Arthur Helps Quotes

The envious man desires some good which another possesses; the jealous man would often be content to be without the good so that that other did not possess it.

You must work for yourself; for what you reject may be as important for you to have seen and thought about, as what you adopt.

Even the most careless people have a sort of aversion to signing things which they have never considered.

Our knowledge of human nature is for the most part empirical; and it would often be better, if, instead of endeavouring to say some new things ourselves, we were to confirm without more words the sayings of another.

Do not mistake energy for enthusiasm; the softest speakers are often the most enthusiastic of men.

The most enthusiastic man in a cause is rarely chosen as the leader.

It has always appeared to me that there is so much to be done in this world, that all self-inflicted suffering which cannot be turned to good account for others, is a loss—a loss, if you may so express it, to the spiritual world.

The greatest luxury of riches is that they enable you to escape so much good advice. The rich are always advising the poor; but the poor seldom return the compliment.

Tact is the result of refined sympathy.

Any one who is much talked of, must be much maligned. This seems to be a harsh conclusion; but when you consider how much more given men are to depreciate than to appreciate, you will acknowledge that there is some truth in the saying.

The more truth you can get into any business, the better. Let the other side know the defects of yours, let them know how you are to be satisfied, let there be as little to be found as possible (I should say nothing), and if your business be an honest one, it will be best tended in this way.

How often we should stop in the pursuit of folly, if it were not for the difficulties that continually beckon us onwards.

No man ever praised two persons equally—and pleased them both.

There is nothing so easily made offensive as good reasoning; and men of clear logical minds, if not gifted at the same time with tact, make more enemies than men with bad hearts and unsound understandings.

Love, like the opening of the heavens to the Saints, shows for a moment, even to the dullest man, the possibilities of the human race. He has faith, hope, and charity for another being, perhaps but a creation of his imagination: still it is a great advance for a man to be profoundly loving even in his imagination.