John Lancaster Spalding Quotes & Sayings

The lover of education labors first of all to educate himself. — John Lancaster Spalding

If there were nothing else to trouble us, the fate of the flowers would make us sad. — John Lancaster Spalding

The more we live with what we imagine others think of us, the less we live with truth. — John Lancaster Spalding

The world is a mirror into which we look, and see our own image. — John Lancaster Spalding

If we are disappointed that men give little heed to what we utter is it for their sake or our own? — John Lancaster Spalding

In the world of thought a man's rank is determined, not by his average work, but by his highest achievement. — John Lancaster Spalding

Dislike of another's opinions and beliefs neither justifies our own nor makes us more certain of them: and to transfer the repugnance to the person himself is a mark of a vulgar mind. — John Lancaster Spalding

There are faults which show heart and win hearts, while the virtue in which there is no love, repels. — John Lancaster Spalding

If thy words are wise, they will not seem so to the foolish: if they are deep the shallow will not appreciate them. Think not highly of thyself, then, when thou art praised by many. — John Lancaster Spalding

To think of education as a means of preserving institutions however excellent, is to have a superficial notion of its end and purpose, which is to mould and fashion men who are more than institutions, who create, outgrow, and re-create them. — John Lancaster Spalding

Liberty is more precious than money or office; and we should be vigilant lest we purchase wealth or place at the price of inner freedom. — John Lancaster Spalding

Nothing requires so little mental effort as to narrate or follow a story. Hence everybody tells stories and the readers of stories outnumber all others. — John Lancaster Spalding

The world is chiefly a mental fact. From mind it receives the forms of time and space, the principle of casuality[sic], color, warmth, and beauty. Were there no mind, there would be no world. — John Lancaster Spalding

Contradiction is the salt which keeps truth from corruption — John Lancaster Spalding

Few know the joys that spring from a disinterested curiosity. It is like a cheerful spirit that leads us through worlds filled with what is true and fair, which we admire and love because it is true and fair. — John Lancaster Spalding

In education, as in religion and love, compulsion thwarts the purpose for which it is employed. — John Lancaster Spalding

Where it is the chief aim to teach many things, little education is given or received. — John Lancaster Spalding

The zest of life lies in right doing, not in the garnered harvest. — John Lancaster Spalding

Women are aristocrats, and it is always the mother who makes us feel that we belong to the better sort. — John Lancaster Spalding

A Wise man knows that much of what he says and does is commonplace and trivial. His thoughts are not all solemn and sacred in his own eyes. He is able to laugh at himself and is not offended when others make him a subject whereon to exercise their wit. — John Lancaster Spalding

There are who mistake the spirit of pugnacity for the spirit of piety, and thus harbor a devil instead of an angel. — John Lancaster Spalding

If a state should pass laws forbidding its citizens to become wise and holy, it would be made a byword for all time. But this, in effect, is what our commercial, social, and political systems do. They compel the sacrifice of mental and moral power to money and dissipation. — John Lancaster Spalding

We are not masters of the truth which is borne in upon us: it overpowers us. — John Lancaster Spalding

If we fail to interest, whether because we are dull and heavy, or because our hearers are so, we teach in vain. — John Lancaster Spalding

We are made ridiculous less by our defects than by the affectation of qualities which are not ours. — John Lancaster Spalding

Care not who is richer or more learned than thou, if none be more generous and loving. — John Lancaster Spalding

As a brave man goes into fire or flood or pestilence to save a human life, so a generous mind follows after truth and love, and is not frightened from the pursuit by danger or toil or obloquy. — John Lancaster Spalding

It is not difficult to grasp and express thoughts that float on the stream of current opinion: but to think and rightly utter what is permanently true and interesting, what shall appeal to the best minds a thousand years hence, as it appeals to them to-day, this is the work of genius. — John Lancaster Spalding

Those who believe in our ability do more than stimulate us. They create for us an atmosphere in which it becomes easier to succeed. — John Lancaster Spalding

It is the business of the teacher ... to fortify reason and to make conscience sovereign. — John Lancaster Spalding

We are more disturbed by a calamity which threatens us than by one which has befallen us. — John Lancaster Spalding

Altruism is a barbarism. Love is the word. — John Lancaster Spalding

If thou need money, get it in an honest way by keeping books, if thou wilt, but not by writing books. — John Lancaster Spalding

The highest courage is to appear to be what one is. — John Lancaster Spalding

If all were gentle and contented as sheep, all would be as feeble and helpless. — John Lancaster Spalding

