Noble Quotes - Page 19

• To argue over who is the more noble is nothing more than to dispute whether dirt is better for making bricks or for making mortar.

  Teresa of Avila

  Dirt, Bricks, Arguing

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• Though plunged in ills and exercised in care,
  Yet never let the noble mind despair.

  Wendell Phillips

  Mind, Despair, Care

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• Genius! thou gift of Heav'n! thou Light divine!
  Amid what dangers art thou doom'd to shine!
  Oft will the body's weakness check thy force,
  Oft damp thy Vigour, and impede thy course;
  And trembling nerves compel thee to restrain
  Thy noble efforts, to contend with pain;
  Or Want (sad guest!) will in thy presence come,
  And breathe around her melancholy gloom:
  To Life's low cares will thy proud thought confine,
  And make her sufferings, her impatience, thine.

  George Crabbe

  Art, Pain, Light

  George Crabbe (1812). “Tales”, p.191

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• Fortunes are made, if I the facts may state--
  Though poor myself, I know the fortunate:
  First, there's a knowledge of the way from whence
  Good fortune comes--and this is sterling sense:
  Then perseverance, never to decline
  The chase of riches till the prey is thine;
  And firmness never to be drawn away
  By any passion from that noble prey--
  By love, ambition, study, travel, fame,
  Or the vain hope that lives upon a name.

  George Crabbe

  Perseverance, Ambition, Passion

  George Crabbe (1839). “The Poetical Works of Crabbe, Heber, and Pollok: Complete in One Volume”, p.364

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• In the first seat, in robe of various dyes,
  A noble wildness flashing from his eyes,
  Sat Shakespeare: in one hand a wand he bore,
  For mighty wonders fam'd in days of yore:
  The other held a globe, which to his will
  Obedient turn'd, and own'd the master's skill:
  Things of the noblest kind his genius drew,
  And look'd through nature at a single view:
  A loose he gave to his unbounded soul,
  And taught new lands to rise, new seas to roll;
  Call'd into being scenes unknown before,
  And passing nature's bounds, was something more.

  Charles Churchill

  Eye, Views, Hands

  Charles Churchill (1764). “Poems”, p.12

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• To be an object of hatred and aversion to their contemporaries has been the usual fate of all those whose merit has raised them above the common level. The man who submits to the shafts of envy for the sake of noble objects pursues a judicious course for his own lasting fame. Hatred dies with its object, while merit soon breaks forth in full splendor, and his glory is handed down to posterity in never-dying strains.

  Thucydides

  Fate, Men, Envy

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• Beware of sentimental alliances where the consciousness of good deeds is the only compensation for noble sacrifices.

  Otto von Bismarck

  Sacrifice, Alliances, Deeds

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• If antiquity be the only test of nobility, then cheese is a very noble thing ... The lineage of cheese is demonstrably beyond all record.

  Hilaire Belloc

  Food, Cooking, Records

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• Servility is disgusting to a truly noble character, and engenders only contempt.

  Hosea Ballou

  Character, Disgusting, Contempt

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• Man was mark'd
  A friend in his creation to himself,
  And may, with fit ambition, conceive
  The greatest blessings, and the highest honors
  Appointed for him, if he can achieve them
  The right and noble way.

  Philip Massinger

  Ambition, Men, Blessing

  Philip Massinger, John Ford (1859). “The Dramatic Works of Massinger and Ford”, p.356

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• The proper work of man, the grand drift of human life, is to follow reason, that noble spark kindled in us from heaven.

  Isaac Barrow

  Men, Heaven, Sparks

  Isaac Barrow (1830). “The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow”, p.369

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• Whoever becomes imbued with a noble idea kindles a flame from which other torches are lit, and influences those with whom he comes in contact, be they few or many. How far that influence, thus perpetuated, may extend, it is not given to him here to see.

  Henry George

  Flames, Ideas, Torches

  Henry George, William Saunders, Francis George Shaw (1900). “Social problems”

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• The slightest emotion of disinterested kindness that passes through the mind improves and refreshes that mind, producing generous thought and noble feeling, as the sun and rain foster your favourite flowers. Cherish kind wishes, my children; for a time may come when you may be enabled to put them in practice.

  Mary Russell Mitford

  Kindness, Children, Rain

  Mary Russell Mitford (1870). “Our Village: Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery”, p.439

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• Noble acts and momentous events happen in the same way and produce the same impression as the ordinary facts.

  Roberto Rossellini

  Events, Ordinary, Way

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• This noble word [women], spirit-stirring as it passes over English ears, is in America banished, and 'ladies' and 'females' substituted: the one to English taste mawkish and vulgar; the other indistinctive and gross.

  Harriet Martineau

  America, Female, Ears

  Harriet Martineau (1837). “Society in America”, p.145

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• The Devil ... is much better served by exploiting our virtues than by appealing to our lower passions; consequently, it is when the Devil looks most noble and reasonable that he is most dangerous.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Passion, Devil, Looks

  Dorothy L. Sayers (2006). “The Poetry of Search and the Poetry of Statement: On Dante and Other Writers”, p.231, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• If the mind loves solitude, it has thereby acquired a loftier character, and it becomes still more noble when the taste is indulged in.

  Wilhelm von Humboldt

  Character, Mind Love, Solitude

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• A politician is forced to make a habit of noble phrases and optimistic lies. In the end they infect himself.

  Storm Jameson

  Lying, Optimistic, Phrases

  Storm Jameson (1966). “The Early Life of Stephen Hind”

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• Labor! all labor is noble and holy!
  Let thy great deeds be thy prayer to thy God.

  Frances Sargent Osgood

  Prayer, Deeds, Holy

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• There is nothing so clear-sighted and sensible as a noble mind in a low estate.

  Jane Porter

  Humility, Mind, Lows

  Sir Philip Sidney, Jane Porter (1807). “Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks”, p.108

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• We can always find noble reasons for what we want to do.

  Mary Heaton Vorse

  Want, Reason

  Mary Heaton Vorse, Dee Garrison (1985). “Rebel pen: the writings of Mary Heaton Vorse”, Monthly Review Pr

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• You are so to put forth the power that God has given you; you are so to give, and sacrifice to give, as to earn the eulogium pronounced on the woman, "She hath done what she could." Do it now. It is not a safe thing to leave a generous feeling to the cooling influences of a cold world. If you intend to do a mean thing, wait till tomorrow; if you are to do a noble thing, do it now,--now!

  Thomas Guthrie

  Mean, Sacrifice, Giving

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• Be a Gardener. Dig a ditch. Toil and sweat. And turn the earth upside down. And seek the deepness. And water plants in time. Continue this labor. And make sweet floods to run, and noble and abundant fruits to spring. Take this food and drink, and carry it to God as your true worship.

  Julian of Norwich

  Running, Sweet, Spring

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• In the Negro melodies of America I find all that is needed for a great and noble school of music.

  Antonin Dvorak

  Music, School, America

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• Noble bold is an accident of fortune; noble actions characterize the great.
  [It., Il sangue nobile e un accidente della fortuna; le azioni nobili caratterizzano il grande.]

  Carlo Goldoni

  Bold Actions, Fortune, Fortuna

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