Quote

We are not masters of the truth which is borne in upon us: it overpowers us.

John Lancaster Spalding

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

John Lancaster Spalding
Age: 76 †
Born: 1840
Born: June 2
Died: 1916
Died: August 25
Author
Biographer
Catholic Priest
Lebanon
Kentucky
Overpowers
Borne
Masters
Upon
Truth

More quotes by John Lancaster Spalding

Image
If there were nothing else to trouble us, the fate of the flowers would make us sad.
John Lancaster Spalding
Image
Thy money, thy office, thy reputation are nothing put away these phantom clothings, and stand like an athlete stripped for the battle.
John Lancaster Spalding
Image
A liberal education is that which aims to develop faculty without ulterior views of profession or other means of gaining a livelihood. It considers man an end in himself and not an instrument whereby something is to be wrought. Its ideal is human perfection.
John Lancaster Spalding
Image
We shrink from the contemplation of our dead bodies, forgetting that when dead they are no longer ours, and concern us as little as the hairs that have fallen from our heads.
John Lancaster Spalding
Image
The highest courage is to dare to appear to be what one is
John Lancaster Spalding
Image
Our prejudices are like physical infirmities — we cannot do what they prevent us from doing.
John Lancaster Spalding
Image
They who can no longer unlearn have lost the power to learn.
John Lancaster Spalding
Image
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
Image
The important thing is how we know, not what or how much.
John Lancaster Spalding
Image
We have no sympathy with those who are controlled by ideas and passions which we neither understand nor feel. Thus they who live to satisfy the appetites do not believe it possible to live in and for the soul.
John Lancaster Spalding
Image
Language should be pure, noble and graceful, as the body should be so: for both are vestures of the Soul.
John Lancaster Spalding
Image
If science were nothing more than the best means of teaching the love of the simple fact, the indispensable need of verification, of careful and accurate observation and statement, its value would be of the highest order.
John Lancaster Spalding
Image
Those who believe in our ability do more than stimulate us. They create for us an atmosphere in which it becomes easier to succeed.
John Lancaster Spalding
Image
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
Image
The exercise of authority is odious, and they who know how to govern, leave it in abeyance as much as possible.
John Lancaster Spalding
Image
It is the expensiveness of our pleasures that makes the world poor and keeps us poor in ourselves. If we could but learn to find enjoyment in the things of the mind, the economic problems would solve themselves.
John Lancaster Spalding
Image
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
Image
The writers who accomplish most are those who compel thought on the highest and most profoundly interesting subjects.
John Lancaster Spalding
Image
What we love to do we find time to do.
John Lancaster Spalding
Image
Though what we accept be true, it is a prejudice unless we ourselves have considered and understood why and how it is true.
John Lancaster Spalding