William Gilmore Simms Quotes

The only true source of politeness is consideration.

The only true source of politeness is consideration,--that vigilant moral sense which never loses sight of the rights, the claims, and the sensibilities of others. This is the one quality, over all others, necessary to make a gentleman.

The dread of criticism is the death of genius.

The proverb answers where the sermon fails.

Our true acquisitions lie only in our charities - we gain only as we give.

Solitude bears the same relation to the mind that sleep does to the body. It affords it the necessary opportunities for repose and recovery.

No errors of opinion can possibly be dangerous in a country where opinion is left free to grapple with them.

The fool is willing to pay for anything but wisdom. No man buys that of which he supposes himself to have an abundance already.

Tears are the natural penalties of pleasure. It is a law that we should pay for all that we enjoy.

Better that we should err in action than wholly refuse to perform. The storm is so much better than the calm, as it declares the presence of a living principle. Stagnation is something worse than death. It is corruption also.

Philosophy is reason with the eyes of the soul.

I believe that economists put decimal points in their forecasts to show they have a sense of humor.

The only rational liberty is that which is born of subjection, reared in the fear of God and the love of man.

The birth of a child is the imprisonment of a soul. The soul must work its way out of prison, and, in doing so, provide itself with wings for a future journey. It is for each of us to determine whether our wings shall be those of an angel or a grub!

He who would acquire fame must not show himself afraid of censure. The dread of censure is the death of genius.

I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence, their character, their knowledge, reserving always my incontestable right of criticism and censure.

Have I done anything for society? I have then done more for myself. Let that question and truth be always present to thy mind, and work without cessation.

What we call vice in our neighbor may be nothing less than a crude virtue. To him who knows nothing more of precious stones than he can learn from a daily contemplation of his breastpin, a diamond in the mine must be a very uncompromising sort of stone.

Revelation may not need the help of reason, but man does, even when in possession of revelation. Reason may be described as the candle in the man's hand, to which revelation brings the necessary flame.

There is no doubt such a thing as chance, but I see no reason why Providence should not make use of it.

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.

Most men remember obligations, but not often to be grateful; the proud are made sour by the remembrance and the vain silent.

But for that blindness which is inseparable from malice, what terrible powers of evil would it possess! Fortunately for the world, its venom, like that of the rattlesnake, when most poisonous, clouds the eye of the reptile, and defeats its aim.

Tact is one of the first of mental virtues, the absence of which is frequently fatal to the best of talents. Without denying that it is a talent of itself, it will suffice if we admit that it supplies the place of many talents.

Ambition is frequently the only refuge which life has left to the denied or mortified affections. We chide at the grasping eye, the daring wing, the soul that seems to thirst for sovereignty only, and know not that the flight of this ambitious bird has been from a bosom or home that is filled with ashes.