Henry S. Haskins (1875 – 1957)
Stockbroker and man of letters.
There are many branches of learning, but only the one solid tree-trunk of wisdom.
Proud souls in the true sense are never humbled by adversity.
Imitation can acquire pretty much everything but the power which created the thing imitated.
How often our bosom swells and our temples throb to a thought which proves itself not to be worth anything but for the exaltation we feel while the swelling and throbbing are going on, which after all is something.
The things we counterfeit are not worth the trouble of falling into disgrace with ourselves.
Man is liberated from his illusions to make room for a fresh set.
Some talk in quarto volumes and act in pamphlets.
Sedate ignorance is the last stage of deterioration.
The unfortunate who has to travel for amusement lacks capacity for amusement.
Remembrance of hopes that were silly has an especial tenderness, for much of their silliness came from a thoughtless credulity which we would be glad to have back again.
If imagination would disentangle itself from absurdities, soon we should have it harnessed to reason, pulling the same plough.
It is the honest lies we tell—statements factually correct and essentially deceiving—which debauch our manhood and stunt our growth.
It is getting what we started to get, not the thing got, which spells success.
It is only an uncivilized world that would worship civilization.
Some have half-baked ideas because their ideals are not heated up enough.
The tongues of conscience need a conscience of their own to keep them from speaking before they know what they are talking about.
If you obtain provision for yourself of spiritual abundance, don’t throw the surplus at people’s heads; feed it back into your own industry as capital for the production of more abundance.
For a competent audience, uncommon men must have other uncommon men.
Tradition is a prison with majority opinion the modern jailer.
The deadliest contagion is majority opinion.