John Lancaster Spalding Quotes

Catholic bishop

John Lancaster Spalding (June 2, 1840 – August 25, 1916) was the first bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria from 1877 to 1908, a notable scholarly writer of the time and, a co-founder of The Catholic University of America.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The smaller the company, the larger the conversation.

The seeking for truth is better than its loveless possession.

If ancient descent could confer nobility, the lower forms of life would possess it in a greater degree than man.

What is greatly desired, but long deferred, gives little pleasure, when at length it is ours, for we have lived with it in imagination until we have grown weary of it, having ourselves, in the meanwhile, become other.

The lover of education labors first of all to educate himself.

The common prejudice against philosophy is the result of the incapacity of the multitude to deal with the highest problems.

Dislike of another’s opinions and beliefs neither justifies our own nor makes us more certain of them: and to transfer the repugnance to the person himself is a mark of a vulgar mind.

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

The mind perceives … that it is higher than institutions, which are but the woof and web of its thought and will, which it weaves and outgrows, and weaves again.

States of soul rightly expressed, as the poet expresses them in moments of pure inspiration, retain forever the power of creating like states. It is this that makes genuine literature a vital force.

The power of free will is developed and confirmed by increasing the number of worthy motives which influence conduct.

Philosophers and theologians, like the vulgar, prefer contradiction to enlightenment. They refute one another more gladly than they learn from one another, as though man lived by shunning error and not by loving truth. Accept their formulas and they sink back into their easy chairs and comfortably doze.

When we know and love the best we are content to lack the approval of the many.

To how much lying, extravagance, hypocrisy and servilism does not the fear of ridicule lead? Human respect makes us cowards and slaves. It may deter from evil, but much oftener it drives to baseness. “We are too much afraid,” said Cato, “of death, exile and poverty.”

Altruism is a barbarism. Love is the word.