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There are who mistake the spirit of pugnacity for the spirit of piety, and thus harbor a devil instead of an angel.
John Lancaster Spalding
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John Lancaster Spalding
Age: 76 †
Born: 1840
Born: June 2
Died: 1916
Died: August 25
Author
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Catholic Priest
Lebanon
Kentucky
Mistake
Spirit
Harbor
Harbors
Piety
Thus
Angel
Devil
Instead
More quotes by John Lancaster Spalding
If thy friends tire of thee, remember that it is human to tire of everything.
John Lancaster Spalding
It is difficult to be sure of our friends, but it is possible to be certain of our loyalty to them.
John Lancaster Spalding
The highest strength is acquired not in overcoming the world, but in overcoming one's self. Learn to be cruel to thyself, to withstand thy appetites, to bear thy sufferings, and thou shalt become free and able.
John Lancaster Spalding
The first requisite of a gentleman is to be true, brave and noble, and to be therefore a rebuke and scandal to venal and vulgar souls.
John Lancaster Spalding
We are not masters of the truth which is borne in upon us: it overpowers us.
John Lancaster Spalding
The innocence which is simply ignorance is not virtue.
John Lancaster Spalding
Nothing requires so little mental effort as to narrate or follow a story. Hence everybody tells stories and the readers of stories outnumber all others.
John Lancaster Spalding
What we enjoy, not what we possess, is ours, and in labouring for the possession of many things, we lose the power to enjoy the best.
John Lancaster Spalding
To cultivate the memory we should confide to it only what we understand and love: the rest is a useless burden for simply to know by rote is not to know at all.
John Lancaster Spalding
To secure approval one must remain within the bounds of conventional mediocrity. Whatever lies beyond, whether it be greater insight and virtue, or greater stolidity and vice, is condemned. The noblest men, like the worst criminals, have been done to death.
John Lancaster Spalding
If we attempt to sink the soul in matter, its light is quenched.
John Lancaster Spalding
As we can not love what is hateful, let us accustom ourselves neither to think nor to speak of disagreeable things and persons.
John Lancaster Spalding
Inferior thinking and writing will make a name for a man among inferior people, who in all ages and countries, are the majority.
John Lancaster Spalding
Language should be pure, noble and graceful, as the body should be so: for both are vestures of the Soul.
John Lancaster Spalding
In giving us dominion over the animal kingdom God has signified His will that we subdue the beast within ourselves.
John Lancaster Spalding
Education would be a divine thing, if it did nothing more than help us to think and love great thoughts instead of little thoughts.
John Lancaster Spalding
In the world of thought a man's rank is determined, not by his average work, but by his highest achievement.
John Lancaster Spalding
The ploughman knows how many acres he shall upturn from dawn to sunset: but the thinker knows not what a day may bring forth.
John Lancaster Spalding
The exercise of authority is odious, and they who know how to govern, leave it in abeyance as much as possible.
John Lancaster Spalding
Each forward step we take we leave some phantom of ourselves behind.
John Lancaster Spalding
