The Manitowoc Pilot

Gems of Thought

Good and bad men are each less so than they seem. - Coleridge

"The best biography - the life which writes charity in the largest letters."

"Few men are in higher estimation by being closely examined."

Every inordinate cup is unblessed and the ingredient is a devil. - Shakespeare.

To rectify error is always glory. - George Washington.

In this world, full often, our joys are only the tender shadows which our sorrows cast."

It is well worth while to learn how to view the heart of a man the right way. - Socrates.

The bounds of man's knowledge are concealed, if he has but prudence. - Goldsmith.

No evil propensity of the human heart is so powerful that it may not be subdued by discipline. - Seneca

Deference is the most complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments. - Shenstone.

"Men are afraid of breaking down where they are the strongest, but are seldom afraid of their weakness."

With most men life is like backgammon, half skill and half luck. - Holmes.

From those I trust, God guard me: from those I mistrust I will guard myself.

Prayers are but the body of the bird: desires are its angel's wings. - Jeremy Taylor.

The Most High God sees and hears; my neighbor knows nothing, and yet always finds fault.

We throw our influence into the world, good, bad, or indifferent, and are forgotten.

Nothing is farther than earth from heaven: nothing is nearer than heaven to earth. - Augustus Hare.

Never mind where you work: care more how you work. Never mind who sees if God approves.

Unhappy are they who craving the possession of good things yet have no eyes nor ears for the universal law of God, wherein by wise obedience whereunto they might lead a noble life. - Cleanthes

There are three sources of education: the family, the workshop, and the Sabbath.

The family is first in the order of time: It is also first in the order of influence.

Men are divided about "the Higher Christian Life," they ought to be divided as to the highest Christian life; concerning this they should be of one heart and one mind.

It is observed at sea that men are never so much disposed to grumble and mutiny as when least employed. Hence an old Captain, when there was nothing else to do, would issue the order to "scour the anchor." - Samuel Smiles.

If thou art rich, then show the greatness of the fortune, or what is better the greatness of the soul in the meekness of thy conversation; condescend to men of low estate, support the distressed and patronize the neglected. Be great. - Sterne.

A man is seldom more manly than when he is what you call unmanned - the source of his emotion is championship, pity and courage; the instinctive desire to cherish those who are innocent and unhappy, and defend those who are tender and weak. - Thackeray.

Be brave! be strong! be manly

There will be sorrows in your life which will unedge your joys, as those little cobble stones do your scythe. But there is the grind-stone of Faith, upon which you may hold the dullest sickle of Hope, until it shall grow bright and keen, ready to cut your way bravely on again, if you but hold it with a steady, honest, earnest hand. - Lute.

Feeling maketh a lively man; thought maketh a strong man; action maketh a useful man - and all these together make a perfect man. Now, abide these three: Feeling, thought, action and the greatest of these is action: but neither can abide without the others. Some men think much, feel little, and act less. They are universally unsafe and unlovely men.

Does it spoil children to praise them? Judicious praise is sunshine to the child, and there is no child that does not need it. It is the high reward of one's struggle to do right. Thomas Hughes says that you can never get a man's best out of him without praise. Many a sensitive child dies of hunger for commendation. Many a child, starving for praise that parents should give runs off eagerly after the designing flattery of others.

There is a secret power in the good man's presence which is felt by others whether this power is ever explained or not

It is the mystery of godliness; and great is that mystery when, like an atmosphere, it compasses a minister of the gospel.

Books, regarded merely as gratification, are worth more than all the luxuries on earth. A taste for literature secures cheerful occupation for the unemployed any languid hours of life. And how many of these hours, for want of innocent resources, are now impelled to coarse pleasures? Many young men are driven to dissipation, and bad society for want of some attractive occupation for the mind

There's no music in a "rest" that I know of, but there's the making of music in it. And people are always missing that part of the life melody, always talking of courage, and perseverance and fortitude; but patience is the finest and worthiest part of the fortitude, and the rarest, too. I have known twenty persevering girls to one patient one; but it is only the twenty-first one that can do work, out, and out, and enjoy it.

For patience lies at the root of all pleasure as well as of all power. - John Ruskin.

Said the late Charles Dickens to me: "I am never afraid to cross the ocean when I know the captain to be a man who knows the uses of adversity. Sea-sickness is nothing to heart-sickness. I do not want a man to guide my vessel through the storm and tempest and the midnight and the fog-night who comes down the companion-way without touching a baluster. I want an Ajax who has defied the lightning: one that can dance when the elements make a giant weep." Ah, there is truth in it, there is virtue in it, there is God in it.

A little thoughtful attention, how happy it makes the old: They have outlived most of the friends of their early youth. How lonely their hours! Often their partners in life have long filled silent graves; often their children they have followed to the tomb. They stand solitary, bending on their staff, waiting till the same call shall reach them. How often they must think of absent lamented faces; of the love which cherished them, and the tears of sympathy which fell with theirs, now all gone. Why should not the young cling round and comfort them, cheering their gloom with happy smiles?

Whatever you wish your child to be - be it yourself. If you wish it to be happy, healthy, sober, truthful, affectionate, honest and godly, be yourself all these. If you wish it to be lazy and sulky, and a liar, and a thief, and a drunkard, and a swearer, be yourself all these. As the old cock crows, the young one learns. You will remember said, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." And you may, as a general rule, as soon expect to gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles, as get good, healthy, happy children from diseased, and lazy, and wicked parents. - John Brown of Edinburgh.

It was remarked by a man of genius that "ignorance lies at the two ends of knowledge." Perhaps it would have been more correct to say that strong convictions are found only at the two ends, and that doubt lies in the middle. The human intellect, in truth, may be considered in three distinct states, which frequently succeed one another. A man believes firmly, because he adopts a proposition without inquiry.

He doubts as soon as objections present themselves. But he frequently succeeds in satisfying these doubts, and then he begins again to believe. This time he has not a dim and casual glimpse of the truth, but sees it clearly before him, and advances by the light it gives. - De Tocqueville.

In what respect does a Bishop resemble a fish? Both live in the sea!

A new kind of metal - printers' zinc.

Those who use it find it has the ring of true coin.

If, says a contemporary, Brigham Young wore an additional "weed" on his hat every time he lost a wife or mother-in-law, it is esteemed his hat would have to be twenty-seven feet high.

Yet another warning.

Joseph Bates, of Vermont, fell dead while carrying in an armful of wood. Show this paragraph to your wife. Nay, cut it out and pin it to the woodshed door

A near-sighted Boston man was lately riding in a street car, when a lady opposite bowed to him. He returned the bow, raised his hat, smiled sweetly, and was just wondering who she was, when she came over and whispered in his ear, "Oh I'll fix you for this, old man!" Then he knew it was his wife.