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.
Since the mass of mankind are too ignorant or too indolent to think seriously, if majorities are right it is by accident.
The noblest are they who turning from the things the vulgar crave, seek the source of a blessed life in worlds to which the senses do not lead.
How is it possible not to strive to know what the awakening minds of the young are eager to learn from us? It is little less than criminal that we should put them off with foolish speech or lies.
Language should be pure, noble and graceful, as the body should be so: for both are vestures of the Soul.
The genius is childlike. Like children he looks into the world as into a new creation and finds there a perennial source of wonder and delight.
Mercenary is whoever thinks less of his work than of the money he receives for doing it; and social conditions which impose tasks that make this inevitable are barbarous.
If thou hast sought happiness and missed it, but hast found wisdom instead, thou art fortunate.
Have as little suspicion as possible and conceal that.
Break not the will of the young, but guide it to right ends.
Agitators and declaimers may heat the blood, but they do not illumine the mind.
Houses and fields in which we lived and played in childhood and youth with those we loved, grow to be part of our being. The sight of them in later years touches us with mystic charm. It is like a vision from beyond the tomb or a memory of a lost Paradise. But little by little their power over us grows less and the light that falls on them becomes more like the common day. Their sacredness diminishes, their beauty fades. The young birds have flown, the old are dead, the leaves and blossoms have fallen and but the empty nest is left among the naked boughs; and looking on the desolation we feel that we have no abiding place on earth, since the home itself loses its consecration.
The weak, when they have authority, surround themselves with the weak. It is, indeed, a vice of rulers that men who have exceptional ability and worth are offensive to them, since they whose greatness is due to their position find it difficult to love those whom inner power makes great.
Beauty lies not in the things we see, but in the soul.
They whom trifles distract and nothing occupies are but children.
Work, mental or manual, is the means whereby attention is compelled, it is the instrument of all knowledge and virtue, the root whence all excellence springs.
The fields and the flowers and the beautiful faces are not ours, as the stars and the hills and the sunlight are not ours, but they give us fresh and happy thoughts.|
If there are but few who interest thee, why shouldst thou be disappointed if but few find thee interesting?
What we think out for ourselves forms channels in which other thoughts will flow.
When guests enter the room their entertainers rise to receive them; and in all meetings men should ascend into their higher selves, imparting to one another only the best they know and love.
If we fail to interest, whether because we are dull and heavy, or because our hearers are so, we teach in vain.