Maturin Ballou - Pearls of Thought

After life's fitful fever he sleeps well. — Shakespeare.

Flesh is but the glass which holds the dust that measures all our time, which also shall be crumbled into dust. — George Herbert.

Death expecteth thee everywhere; be wise, therefore, and expect death everywhere. — Quarles.

The world. Oh, the world is so sweet to the dying! — Schiller.

The world is full of resurrections. Every night that folds us up in darkness is a death; and those of you that have been out early, and have seen the first of the dawn, will know it, – the day rises out of the night like a being that has burst its tomb and escaped into life. — George MacDonald.

The dissolution of forms is no loss in the mass of matter. — Pliny.

Faith builds a bridge across the gulf of death. — Young.

Debt.– He that dies pays all debts. — Shakespeare.

Poverty is hard, but debt is horrible; a man might as well have a smoky house and a scolding wife, which are said to be the two worst evils of our life. — Spurgeon.

The first step in debt is like the first step in falsehood, almost involving the necessity of proceeding in the same course, debt following debt as lie follows lie. Haydon, the painter, dated his decline from the day on which he first borrowed money. — Samuel Smiles.

Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience; you will find it a calamity. — Johnson.

That swamp [of debt] which tempts men towards it with such a pretty covering of flowers and verdure. It is wonderful how soon a man gets up to his chin there, – in a condition in which, spite of himself, he is forced to think chiefly of release, though he had a scheme of the universe in his soul. — George Eliot.

Youth is in danger until it learns to look upon debts as furies. — Bulwer-Lytton.

Deceit.– No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true. — Hawthorne.

Idiots only may be cozened twice. — Dryden.

It is a double pleasure to deceive the deceiver. — Fontaine.

There is less misery in being cheated than in that kind of wisdom which perceives, or thinks it perceives, that all mankind are cheats. — Chapin.

Like unto golden hooks that from the foolish fish their baits do hide. — Spenser.

Libertines are hideous spiders that often catch pretty butterflies. — Diderot.

Decency.– As beauty of body, with an agreeable carriage, pleases the eye, and that pleasure consists in that we observe all the parts with a certain elegance are proportioned to each other; so does decency of behavior which appears in our lives obtain the approbation of all with whom we converse, from the order, consistency, and moderation of our words and actions. — Steele.

Virtue and decency are so nearly related that it is difficult to separate them from each other but in our imagination. — Tully.

Declamation.– Fine declamation does not consist in flowery periods, delicate allusions, or musical cadences, but in a plain, open, loose style, where the periods are long and obvious; where the same thought is often exhibited in several points of view. — Goldsmith.

The art of declamation has been sinking in value from the moment that speakers were foolish enough to publish, and hearers wise enough to read. — Colton.

Deeds.– A word that has been said may be unsaid: it is but air. But when a deed is done, it cannot be undone, nor can our thoughts reach out to all the mischiefs that may follow. — Longfellow.

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes deeds ill done! — Shakespeare.

Legal deeds were invented to remind men of their promises, or to convict them of having broken them, – a stigma on the human race. — Bruyère.

Good actions ennoble us, and we are the sons of our own deeds. — Cervantes.

We should believe only in works; words are sold for nothing everywhere. — Rojas.

Delay.– We do not directly go about the execution of the purpose that thrills us, but shut our doors behind us, and ramble with prepared minds, as if the half were already done. Our resolution is taking root or hold on the earth then, as seeds first send a shoot downward, which is fed by their own albumen, ere they send one upwards to the light. — Thoreau.

Time drinketh up the essence of every great and noble action, which ought to be performed! and is delayed in the execution. — Veeshnoo Sarma.

Democracy.– Democracy will itself accomplish the salutary universal change from delusive to real, and make a new blessed world of us by and by. — Carlyle.

The love of democracy is that of equality. — Montesquieu.

Dependence.– The beautiful must ever rest in the arms of the sublime. The gentle needs the strong to sustain it, as much as the rock-flowers need rocks to grow on, or the ivy the rugged wall which it embraces. — Mrs. Stowe.

Thou shalt know by experience how salt the savor is of other's bread, and how sad a path it is to climb and descend another's stairs. — Dante.

How beautifully is it ordered, that as many thousands work for one, so must every individual bring his labor to make the whole! The highest is not to despise the lowest, nor the lowest to envy the highest; each must live in all and by all. Who will not work, neither shall he eat. So God has ordered that men, being in need of each other, should learn to love each other and bear each other's burdens. — G. A. Sala.

We are never without a pilot. When we know not how to steer, and dare not hoist a sail, we can drift. The current knows the way, though we do not. The ship of heaven guides itself, and will not accept a wooden rudder. — Emerson.

Desire.– It is easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it. — Franklin.

Lack of desire is the greatest riches. — Seneca.

Where necessity ends, curiosity begins; and no sooner are we supplied with everything that nature can demand, than we sit down to contrive artificial appetites. — Johnson.

The thirst of desire is never filled, nor fully satisfied. — Cicero.

The man's desire is for the woman; but the woman's desire is rarely other than for the desire of the man. — Coleridge.

Desires are the pulse of the soul. — Manton.

Despair.– Considering the unforeseen events of this world, we should be taught that no human condition should inspire men with absolute despair. — Fielding.

Leaden-eyed despair. — Keats.

In the lottery of life there are more prizes drawn than blanks, and to one misfortune there are fifty advantages. Despondency is the most unprofitable feeling a man can indulge in. — De Witt Talmage.

He that despairs limits infinite power to finite apprehensions. — South.

It is impossible for that man to despair who remembers that his helper is omnipotent. — Jeremy Taylor.

He that despairs measures Providence by his own little contracted model. — South.

Juliet was a fool to kill herself, for in three months she'd have married again, and been glad to be quit of Romeo. — Charles Buxton.

What we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope. — George Eliot.