dots-menu
×

Home  »  Familiar Quotations  »  Page 721

John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

Page 721

 
 
Samuel Smiles. (1816–1904) (continued)
 
7197
      We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.
          Self-Help.
 
Philip James Bailey. (1816–1905)
 
7198
    Evil and good are God’s right hand and left.
          Festus. Proem.
7199
    Art is man’s nature; nature is God’s art.
          Festus. Proem.
7200
    Let each man think himself an act of God,
His mind a thought, his life a breath of God;
And let each try, by great thoughts and good deeds,
To show the most of Heaven he hath in him.
          Festus. Proem.
7201
    Men might be better if we better deemed
Of them. The worst way to improve the world
Is to condemn it.
          Festus. Scene iv. A Mountain. Sunrise. 1 
7202
    We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
Life’s but a means unto an end; that end
Beginning, mean, and end to all things,—God.
          Festus. Scene v. A Country Town.
7203
    Who never doubted never half believed 2 
Where doubt there truth is—’t is her shadow.
          Festus. Scene v. A Country Town.
7204
    America thou half-brother of the world!
With something good and bad of every land.
          Festus. Scene x. Earth’s Surface.
 
Note 1.
J. R. Lowell: Biglow Papers, II, ii. St. 9.
The surest plan to make a man
Is to think him so. [back]
Note 2.
Tennyson: There lives more faith in honest doubt
Believe me, than in half the creeds. [back]