Hannah More Quotes & Sayings

I did not intend making a philippic against covetousness, a sin to which I believe no one here is addicted. Let us not, however, plume ourselves in not being guilty of a vice to which, as we have no natural bias so in not committing it, we resist no temptation. What I meant to insist on was, that exchanging a turbulent for a quiet sin, or a scandalous for an orderly one, is not reformation. — Hannah More

Long habit so reconciles us to almost any thing, that the grossest improprieties cease to strike us when they once make a part of the common course of action. — Hannah More

He who finds he has wasted a shilling may by diligence hope to fetch it up again; but no repentance or industry can ever bring back one wasted hour. — Hannah More

Since trifles make the sum of human things, And half our misery from our foibles springs. — Hannah More

We are too ready to imagine that we are religious, because we know something of religion. We appropriate to ourselves the pious sentiments we read, and we talk as if the thoughts of other men's heads were really the feelings of our own hearts. But piety has not its seat in the memory, but in the affections, for which however the memory is an excellent purveyor, though a bad substitute. — Hannah More

It is not so important to know everything as to know the exact value of everything, to appreciate what we learn and to arrange what we know. — Hannah More

Goals help you overcome short-term problems. — Hannah More

Small habits well pursued betimes May reach the dignity of crimes. — Hannah More

Repentance is not completed by a single act, it must be incorporated into our mind, till it become a fixed state, arising from a continual sense of our need of it. — Hannah More

The education of the present race of females is not very favorable to domestic happiness. For my own part, I call education, not that which smothers a woman with accomplishments, but that which tends to consolidate a firm and regular system of character; that which tends to form a friend, a companion, and a wife. — Hannah More

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

If I wished to punish my enemy, I should make him hate somebody. — Hannah More

We do not so much want books for good people, as books which will make bad ones better. — Hannah More

We live in an age which must be amused, though genius, feeling, trust, and principle be the sacrifice. — Hannah More

We have employments assigned to us for every circumstance in life. When we are alone, we have our thoughts to watch; in the family, our tempers; and in company, our tongues. — Hannah More

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. — Hannah More

A small unkindness is a great offence. — Hannah More

Anger is the common refuge of insignificance. People who feel their character to be slight, hope to give it weight by inflation: but the blown bladder at its fullest distention is still empty. — Hannah More

It is an excellent sign, that after the cares and labors of the day, you can return to your pious exercises and meditations with undiminished attention. — Hannah More

It may be in morals as it is in optics, the eye and the object may come too close to each other, to answer the end of vision. There are certain faults which press too near our self-love to be even perceptible to us. — Hannah More

It's cheaper to pardon than to resent. Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, and the waste of spirit. — Hannah More

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. — Hannah More

The roses of pleasure seldom last long enough to adorn the brow of him who plucks them; for they are the only roses which do not retain their sweetness after they have lost their beauty. — Hannah More

Sow an action, reap a habit. — Hannah More

After all that corrupt poets, and more corrupt philosophers, have told us of the blandishments of pleasure, and of its tendency to soften the temper and humanize the affections, it is certain, that nothing hardens the heart like excessive and unbounded luxury; and he who refuses the fewest gratifications to his own voluptuousness, will generally be found the least susceptible of tenderness for the wants of others. — Hannah More

If I could see the abolition of slavery... I would sing my nunc dimittis with joy. — Hannah More

Our infinite obligations to God do not fill our hearts half as much as a petty uneasiness of our own; nor His infinite perfections as much as our smallest wants. — Hannah More

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

He seemed evidently more fond of controversy than of truth, and the whole turn of his conversation indicated that he derived his religious security rather from the adoption of a party, than from the implantation of a new principle. — Hannah More

All desire the gifts of God, but they do not desire God. — Hannah More

To hint at a fault does more mischief than speaking out; for whatever is left for the imagination to finish will not fail to be overdone ... — Hannah More

When these incorrigible talkers are compelled to be quiet, is it not evident that they are not silent because they are listening to what is said, but because they are thinking of what they themselves shall say when they can seize the first lucky interval, for which they are so narrowly watching? — Hannah More

Parents are too apt to mistake inclination for genius. — Hannah More

A slowness to applaud betrays a cold temper or an envious spirit. — Hannah More

Absence in love is like water upon fire; a little quickens, but much extinguishes it. — Hannah More

