Many Thoughts of Many Minds | Page 6

the field, at dinner-time, and they think themselves lucky
to get the dinner.--LONGFELLOW.
It is a doubt whether mankind are most indebted to those who, like
Bacon and Butler, dig the gold from the mine of literature, or to those
who, like Paley, purify it, stamp it, fix its real value, and give it
currency and utility.--COLTON.
Twenty to one offend more in writing too much than too
little.--ROGER ASCHAM.
He who proposes to be an author should first be a student.--DRYDEN.
Nothing is so beneficial to a young author as the advice of a man whose
judgment stands constitutionally at the freezing-point.--DOUGLAS
JERROLD.
No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self-deceit
is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the
mind.--CERVANTES.
There are three difficulties in authorship--to write anything worth the
publishing, to find honest men to publish it, and to get sensible men to
read it.--COLTON.
An author! 'Tis a venerable name! How few deserve it, and what
numbers claim! Unblest with sense above their peers refin'd, Who shall
stand up, dictators to mankind? Nay, who dare shine, if not in virtue's
cause? That sole proprietor of just applause. --YOUNG.
Never write on a subject without having first read yourself full on it;
and never read on a subject till you have thought yourself hungry on
it.--RICHTER.
How many great ones may remember'd be, Which in their days most

famously did flourish, Of whom no word we hear, nor sign now see,
But as things wip'd out with a sponge do perish, Because the living
cared not to cherish No gentle wits, through pride or covetize, Which
might their names for ever memorize! --SPENSER.
The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things
familiar, and familiar things new.--THACKERAY.
To write well is to think well, to feel well, and to render well; it is to
possess at once intellect, soul and taste.--BUFFON.
Young authors give their brains much exercise and little
food.--JOUBERT.
AVARICE.--It is surely very narrow policy that supposes money to be
the chief good.--JOHNSON.
Poverty is in want of much, but avarice of everything.--PUBLIUS
SYRUS.
There are two considerations which always imbitter the heart of an
avaricious man--the one is a perpetual thirst after more riches, the other
the prospect of leaving what he has already acquired.--FIELDING.
O cursed lust of gold: when for thy sake The fool throws up his interest
in both worlds, First starved in this, then damn'd in that to come.
--BLAIR.
Many have been ruined by their fortunes; many have escaped ruin by
the want of fortune. To obtain it, the great have become little, and the
little great.--ZIMMERMANN.
Avarice is the vice of declining years.--GEORGE BANCROFT.
Riches, like insects, when conceal'd they lie, Wait but for wings, and in
their season fly. Who sees pale Mammon pine amidst his store, Sees
but a backward steward for the poor; This year a reservoir, to keep and
spare; The next a fountain, spouting thro' his heir In lavish streams to

quench a country's thirst, And men and dogs shall drink him till they
burst. --POPE.
The love of money is the root of all evil.--1 TIMOTHY 6:10.
The avaricious man is like the barren, sandy ground of the desert,
which sucks in all the rain and dews with greediness, but yields no
fruitful herbs or plants for the benefit of others.--ZENO.
Avarice in old age, is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to
increase our provisions for the road, the nearer we approach to our
journey's end?--CICERO.
Poverty wants some, luxury many, and avarice all things.--COWLEY.
BASHFULNESS.--Modesty is the graceful, calm virtue of maturity;
bashfulness the charm of vivacious youth.--MARY
WOLLSTONECRAFT.
As those that pull down private houses adjoining to the temples of the
gods, prop up such parts as are contiguous to them; so, in undermining
bashfulness, due regard is to be had to adjacent modesty, good-nature
and humanity.--PLUTARCH.
Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.
--ARISTOTLE.
Women who are the least bashful are not unfrequently the most modest;
and we are never more deceived than when we would infer any laxity
of principle from that freedom of demeanor which often arises from a
total ignorance of vice.--COLTON.
BEAUTY.--It is beauty that begins to please, and tenderness that
completes the charm.--FONTENELLE.
Keats spoke for all time when he said, "A thing of beauty is a joy
forever."--THACKERAY.
Beauty is an outward gift which is seldom despised except by those to

whom it has been refused.--GIBBON.
What is beauty? Not the show Of shapely limbs and features. No.
These are but flowers That have their dated hours To breathe their
momentary sweets, then go. 'Tis the stainless soul within That
outshines the fairest skin. --SIR A. HUNT.
I pray