20 Quotes by Hugh Blair

The spirit of true religion breathes gentleness and affability; it gives a native, unaffected ease to the behavior; it is social, kind, cheerful; far removed from the cloudy and illiberal disposition which clouds the brow, sharpens the temper, and dejects the spirit.

True gentleness is founded on a sense of what we owe to him who made us and to the common nature which we all share. It arises from reflection on our own failings and wants, and from just views of the condition and duty of man. It is native feeling heightened and improved by principle.

Nothing, except what flows from the heart, can render even external manners truly pleasing.

Fretfulness of temper will generally characterize those who are negligent of order.

We ought never to sport with pain and distress in any of our amusements, or treat even the meanest insect with wanton cruelty.

Human ability is an unequal match for the violent and unforeseen vicissitudes of the world.

To exult over the miseries of an unhappy creature is inhuman.

Those who are learning to compose and arrange their sentences with accuracy and order are learning, at the same time, to think with accuracy and order.

Nothing leads more directly to the breach of charity, and to the injury and molestation of our fellow-creatures, than the indulgence of an ill temper.