Hannah More Quotes - Page 4

Idleness among children, as among men, is the root of all evil, and leads to no other evil more certain than ill temper.

eternity is a depth which no geometry can measure, no arithmetic calculate, no imagination conceive, no rhetoric describe.

Temptation does not make the sin, it lies ready in the heart.

A faint endeavor ends in a sure defeat.

Where bright imagination reigns, the fine-wrought spirit feels acuter pains.

If I wanted to punish an enemy, it should be by fastening on him the trouble of constantly hating somebody.

Subduing and subdued, the petty strife, Which clouds the colour of domestic life; The sober comfort, all the peace which springs From the large aggregate of little things; On these small cares of daughter, wife or friend, The almost sacred joys of home depend.

... it is a most severe trial for those women to be called to lay down beauty, who have nothing else to take up. It is for this sober season of life that education should lay up its rich resources.

Rage is for little wrongs; despair is dumb.

To those who know thee not, no words can paint! And those who know thee, know all words are faint!

Gentleness is the outgrowth of benignity.

In men this blunder still you find; all think their little set mankind.

If we commit any crime, or do any good here, it must be in thought; for our words are few and our deeds none at all.

It is a sober truth that people who live only to amuse themselves work harder at the task than most people do in earning their daily bread.

The wretch who digs the mine for bread, or ploughs, that others may be fed, feels less fatigued than that decreed to him who cannot think or read.

it is the modern nature of goodness to exert itself quietly, while a few characters of the opposite cast seem, by the rumor of their exploits, to fill the world; and by their noise to multiply their numbers.

Among the many evils which prevail under the sun, the abuse of words is not the least considerable. By the influence of time, and the perversion of fashion, the plainest and most unequivocal may be so altered, as to have a meaning assigned them almost diametrically opposite to their original signification.

Indeed, I have, alas! outlived almost every one of my contemporaries. One pays dear for living long.

O jealousy, Thou ugliest fiend of hell! thy deadly venom Preys on my vitals, turns the healthful hue Of my flesh check to haggard sallowness, And drinks my spirit up!

Commending a right thing is a cheap substitute for doing it, with which we are too apt to satisfy ourselves.

The ubiquity of the Divine presence is the only true support, and I am sometimes astonished how persons, who evidently do not possess that grand source of consolation, keep up their spirits under trials and difficulties. It must be owing to careless tempers and nerves of brass.

Anger is a violent act, envy a constant habit - no one can be always angry, but he may be always envious.

Strange! that what is enjoyed without pleasure cannot be discontinued without pain!

A crown! what is it? It is to bear the miseries of a people! To hear their murmurs, feel their discontents, And sink beneath a load of splendid care!

The keen spirit Seizes the prompt occasion, makes the thought Start into instant action, and at once Plans and performs, resolves and executes!