William Gilmore Simms Quotes

The birth of a child is the imprisonment of a soul. The soul must work its way out of prison, and, in doing so, provide itself with wings for a future journey. It is for each of us to determine whether our wings shall be those of an angel or a grub!

The only rational liberty is that which is born of subjection, reared in the fear of God and the love of man.

Solitude bears the same relation to the mind that sleep does to the body. It affords it the necessary opportunities for repose and recovery.

Our true acquisitions lie only in our charities. We gain only as we give.

No doubt solitude is wholesome, but so is abstinence after a surfeit. The true life of man is in society.

The effect of character is always to command consideration. We sport and toy and laugh with men or women who have none, but we never confide in them.

Neither praise nor blame is the object of true criticism. Justly to discriminate, firmly to establish, wisely to prescribe and honestly to award — these are the true aims and duties of criticism.

The only true source of politeness is consideration.

Our cares are the mothers, not only of our charities and virtues, but of our best joys and most cheering and enduring pleasures.

But for that blindness which is inseparable from malice, what terrible powers of evil would it possess! Fortunately for the world, its venom, like that of the rattlesnake, when most poisonous, clouds the eye of the reptile, and defeats its aim.

... the proverb answers where the sermon fails, as a well-charged pistol will do more execution than a whole barrel of gunpowder idly expended in the air.

Vanity may be likened to the smooth-skinned and velvet-footed mouse, nibbling about for ever in expectation of a crumb; while Self-Esteem is too apt to take the likeness of the huge butcher's dog, who carries off your steaks, and growls at you as he goes.

To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary. They must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain.

He who would acquire fame must not show himself afraid of censure. The dread of censure is the death of genius.

Better that we should err in action than wholly refuse to perform. The storm is so much better than the calm, as it declares the presence of a living principle. Stagnation is something worse than death. It is corruption, also.