The Essence of Greatness
The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Heroism
Archive for the ‘Quotations’ Category
To Be Fortunate
To be fortunate, be not too wise.
On the Brink of Mysteries and Harmonies
Men live on the brink of mysteries and harmonies into which yet they never enter, and with their hand on the door-latch they die outside.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Belief and Logic
Man lives by belief; by logic he can only at best long to live.
Thomas Carlyle
Ask Not Why
WHY? and WHEREFORE?— God wot, simply THEREFORE! Ask not WHY; ’tis SITH thou hast to care for.
Thomas Carlyle
A Wise Lover
A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver.
Thomas à Kempis
Be of Good Comfort
Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man: we shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England, as, I trust, shall never be put out.
Hugh Latimer’s famous words of consolation to Nicholas Ridley as they are both about to be burnt alive for heresy.
I Am Dying
SEVERN—I—lift me up, for I am dying. I shall die easy. Don’t be frightened! Thank God it has come.
John Keats
The True Genius
The true genius shudders at incompleteness – and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be.
E. A. Poe
Philosophy and Religion
A little philosophy makes men aetheists: A great deal reconciles them to religion.
Francis Bacon