Nothing raises the price of a blessing like its removal; whereas it was its continuance which should have taught us its value. There are three requisitions to the proper enjoyment of earthly blessings,
a thankful reflection on the goodness of the Giver, a deep sense of our unworthiness, a recollection of the uncertainty of long possessing them. The first would make us grateful; the second, humble; and the third, moderate. — Hannah More

Those who want nothing are apt to forget how many there are who want every thing. — Hannah More

Gentleness is the outgrowth of benignity. — Hannah More

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

Pride never sleeps. The principle at least is always awake. An intemperate man is sometimes sober, but a proud man is never humble. — Hannah More

Genius without religion is only a lamp on the outer gate of a palace; it may serve to cast a gleam of light on those that are without, while the inhabitant sits in darkness. — Hannah More

Our merciful Father has no pleasure in the sufferings of His children; He chastens them in love; He never inflicts a stroke He could safely spare; He inflicts it to purify as well as to punish, to caution as well as to cure, to improve as well as to chastise. — Hannah More

Prayer is not eloquence, but earnestness; not the definition of helplessness, but the feeling of it; not figures of speech, but earnestness of soul. — Hannah More

Love never reasons but profusely gives ... gives like a thoughtless prodigal, it's all and trembles then, lest it has done too little. — Hannah More

Imagination frames events unknown,
In wild, fantastic shapes of hideous ruin,
And what it fears creates. — Hannah More

My plan of instruction is extremely simple and limited. They learn, on week-days, such coarse works as may fit them for servants. I allow of no writing for the poor. My object is not to make fanatics, but to train up the lower classes in habits of industry and piety. — Hannah More

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. — Hannah More

No man ever repented of being a Christian on his death bed. — Hannah More

In agony or danger, no nature is atheist. The mind that knows not what to fly to, flies to God. — Hannah More

What ascends up in prayer descends to us again in blessings. It is like the rain which just now fell, and which had been drawn up from the ground in vapors to the clouds before it descended from them to the earth in that refreshing shower. — Hannah More

Forgiveness is the economy of the heart. ... forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits. — Hannah More

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

Nothing is more common than to mistake the sign for the thing itself; nor is any practice more frequent than that of endeavoring to acquire the exterior mark, without once thinking to labor after the interior grace. — Hannah More

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

Twas doing nothing was his curse. Is there a vice can plague us worse? — Hannah More

Expectation ... quickens desire, while possession deadens it. — Hannah More

When we read, we fancy we could be martyrs; when we come to act, we cannot bear a provoking word. — Hannah More

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! — Hannah More

One kernel is felt in a hogshead; one drop of water helps to swell the ocean; a spark of fire helps to give light to the world. None are too small, too feeble, too poor to be of service. Think of this and act. — Hannah More

Eternity is a depth which no geometry can measure, no arithmetic calculate, no imagination conceive, no rhetoric describe. — Hannah More

The abuse of terms has at all times been an evil. — Hannah More

Quietness is my definition of happiness. — Hannah More

Depart from discretion when it interferes with duty. — Hannah More

Did not God Sometimes withhold in mercy what we ask, We should be ruined at our own request. — Hannah More

Of two evils, had not an author better be tedious than superficial! From an overflowing vessel you may gather more, indeed, than you want, but from an empty one you can gather nothing. — Hannah More

Sound economy is a sound understanding brought into action; it is calculation realized; it is the doctrine of proportion reduced to practice; it is foreseeing contingencies, and providing against them. — Hannah More

I call education, not that which smothers a woman with accomplishments, but that which tends to consolidate a firm and regular system of character; that which tends to form a friend, a companion, and a wife. I call education not that which is made up of the shreds and patches of useless arts, but that which inculcates principles, polishes taste, regulates temper, cultivates reason, subdues the passions, directs the feelings, habituates to reflection, trains to self-denial, and, more especially, that which refers all actions, feelings, sentiments, tastes, and passions, to the love and fear of God. — Hannah More

If a young lady has that discretion and modesty without which all knowledge is little worth, she will never make an ostentatious parade of it, because she will rather be intent on acquiring more than on displaying what she has. — Hannah More

