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The doctrine of the utter vanity of life is a doctrine of despair, and life is hope.

John Lancaster Spalding

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John Lancaster Spalding
Age: 76 †
Born: 1840
Born: June 2
Died: 1916
Died: August 25
Author
Biographer
Catholic Priest
Lebanon
Kentucky
Doctrine
Despair
Hope
Life
Utter
Vanity

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Worry, whatever its source, weakens, takes away courage, and shortens life.
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They who see through the eyes of others are controlled by the will of others.
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The world is chiefly a mental fact. From mind it receives the forms of time and space, the principle of casuality[sic], color, warmth, and beauty. Were there no mind, there would be no world.
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The able have no desire to appear to be so, and this is part of their ability.
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Each forward step we take we leave some phantom of ourselves behind.
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What we love to do we find time to do.
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It is difficult to be sure of our friends, but it is possible to be certain of our loyalty to them.
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A gentleman does not appear to know more or to be more than those with whom he is thrown into company.
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There are faults which show heart and win hearts, while the virtue in which there is no love, repels.
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The teacher does best, not when he explains, but when he impels his pupils to seek themselves the explanation.
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If there were nothing else to trouble us, the fate of the flowers would make us sad.
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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.
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If there are but few who interest thee, why shouldst thou be disappointed if but few find thee interesting?
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Be watchful lest thou lose the power of desiring and loving what appeals to the soul this is the miser's curse this the chain and ball the sensualist drags.
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To think of education as a means of preserving institutions however excellent, is to have a superficial notion of its end and purpose, which is to mould and fashion men who are more than institutions, who create, outgrow, and re-create them.
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The ploughman knows how many acres he shall upturn from dawn to sunset: but the thinker knows not what a day may bring forth.
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The will the one thing it is most important to educate we neglect.
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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.
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The doubt of an earnest, thoughtful, patient and laborious mind is worthy of respect. In such doubt may be found indeed more faith than in half the creeds.
John Lancaster Spalding
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Dislike of another's opinions and beliefs neither justifies our own nor makes us more certain of them: and to transfer the repugnance to the person himself is a mark of a vulgar mind.
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