John Lancaster Spalding (1840 – 1916)
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.
It is not worth while to consider whether a truth be useful—it is enough that it is a truth.
What purifies the heart refines language.
To view an object in the proper light we must stand away from it. The study of the classical literatures gives the aloofness which cultivates insight. In learning to live with peoples and civilizations that have long ceased to be alive, we gain a vantage point, acquire an enlargement and elevation of thought, which enable us to study with a more impartial and liberal mind the condition of the society around us.
The more we live with what we imagine others think of us, the less we live with truth.
The teacher does best, not when he explains, but when he impels his pupils to seek themselves the explanation.
A great man, who lives intimately with his admirers, with difficulty escapes being made ridiculous.
Each one fashions and bears his world with him, and that unless he himself become wise, strong and loving, no change in his circumstances can make him rich or free or happy.
If we learn from those only, of whose lives and opinions we altogether approve, we shall have to turn from many of the highest and profoundest minds.
We are not masters of the truth which is borne in upon us: it overpowers us.
Exercise of body and exercise of mind are supplementary, and both may be made recreative and educative.
He who leaves school, knowing little, but with a longing for knowledge, will go farther than one who quits, knowing many things, but not caring to learn more.
Great deeds and utterances are now so diluted with printer’s ink that we can no longer find a sage or saint. Our worthiest men are exhibited and bewritten until they are made as uninteresting as clowns.
Be watchful lest thou lose the power of desiring and loving what appeals to the soul—this is the miser’s curse—this the chain and ball the sensualist drags.
Love finds us young and keeps us so: immortal himself, he permits not age to enter the hearts where he reigns.
To think profoundly, to seek and speak truth, to love justice and denounce wrong is to draw upon one’s self the ill will of many.
The exercise of authority is odious, and they who know how to govern, leave it in abeyance as much as possible.
To clothe truth in fitting words is to feel a satisfaction like that which comes of doing good deeds.
Unless we consent to lack the common things which men call success, we shall hardly become heroes or saints, philosophers or poets.
It is a large part of learning to know what one wants, and where it may be found in its most authentic form.
The best book is but the record of the best life.