150 Quotes by John Lancaster Spalding

It is a common error to imagine that to be stirring and voluble in a worthy cause is to be good and to do good.

When one sense has been bribed the others readily bear false witness.

What we think out for ourselves forms channels in which other thoughts will flow.

If thy friends tire of thee, remember that it is human to tire of everything.

The highest strength is acquired not in overcoming the world, but in overcoming one's self. Learn to be cruel to thyself, to withstand thy appetites, to bear thy sufferings, and thou shalt become free and able.

Say not thou lackest talent. What talent had any of the greatest, but passionate faith in the efficacy of work?

The common prejudice against philosophy is the result of the incapacity of the multitude to deal with the highest problems.

We are made ridiculous less by our defects than by the affectation of qualities which are not ours.

Nothing requires so little mental effort as to narrate or follow a story. Hence everybody tells stories and the readers of stories outnumber all others.