John Lancaster Spalding

Since the mass of mankind are too ignorant or too indolent to think seriously, if majorities are right it is by accident.

We may avoid much disappointment and bitterness of soul by learning to understand how little necessary to our joy and peace are the things the multitude most desire and seek.

If there are but few who interest thee, why shouldst thou be disappointed if but few find thee interesting?

Language should be pure, noble and graceful, as the body should be so: for both are vestures of the Soul.

The first requisite of a gentleman is to be true, brave and noble, and to be therefore a rebuke and scandal to venal and vulgar souls.

If thou wouldst help others deal with them as though they were what they should be

What purifies the heart refines language.

To love the perfection with which we do our work, or the company of those with whom we work, is the secret of learning to love the work itself.

Moral education is the development of individuality, and individuality can not be developed by formulas and mechanical processes: it is the work of the master who brings to his task a genuine and loving interest in the individual.

Work, mental or manual, is the means whereby attention is compelled, it is the instrument of all knowledge and virtue, the root whence all excellence springs.

When pleasure is made a business, it ceases to be pleasure.

Place before thyself the ideal of perfection, not that of happiness, for by doing what makes thee wiser and better, thou shalt find the peace and joy in which happiness consists.

The will—the one thing it is most important to educate—we neglect.

The common man is impelled and controlled by interests; the superior, by ideas.

They who see through the eyes of others are controlled by the will of others.

Solitude is unbearable for those who can not bear themselves.

Rules of grammar can not give us a mastery of language, rules of rhetoric can not make us eloquent, rules of conduct can not make us good.

Let not what thou canst not prevent, though it be the ruin of thy home or country, draw thee from thy proper work.

Education would be a divine thing, if it did nothing more than help us to think and love great thoughts instead of little thoughts.

They who can no longer unlearn have lost the power to learn.

What matter that the man stands for much I cannot love—the moment he touches the realms of truth he enters my world and is my friend.

If thou hast sought happiness and missed it, but hast found wisdom instead, thou art fortunate.

Those subjects have the greatest educational value, which are richest in incentives to the noblest self-activity.

The weak, when they have authority, surround themselves with the weak. It is, indeed, a vice of rulers that men who have exceptional ability and worth are offensive to them, since they whose greatness is due to their position find it …