The highest strength is acquired not in overcoming the world, but in overcoming one's self. Learn to be cruel to thyself, to withstand thy appetites, to bear thy sufferings, and thou shalt become free and able. — John Lancaster Spalding

Make thyself perfect; others, happy. — John Lancaster Spalding

The writers who accomplish most are those who compel thought on the highest and most profoundly interesting subjects. — John Lancaster Spalding

States of soul rightly expressed, as the poet expresses them in moments of pure inspiration, retain forever the power of creating like states. It is this that makes genuine literature a vital force. — John Lancaster Spalding

Insight makes argument ridiculous. — John Lancaster Spalding

If I am not pleased with myself, but should wish to be other than I am, why should I think highly of the influences which have made me what I am? — John Lancaster Spalding

If thou wouldst be interesting, keep thy personality in the background, and be great and strong in and through thy subject. — John Lancaster Spalding

As children must have the hooping cough, the college youth must pass through the stage of conceit in which he holds in slight esteem the wisdom of the best. — John Lancaster Spalding

It is unpleasant to turn back, though it be to take the right way. — John Lancaster Spalding

The doubt of an earnest, thoughtful, patient and laborious mind is worthy of respect. In such doubt may be found indeed more faith than in half the creeds. — John Lancaster Spalding

To think profoundly, to seek and speak truth, to love justice and denounce wrong is to draw upon one's self the ill will of many. — John Lancaster Spalding

Our prejudices are like physical infirmities - we cannot do what they prevent us from doing. — John Lancaster Spalding

A principal aim of education is to give students a taste for literature, for the books of life and power, and to accomplish this, it is necessary that their minds be held aloof from the babblement and discussions of the hour, that they may accustom themselves to take interest in the words and deeds of the greatest men, and so make themselves able and worthy to shape a larger and nobler future; but if their hours of leisure are spent over journals and reviews, they will, in later years, become the helpless victims of the newspaper habit. — John Lancaster Spalding

If ancient descent could confer nobility, the lower forms of life would possess it in a greater degree than man. — John Lancaster Spalding

To view an object in the proper light we must stand away from it. The study of the classical literatures gives the aloofness which cultivates insight. In learning to live with peoples and civilizations that have long ceased to be alive, we gain a vantage point, acquire an enlargement and elevation of thought, which enable us to study with a more impartial and liberal mind the condition of the society around us. — John Lancaster Spalding

Culture makes the whole world our dwelling place; our palace in which we take our ease and find ourselves at one with all things. — John Lancaster Spalding

Inferior thinking and writing will make a name for a man among inferior people, who in all ages and countries, are the majority. — John Lancaster Spalding

Thy money, thy office, thy reputation are nothing; put away these phantom clothings, and stand like an athlete stripped for the battle. — John Lancaster Spalding

Folly will run its course and it is the part of wisdom not to take it too seriously. — John Lancaster Spalding

We have lost the old love of work, of work which kept itself company, which was fair weather and music in the heart, which found its reward in the doing, craving neither the flattery of vulgar eyes nor the gold of vulgar men. — John Lancaster Spalding

We have no sympathy with those who are controlled by ideas and passions which we neither understand nor feel. Thus they who live to satisfy the appetites do not believe it possible to live in and for the soul. — John Lancaster Spalding

If our opinions rest upon solid ground, those who attack them do not make us angry, but themselves ridiculous. — John Lancaster Spalding

Though what we accept be true, it is a prejudice unless we ourselves have considered and understood why and how it is true. — John Lancaster Spalding

Your faith is what you believe, not what you know. — John Lancaster Spalding

Whoever has freed himself from envy and bitterness may begin to try to see things as they are. — John Lancaster Spalding

If science were nothing more than the best means of teaching the love of the simple fact, the indispensable need of verification, of careful and accurate observation and statement, its value would be of the highest order. — John Lancaster Spalding

The common man is impelled and controlled by interests; the superior, by ideas. — John Lancaster Spalding

They whom trifles distract and nothing occupies are but children. — John Lancaster Spalding

Leave each one his touch of folly; it helps to lighten life's burden which, if he could see himself as he is, might be too heavy to carry. — John Lancaster Spalding

The power of free will is developed and confirmed by increasing the number of worthy motives which influence conduct. — John Lancaster Spalding

To cultivate the memory we should confide to it only what we understand and love: the rest is a useless burden; for simply to know by rote is not to know at all. — John Lancaster Spalding

We may outgrow the things of children, without acquiring sense and relish for those which become a man. — John Lancaster Spalding

