SENTENCE S E R M O N S REMARKABLE REMARKS GATHERED FOR BUSY READERS
A man is hardly ever as good as his own praise of himself; he is nearly al ways as bad as his own condemnation of himself. By two things a man is known; by his manner of bestowing praise, by his man ner of receiving blame. A man is seldom his own best friend; often his own worst enemy. A miscalculation: th a t because two heads are better than one, half a head is better than none. Teach men only what to think and they never learn HOW to think. Teach men HOW to think and they will soon learn what to think. Remember th a t the ill in folk is dis liked more intensely than the good in them is liked. The finest glass can be' broken by a pebble, and the fin est, Christian can be marred for life by the smallest sin. On two occasions put your hands to your ears: when the voices are too high and when the temperature is too low. To be of true service you must know two things: your need, your capacity. What is bad in us is ou rs;, what is good in us is only a loan from above-to become ours with interest by good use of the principal. Easy as it is to attract the attention of the world, it is still easier to be forgotten by it. He who is all honey attracts nothing but flies. He who never expects to rise never will rise. He who never expects to fall surely will fall. He who regretfully lives in the t past wastes himself away; who fearfully wor ries over th e future wears himself away; who thoughtlessly lives only in the pres en t fritters himself away.
You who are so ready to inform God of the remedy best for your ailment—tell me, are you the physician? It is the laden bough th a t hangs low, and the most fruitful Christian who is the most humble. It is the little sticks th a t set the great log on fire. Remember th at it is the loaded' tree th a t gets stoned. It is not enough to carry a compass ; we must also keep the magnet away. Two things are equally hard: to speak of a man’s merits in his presence with discretion and to speak of a man’s faults in his absence with love. The lover of goodness cannot but be a good man; the lover of beauty can still be a bad man. He who does right without being able to help it, has risen to the height of a man. He who does wrong without being able to know it, has sunk to the level of the beast. Welcome the day, prize the hours, re spect th e minutes, mind th e seconds— and the eternal years may yet be thine. If heaven were to rain only gold pieces, we should soon notice only the rattle on the roof. What counts against a man is not so much what he is not as what he does not try to be. Men learn to like even the bitter tonic. Shall we not thep learn to like the dis agreeable duties, which are, after all, so many b itter tonics? Our eyes are set in front rath e r than in the back for several,reasons; but the ob vious one is th a t we be looking forward rath er than backward. Only he is fit to go to the top who can, if need be, go to the bottom.
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