Pleasure is by much the most laborious trade I know, especially for those who have not a vocation to it. — Hannah More

The constant habit of perusing devout books is so indispensable, that it has been termed the oil of the lamp of prayer. Too much reading, however, and too little meditation, may produce the effect of a lamp inverted; which is extinguished by the very excess of that ailment, whose property is to feed it. — Hannah More

We are apt to mistake our vocation by looking out of the way for occasions to exercise great and rare virtues, and by stepping over the ordinary ones that lie directly in the road before us. — Hannah More

Outward attacks and troubles rather fix than unsettle the Christian, as tempests from without only serve to root the oak faster; while an inward canker will gradually rot and decay it. — Hannah More

No adulation; 'tis the death of virtue; Who flatters, is of all mankind the lowest Save he who courts the flattery. — Hannah More

If the Almighty chose to establish his religion by miracles, he chooses to carry it on by means. — Hannah More

Where evil may be done, it is right to ponder; where only suffered, know the shortest pause is much too long. — Hannah More

The world does not require so much to be informed as to be reminded. — Hannah More

My retirement was now become solitude; the former is, I believe, the best state for the mind of man, the latter almost the worst. In complete solitude, the eye wants objects, the heart wants attachments, the understanding wants reciprocation. The character loses its tenderness when it has nothing to strengthen it, its sweetness when it has nothing to soothe it. — Hannah More

I am persuaded that there is no affection of the human heart more exquisitely pure, than that which is felt by a grateful son towards a mother ... — Hannah More

It is a part of Christianity to convert every natural talent to a religious use. — Hannah More

Resentment is an evil so costly to our peace that we should find it more cheap to forgive even were it no more right. — Hannah More

It is the large aggregate of small things perpetually occurring that robs me of all my time. The expense of learning to read might have been spared in my education, for I never read. — Hannah More

He who cannot find time to consult his Bible will one day find he has time to be sick; he who has no time to pray must find time to die; he who can find no time to reflect is most likely to find time to sin; he who cannot find time for repentance will find an eternity in which repentance will be of no avail; he who cannot find time to work for others may find an eternity in which to suffer for himself. — Hannah More

The ingenuity of self-deception is inexhaustible. — Hannah More

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

To be good and disagreeable is high treason against the royalty of virtue. — Hannah More

I used to wonder why people should be so fond of the company of their physician, till I recollected that he is the only person with whom one dares to talk continually of oneself, without interruption, contradiction or censure; I suppose that delightful immunity doubles their fees. — Hannah More

Perfect purity, fullness of joy, everlasting freedom, perfect rest, health and fruition, complete security, substantial and eternal good. — Hannah More

That silence is one of the great arts of conversation is allowed by Cicero himself, who says, there is not only an art, but even an eloquence in it — Hannah More

Bible Christianity is what I love ... a Christianity practical and pure, which teaches holiness, humility, repentance and faith in Christ; and which after summing up all the Evangelical graces, declares that the greatest of these is charity . — Hannah More

Affliction is a sort of moral gymnasium in which the disciples of Christ are trained to robust exercise, hardy exertion, and severe conflict. — Hannah More

We do not really know how to forgive until we know what it is to be forgiven.
Therefore we should be glad that we can be forgiven by others. It is our
forgiveness of one another that makes the love of Jesus manifest in our lives,
for in forgiving one another we act towards one another
as He has acted towards us. — Hannah More

The uncandid censurer always picks out the worst man of a class, and then confidently produces him as being a fair specimen of it. — Hannah More

Wisdom views with an indifferent eye all finite joys, all blessings born to die. — Hannah More

He who has once taken to drink can seldom be said to be guilty of one sin only ... — Hannah More

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. — Hannah More

How much it is to be regretted, that the British ladies should ever sit down contented to polish, when they are able to reform; to entertain, when they might instruct; and to dazzle for an hour, when they are candidates for eternity! — Hannah More

When thou hast truly thanked the Lord for every blessing sent, But little time will then remain for murmur or lament. — Hannah More

The modes of speech are scarcely more variable than the modes of silence. — Hannah More

The artful injury, whose venomed dart scarce wounds the hearing, while it stabs the heart. — Hannah More

A faint endeavor ends in a sure defeat. — Hannah More