John Lancaster Spalding Quotes

The disinterested love of truth which culture fosters is akin to the unselfishness which is a characteristic of the good.

Taste, of which the proverb says there should be no dispute, is precisely the subject which needs discussion.

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.

The aim of education is to strengthen and multiply the powers and activities of the mind rather than to increase its possessions.

When we have attained success, we see how inferior it is to the hope, yearning and enthusiasm with which we started forth in life’s morning.

We have lost the old love of work, of work which kept itself company, which was fair weather and music in the heart, which found its reward in the doing, craving neither the flattery of vulgar eyes nor the gold of vulgar men.

The exercise of authority is odious, and they who know how to govern, leave it in abeyance as much as possible.

The pessimist writes over the gates of life what the poet has inscribed on the portals of hell—”Abandon hope, ye who enter here.”

If thou canst not hold the golden mean, say and do too little rather than too much.

If we fail to interest, whether because we are dull and heavy, or because our hearers are so, we teach in vain.

No occupation is more tiresome or depressing than that of killing time. It is the cause of lifeweariness, the punishment the soul inflicts upon itself when reduced to passiveness and servitude.

Inferior thinking and writing will make a name for a man among inferior people, who in all ages and countries, are the majority.

To clothe truth in fitting words is to feel a satisfaction like that which comes of doing good deeds.

When the crowd acclaims its favorites it applauds itself.

The important thing is how we know, not what or how much.