We shrink from the contemplation of our dead bodies, forgetting that when dead they are no longer ours, and concern us as little as the hairs that have fallen from our heads. — John Lancaster Spalding

The will the one thing it is most important to educate we neglect. — John Lancaster Spalding

A gentleman does not appear to know more or to be more than those with whom he is thrown into company. — John Lancaster Spalding

Passion is begotten of passion, and it easily happens, as with the children of great men, that the base is the offspring of the noble. — John Lancaster Spalding

In giving us dominion over the animal kingdom God has signified His will that we subdue the beast within ourselves. — John Lancaster Spalding

They who see through the eyes of others are controlled by the will of others. — John Lancaster Spalding

When guests enter the room their entertainers rise to receive them; and in all meetings men should ascend into their higher selves, imparting to one another only the best they know and love. — John Lancaster Spalding

Whom little things occupy and keep busy, are little men. — John Lancaster Spalding

As memory may be a paradise from which we cannot be driven, it may also be a hell from which we cannot escape. — John Lancaster Spalding

The able have no desire to appear to be so, and this is part of their ability. — John Lancaster Spalding

The fields and the flowers and the beautiful faces are not ours, as the stars and the hills and the sunlight are not ours, but they give us fresh and happy thoughts. — John Lancaster Spalding

What is greatly desired, but long deferred, gives little pleasure, when at length it is ours, for we have lived with it in imagination until we have grown weary of it, having ourselves, in the meanwhile, become other. — John Lancaster Spalding

He who leaves school, knowing little, but with a longing for knowledge, will go farther than one who quits, knowing many things, but not caring to learn more. — John Lancaster Spalding

A liberal education is that which aims to develop faculty without ulterior views of profession or other means of gaining a livelihood. It considers man an end in himself and not an instrument whereby something is to be wrought. Its ideal is human perfection. — John Lancaster Spalding

As our power over others increases, we become less free; for to retain it, we must make ourselves its servants. — John Lancaster Spalding

Those subjects have the greatest educational value, which are richest in incentives to the noblest self-activity. — John Lancaster Spalding

Education would be a divine thing, if it did nothing more than help us to think and love great thoughts instead of little thoughts. — John Lancaster Spalding

There are few things it is more important to learn than how to live on little and be therewith content: for the less we need what is without, the more leisure have we to live within. — John Lancaster Spalding

To secure approval one must remain within the bounds of conventional mediocrity. Whatever lies beyond, whether it be greater insight and virtue, or greater stolidity and vice, is condemned. The noblest men, like the worst criminals, have been done to death. — John Lancaster Spalding

Language should be pure, noble and graceful, as the body should be so: for both are vestures of the Soul. — John Lancaster Spalding

Be watchful lest thou lose the power of desiring and loving what appeals to the soul this is the miser's curse this the chain and ball the sensualist drags. — John Lancaster Spalding

No sooner does a divine gift reveal itself in youth or maid than its market value becomes the decisive consideration, and the poor young creatures are offered for sale, as we might sell angels who had strayed among us. — John Lancaster Spalding

Worry, whatever its source, weakens, takes away courage, and shortens life. — John Lancaster Spalding

Break not the will of the young, but guide it to right ends. — John Lancaster Spalding

Faith, like love, unites; opinion, like hate, separates. — John Lancaster Spalding

The first requisite of a gentleman is to be true, brave and noble, and to be therefore a rebuke and scandal to venal and vulgar souls. — John Lancaster Spalding

The study of law is valuable as a mental discipline, but the practice of pleading tends to make one petty, formal, and insincere. To be driven to look to legality rather than to equity blurs the view of truth and justice. — John Lancaster Spalding

To learn the worth of a man's religion, do business with him. — John Lancaster Spalding

The study of science, dissociated from that of philosophy and literature, narrows the mind and weakens the power to love and follow the noblest ideals: for the truths which science ignores and must ignore are precisely those which have the deepest bearing on life and conduct. — John Lancaster Spalding

If thy friends tire of thee, remember that it is human to tire of everything. — John Lancaster Spalding

What we enjoy, not what we possess, is ours, and in labouring for the possession of many things, we lose the power to enjoy the best. — John Lancaster Spalding

When we have not the strength or the courage to grasp a new truth, we persuade ourselves that it is not a truth at all. — John Lancaster Spalding

As we can not love what is hateful, let us accustom ourselves neither to think nor to speak of disagreeable things and persons. — John Lancaster Spalding