The great world's altar stairs
That slope through darkness up to God.

The great world's altar stairs
That slope through darkness up to God.

"Oh! what a vile and abject thing is man unless he can erect
himself above humanity." Here is a read more

"Oh! what a vile and abject thing is man unless he can erect
himself above humanity." Here is a bon mot and a useful desire,
but equally absurd. For to make the handful bigger than the
hand, the armful bigger then the arm, and to hope to stride
further than the stretch of our legs, is impossible and
monstrous. . . . He may lift himself if God lend him His hand of
special grace; he may lift himself . . . by means wholly
celestial. It is for our Christian religion, and not for his
Stoic virtue, to pretend to this divine and miraculous
metamorphosis.

The lofty oak from a small acorn grows.

The lofty oak from a small acorn grows.

You cannot hammer a girl into anything. She grows as a flower does, she will wither without sun; she will read more

You cannot hammer a girl into anything. She grows as a flower does, she will wither without sun; she will decay in her sheath as a narcissus will if you do not give her air enough; she might fall and defile her head in dust if you leave her without help at some moments in her life; but you cannot fetter her; she must take her own fair form and way if she take any.

'Tis thus the mercury of man is fix'd,
Strong grows the virtue with his nature mix'd.

'Tis thus the mercury of man is fix'd,
Strong grows the virtue with his nature mix'd.

Nor deem the irrevocable Past,
As wholly wasted, wholly vain,
If, rising on its wrecks, at last
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Nor deem the irrevocable Past,
As wholly wasted, wholly vain,
If, rising on its wrecks, at last
To something nobler we attain.

Our pleasures and our discontents,
Are rounds by which we may ascend.

Our pleasures and our discontents,
Are rounds by which we may ascend.

All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.

All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.

A lover of Jesus and of the truth . . . can lift himself above
himself in spirit.
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A lover of Jesus and of the truth . . . can lift himself above
himself in spirit.
[Lat., Amator Jesu et veritatis . . . potest se . . . elevare
supra seipsum in spiritu.]