s. We are fired with anger against
those who make themselves the spokesmen of plain obligations; for they
seem to insult us as they advise.

*****

We are not all patient Grizzels, by good fortune, but the most of us
human beings with feelings and tempers of our own.

*****

Men, whether lay or clerical, suffer better the flame of the stake
than a daily inconvenience or a pointed sneer, and will not readily be
martyred without some external circumstance and a concourse looking on.

*****

An imperturbable demeanour comes from perfect patience. Quiet minds
cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at
their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.

*****

The ways of men seem always very trivial to us when we find ourselves
alone on a church top, with the blue sky and a few tall pinnacles, and
see far below us the steep roofs and foreshortened buttresses, and the
silent activity of the city streets.

*****

Nevertheless, there is a certain frame of mind to which a cemetery is,
if not an antidote, at least an alleviation. If you are in a fit of the
blues, go nowhere else.

*****

Honour can survive a wound; it can live and thrive without member. The
man rebounds from his disgrace; he begins fresh foundations on the ruins
of the old; and when his sword is broken, he will do valiantly with his
dagger.

*****

It is easy to be virtuous when one's own convenience is not affected;
and it is no shame to any man to follow the advice of an outsider who
owns that, while he sees which is the better part, he might not have the
courage to profit himself by this opinion.

*****

As soon as prudence has begun to grow up in the brain, like a dismal
fungus, it finds its expression in a paralysis of generous acts.

*****

The man who cannot forgive any mortal thing is a green hand in life.

*****

It is a useful accomplishment to be able to say NO, but surely it is the
essence of amiability to prefer to say YES where it is possible. There
is something wanting in the man who does not hate himself whenever he is
constrained to say no. And there was a great deal wanting in this born
dissenter. He was almost shockingly devoid of weaknesses; he had not
enough of them to be truly polar with humanity; whether you call him
demi-god or demi-man, he was at least not altogether one of us, for he
was not touched with a feeling of our infirmities. The world's heroes
have room for al