EDWIN MARKHAM

Come, let us live the poetry we sing.

THOUGHTS
Selected from the Writings of Favorite Authors

BY

Ladies of Fabiola Hospital Association

Oakland, California

NEW YORK:

Dodge Publishing Company

53 and 55 Fifth Avenue

The Compilers acknowledge with grateful thanks the courtesy of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin and Company; Dodd, Mead and Company (for selections from Hamilton Wright Mabie’s “Before My Library Fire,” “In the Forest of Arden,” and other publications); Little, Brown and Company (selections from Lilian Whiting’s “From Dreamland Sent,” “The World Beautiful,” First, Second and Third Series, and other publications), and others in allowing insertion of selections from works of which they own the copyright.

[Thoughts. 4]

Copyrighted, 1901,

by

JESSIE K. FREEMAN and SARAH S. B. YULE.

The pleasantest things in the world are pleasant thoughts, and the great art in life is to have as many of them as possible.

—Bovée.

To get peace, if you do want it, make for yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts. None of us yet knows, for none of us has been taught in early youth, what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thoughts—proof against all adversity. Bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble histories, faithful sayings, treasure-houses of precious and restful thoughts, which care cannot disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty take away from us—houses built without hands for our souls to live in.

—Ruskin.

I saw the mountains stand

Silent, wonderful, and grand,

Looking out across the land

When the golden light was falling

On distant dome and spire;

And I heard a low voice calling,

“Come up higher, come up higher,

From the lowland and the mire,

From the mist of earth desire,

From the vain pursuit of pelf,

From the attitude of self;

Come up higher, come up higher.”

—James G. Clarke.

The thrift of time will repay in after life with usury of profit beyond your most sanguine dreams, and waste of it will make you dwindle alike in intellectual and moral stature beyond your darkest reckoning.

—Gladstone.

Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear three—all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.

—Edward Everett Hale.

Age is opportunity no less

Than youth itself, though in another dress;

And as the evening twilight fades away

The sky is filled with stars invisible by day.

—Longfellow.

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

—R. Cecil.

The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes.

In nature there is no blemish but the mind;—none can be called deformed but the unkind.

—Shakespeare.

“You never can tell what your thoughts will do,

In bringing you hate or love;

For thoughts are things, and their airy wings

Are swifter than carrier doves.

They follow the law of the universe,—

Each thing must create its kind;

And they speed o’er the track to bring you back

Whatever went out from your mind.”

Do the duty which lies nearest thee, which thou knowest to be a duty. Thy second duty will already have become clearer.

—Carlyle.

We need a revival of the individual. The question is not, What are they doing?—but, What am I doing? Not, Why do you not do this, that, or the other?—but, Why am not I doing this, that, or the other?

—Jenkin Lloyd Jones.

That man is blessed who every day is permitted to behold anything so pure and serene as the western sky at sunset, while revolutions vex the world.

—Henry D. Thoreau.

There’s life alone in duty done,

And rest alone in striving.

—Whittier.

It is a matter of economy to be happy, to view life and all its conditions from the brightest angle; it enables one to seize life at its very best. It expands the soul.

—H. W. Dresser.

To educate the heart, one must be willing to go out of himself, and to come into loving contact with Others.

—James Freeman Clarke.

Associate reverently, and as much as you can, with your loftiest thought.

—Henry D. Thoreau.

This question then is ours—are we doing our part in the growth of the race? In the current of life are we moving forward? Do our years mark milestones in humanity’s struggle towards perfection? Is the God within us so much more unrolled, when our development has reached its highest point? Can we transmit to our children a better heritage of brain and soul than our fathers left to us? Has the race through us gained some little in the direction of the law of love? If we have done our part in this struggle our lives have not been in vain.

—David Starr Jordan.

Virgil said of the winning crew in his boat-race, “They can, because they believe they can.”

Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come.

—Lowell.

To be wise we must first learn to be happy: for those who can finally issue forth from self by the portal of happiness, know infinitely wider freedom than those who pass through the gate of sadness.

—Maurice Materlinck.

When we humor our weaknesses they force themselves continually upon our attention, like spoiled children. When we assert our mastery of ourselves and compel its recognition, we stand secure in our sovereign rights.

—Chas. B. Newcomb.

Put away all sarcasm from your speech. Never complain. Do not prophesy evil. Have a good word for everyone, or else keep silent.

—Henry Ward Beecher.

Boys flying kites haul in their white winged birds,

You can’t do that way when you’re flying words.

Thoughts unexpressed may sometimes fall back dead,

But God himself can’t stop them when they’re said.

—Will Carleton.

Mould conditions aright, and men will grow good to fit them.

—Horace Fletcher.

