, if they do not stand still here, but go on to bestow some pains and cost, that the master himself be not inferior to the mansion, and that the owner be not the only thing that is little, amidst everything else that is great. The house may draw visitors, but it is the possessor alone that can detain them.

Marriage is the bloom or blight of all men's happiness.

—Byron.

A MAIDEN'S TRUST IN MARRIAGE.

Advice on Marriage.—An Athenian who was hesitating whether to give his daughter in marriage to a man of worth with a small fortune, or to a rich man who had no other recommendation, went to consult Themistocles on the subject. "I would bestow my daughter," said Themistocles, "upon a man without money, rather than upon money without a man."

—Arvine.

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

ON A WEDDING DAY.

—G. Massie.

A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT.

A man of experience, declares that men, like plants, adapt themselves to conditions. To illustrate his theory, he told of two men, one of whom said to the other, at a pleasantly critical period:

"Do you think two can live as cheaply as one?"

"Before my marriage I thought they could," was the guarded reply.

"And afterward?" anxiously.

"Afterward I found they had to."

MARRIAGE,—CHOICE IN.

Boswell: "Pray, sir, do you not suppose that there are fifty women in the world, with any one of whom a man may be as happy, as with any one woman in particular?" Johnson: "Ay, sir, fifty thousand." Boswell: "Then, sir, you are not of opinion with some who imagine that certain men and certain women are made for each other, and that they cannot be happy if they miss their counterparts." Johnson: "To be sure not, sir. I believe marriages would in general be as happy, and often more so, if they were all made by the Lord Chancellor, upon a due consideration of the characters and circumstances, without the parties having any choice in the matter."

Boswell's Johnson, p. 283.
—Samuel Johnson.

—Cowper.

When a man and woman are married their romance ceases and their history commences.

—Sir J. Davis.

Marriage somewhat resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot be separated, often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing anyone who comes between them.

—S. Smith.

Marry in your own Rank. Wise was the man, ay, wise indeed, who first weighed well this maxim, and with his tongue published it abroad, that to marry in one's own class is best by far, and that a peasant should woo the hand neither of any that have waxed wanton by riches, nor of such as pride themselves in high-traced lineage.

—Aeschylus.

THE NEWLY WEDDED.

Whom first we love, you know one seldom weds.

—Owen Meredith.

A pious elder once said to his son in view of marriage,—"My boy, piety is essential for the life to come, but good temper is the great requisite for happiness in this world."

The reason why so few marriages are happy is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages.

—Swift.

COMPANIONSHIP IN MARRIAGE.

If God had designed woman as man's master, He would have taken her from his head; if as his slave, He would have taken her from his feet; but as He designed her for his companion and equal, He took her from his side.

—St. Augustine.

—Middleton.

—Unknown.

THE MARRIAGE VOW.

Let him who weds, wed character, not money.

A girl should look happy because she is not married; a wife because she is.

A Gentleman, but a Fool.—Chief Justice Marshall once found himself suddenly brought to a halt by a small tree which intervened between the front wheel and the body of his buggy. Seeing a servant at a short distance, he asked him to bring an axe and cut down the tree. The servant—a colored man—told the judge that there was no occasion for cutting down the tree, but just to back the buggy. Pleased at the good sense of the fellow, Judge Marshall told him that he would leave him something at the inn hard by, where he intended to stop, having then no small change. In due time the man applied, and a dollar was handed him. Being asked if he knew who it was that gave him the dollar, he replied: "No, sir: I concluded he was a gentleman by his leaving the money, but I think he is the biggest fool I ever saw."

If thou art a master, be sometimes blind, and sometimes deaf.

—Fuller.

Let no man be the servant of another who can be his own master.

Our master is our—enemy.

—From Amiel's Journal.

Applicable to those who have formed a useless habit.

Matrimony.—He hath tied a knot with his tongue that he cannot untie with all his teeth.

Numbers, xxxvi. 6,—"Let them marry to whom they think best; only to the family of the tribe of their fathers shall they marry."

Mr. John Martin used to give two advices, both to his children and others, in reference to marriages. One was, "Keep within the bounds of your profession." The other was, "Look at suitableness in age, quality, education, temper, etc." He used to observe, from Genesis, ii, 18, "I will make him a help-meet for him;" that there is not meetness, there will not be much help. He commonly said to his children, with reference to their choice in marriage, "Please God, and please yourselves, and you shall never displease me;" and greatly blamed those parents who conclude matches for their children without their consent. He sometimes mentioned the saying of a pious gentlewoman, who had many daughters.—"The care of most people is how to get good husbands for their daughters; but my care is to fit my daughters to be good wives, and then let God provide for them."

MATRIMONY.

—Massinger.

MATRIMONY.

Epigram: Read alternate lines,—1,3; 2,4; 5,7; 6,8.

—Cowper.

FROM A WORK ENTITLED "SKETCHES OF PERSIA."

The following admirable lines were inscribed upon a golden crown having five sides, which was found in the tomb of Noosherwan.

The meals which are eaten in company are always better digested than those which are taken in solitude.

—Dr. Combe.

The poor man must walk to get meat for his stomach, the rich man to get a stomach for his meat.

Johnson said melancholy people were apt to fly to intemperance for relief, but that it sunk them much deeper in misery. He observed, that laboring men who work hard and live sparingly, are seldom or never troubled with low spirits.

—Boswell's Johnson.

Everyone complains of his memory, and no one complains of his judgment.

—Rochefoucauld.

By attention ideas are registered on the memory.

An old deacon was accustomed to offer this prayer: "Help us to forget what we ought not to remember, and to remember what we ought not to forget."

—Weekly Paper.

So many we find to be well fed but ill taught.

The Greatest Men Arose from the People.—The greatest scholars, poets, orators, philosophers, warriors, statesmen, inventors, and improvers of the arts, arose from the people. If we had waited till courtiers had invented the arts of printing, clockmaking, navigation, and a thousand others, we should probably have continued in darkness till this hour.