Pride

Is littleness; he who feels contempt

For any living thing hath faculties

Which he has never used.

—Wordsworth.

Treat your friends for what you know them to be. Regard no surfaces. Consider not what they did, but what they intended.

—Henry D. Thoreau.

Small kindnesses, small courtesies, small considerations, habitually practiced in our social intercourse, give a greater charm to the character than the display of great talent and accomplishments.

—Kelty.

I believe that the mind can be profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality.

—Henry D. Thoreau.

Don’t hang a dismal picture on the wall, and do not daub with sables and glooms in your conversation. Don’t be a cynic and disconsolate preacher.

—Emerson.

No good thing is failure and no evil thing success.

—W. C. Gannett’s favorite proverb.

Wisdom is knowing what to do next;

Skill is knowing how to do it, and Virtue is doing it.

—David Starr Jordan.

Always laugh when you can; it is a cheap medicine. Merriment is a philosophy not well understood. It is the sunny side of existence.

—Byron.

If we are not responsible for the thoughts that pass our doors, we are at least responsible for those we admit and entertain.

—Charles B. Newcomb.

Not for the crying,

Not for the loud beseeching

Will peace draw near.

Rest with palms folded,

Rest with thine eyelids fallen,

Lo! peace is here.

—E. R. Sill.

Would you remain always young, and would you carry all joy and buoyancy of youth into your maturer years? Then have care concerning but one thing—how you live in your thought world.

—R. W. Trine.

Lord, for to-morrow and its needs

I do not pray,

Help me from stain of sin

Just for to-day.

Let me both diligently work

And duly pray,

Let me be kind in word and deed

Just for to-day.

Let me be slow to do my will,

Prompt to obey,

Help me to sacrifice myself

Just for to-day.

Let me no wrong or idle word

Unthinking say,

Put Thou Thy seal upon my lips

Just for to-day.

So for to-morrow and its needs

I do not pray,

But keep me, guide me, hold me, Lord,

Just for to-day.

—Canon Farrar.

To live in love is to live an everlasting youth. Whoever enters old age by this royal road will find the last of life to be the very best of life. Instead of finding himself descending the hills of life, he will find it up-hill all the way, into clearer air. There the vision reaches further; here the sunsets are more golden and the twilight lasts longer.

—Mrs. Mary A. Livermore.

Those who live on the mountain have a longer day than those who live in the valley. Sometimes all we need to brighten our day is to rise a little higher.

—Rev. S. J. Barrows.

Good luck is the willing handmaid of upright, energetic character, and conscientious observance of duty.

—James Russell Lowell.

The highest compact we can make with our fellow is, let there be truth between us two forevermore.

—Emerson.

Unfaithfulness in the keeping of an appointment is an act of clear dishonesty. You may as well borrow a person’s money as his time.

—Horace Mann.

All service ranks the same with God—

There is no last nor first.

—Browning.

Logic makes only one demand, that of conscience. But life makes a thousand. The body wants health; the imagination cries out for beauty; and the heart for love. Pride asks for consideration; the soul yearns for peace; the conscience for holiness; our whole being is athirst for happiness and for perfection.

—Amiel.

What if it does look like rain, it is fine now!

—William Smith.

Was there ever a wiser or more loving conspiracy than that which keeps the venerable figure of Santa Claus from slipping away, with all the other old-time myths, into the forsaken wonderland of the past?

—Hamilton Wright Mabie.

Mankind are always happier for having been happy. So that if you make them happy now, you make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it.

—Sydney Smith.

Never fancy you could be something if only you had a different lot and sphere assigned you. The very things that you most deprecate, as fatal limitations or obstructions, are probably what you most want. What you call hindrances, obstacles, discouragements, are probably God’s opportunities.

—Horace Bushnell.

Who may not strive, may yet fulfil

The harder task of standing still,

And good but wished, with God is done.

—Whittier.

Happiness and the sense of victory are only for those who live for conscience and duty and the soul’s higher ideals.

—Newell Dwight Hillis.

“Try this for one day:—Think as though your thoughts were visible to all about you.”

The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows whither he is going.

—David Starr Jordan.

Beware lest thy friend learn to tolerate one frailty of thine, and so an obstacle be raised to the progress of thy love.

—Thoreau.

As soon as a stranger is introduced into any company, one of the first questions which all wish to have answered, is, How does that man get his living? And with reason; every man is a consumer, and ought to be a producer. He fails to make his place good in the world unless he not only pays his debts but also adds something to the common wealth.

—Emerson.

All impatience disturbs the circulation, scatters force, makes concentration difficult if not impossible.

—C. B. Newcomb.

When the sun of joy is hidden

And the sky is overcast,

Just remember light is coming

And a storm can never last.

—J. B. Smiley.

There is no music in a rest, that I know of, but there is the making of music in it.

—Ruskin.

Our lives are songs;

God writes the words,

And we set them to music at leisure:

And the song is sad, or the song is glad

As we choose to fashion the measure.

We must write the song,

Whatever the words,

Whatever its rhyme, or meter;

And if it is sad, we must make it glad,

And if sweet, we must make it sweeter.

—Gibbon.

For what you find in these sweet days,

Depends on how you go about it;

A glad heart helps poor eyes to see,

What brightest eyes can’t see without it.

One child sees sunlit air and sky

And bursting leaf buds, round and ruddy;

Another looks at his own feet,

And only sees that it is muddy!

—Henrietta R. Eliot.

The work of the world is done by few;

God asks that a part be done by you.

—Sarah K. Bolton.

This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

—Abraham Lincoln.

We are haunted by an ideal life, and it is because we have within us the beginning and the possibility of it.

—Phillips Brooks.

Earth’s crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God.

—E. B. Browning.

Thoughts are forces: through their instrumentality we have in our grasp, and as our rightful heritage, the power of making life and all its manifold conditions exactly what we will.

—R. W. Trine.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

—Emerson.

HORATIO STEBBINS

The understanding is the vestibule of the mind! Uncover thy head, and enter the temple of the soul! Behold the power, the beauty and the love! If we had nothing but understanding, how little should we know or think or feel!

Blessed are the Happiness Makers. Blessed are they who know how to shine on one’s gloom with their cheer.

—Henry Ward Beecher.

The time will come when the civilized man will feel that the rights of every living creature on the earth are as sacred as his own. Anything short of this cannot be perfect civilization.

—David Starr Jordan.

Search thine own heart. What paineth thee

In others, in thyself may be;

All dust is frail, all flesh is weak;

Be thou the true man thou dost seek.

—Whittier.

Beware of despairing about yourself.

—St. Augustine.

If you were born to honor, show it now:

If put upon you, make the judgment good

That thought you worthy of it.

—Shakespeare.

Then a voice within his breast

Whispered, audible and clear:

“Do thy duty; that is best;

Leave unto the Lord the rest!”

—Longfellow.

“There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave,

There are souls that are pure and true;

Then give to the world the best you have,

And the best will come to you.

Give love, and love to your heart will flow,

A strength in your utmost need;

Have faith, and a score of hearts will show

Their faith in your word and deed.”

Fortune will call at the smiling gate.

—Japanese Proverb.

“Talk health; the dreary never-ending tale

Of mortal maladies is worn and stale.

You cannot charm or interest or please

By harping on that minor chord, disease.

Say you are well, or all is well with you

And God shall hear your words and make them true.”

Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit.

—Epictetus.

How true it is that what we really see day by day depends less on the objects and scenes before our eyes than on the eyes themselves and the minds and hearts that use them.

—F. D. Huntington.

You have not fulfilled every duty, unless you have fulfilled that of being pleasant.

—Charles Buxton.

If I am not for myself who will be for me? But if I am for myself alone what am I? If not now—when?

—Hillel.

I asked the New Year for some motto sweet,

Some rule of life by which to guide my feet;

I asked and paused. It answered, soft and low:

“God’s will to know.”

“Will knowledge then suffice, New Year?” I cried;

But ere the question into silence died,

The answer came: “Nay; this remember, too,

God’s will to do.”

“To know; to do; can this be all we give

To Him in Whom we are, and move and live?

No more, New Year?” “This, too, must be your care:

God’s will to bear.”

Once more I asked: “Is there still more to tell?”

And once again the answer sweetly fell;

“Yea, this one thing, all other things above;

God’s will to love.”

—J. M. C. Bouchard, S. J.

Shun idleness, it is the rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.

—Voltaire.

Few men suspect how much mere talk fritters away spiritual energy—that which should be spent in action, spends itself in words. Hence he who restrains that love of talk lays up a fund of spiritual strength.

—F. W. Robertson.

Truthfulness is the foundation of all personal excellence. It exhibits itself in conduct. It is rectitude, truth in action, and shines through every word and deed.

—Samuel Smiles.

The cry of the age is more for fraternity than for charity. If one exists, the other will follow, or better still, will not be needed.

—Dr. Henry D. Chapin.

There is philosophy as well as philanthropy in the keeping in touch with all sweetness and love, in the being swift to be kind. This is living on the spiritual plane, and spirituality is power.

—Lilian Whiting.

Manners are the happy ways of doing things. If they are superficial, so are the dewdrops, which give such a depth to the morning meadows.

—Emerson.

Being all fashioned of the self-same dust,

Let us be merciful as well as just.

—Longfellow.

“The man who never makes mistakes loses a great many chances to learn something.”