Life and Literature

Chapter 104

Where is there a sharper arrow than the sting of unmerited neglect?

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"Tis wisely said To know thyself: equally profitable it is To know thy neighbors!

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Say not unto thy neighbor, Go, and come again, and to-morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.

--_Proverbs 3, 28v._

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_Very Few Live by Choice._--Every man is placed in his present condition by causes which acted without his foresight, and with which he did not always willingly co-operate; and therefore you will rarely meet one who does not think the lot of his neighbor better than his own.

--_Dr. Johnson in Ra.s.selas._

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We ought to do at once and without delay whatever we owe to our neighbors; to make them wait for what is due to them, is the essence of injustice.

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A BIRD"S NEST.

It wins my admiration To view the structure of this little work-- A bird"s nest. Mark it well, within, without; No tool had he that wrought; no knife to cut, No nail to fix, no bodkin to insert, No glue to join; his little beak was all; And yet how neatly finished!--What nice hand, And every implement and means of art, And twenty years" apprenticeship to boot, Could make me such another? Fondly then We boast of excellence, whose n.o.blest skill Instinctive genius foils.

--_Hurdis._

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The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done, is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

--_Ecclesiastes 1, 9v._

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He knocks boldly at the door who brings good news.

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The most ridiculous nicknames are often the most adhesive.

--_Haliburton._

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Coolness and counsel come in the night, and both are of G.o.d.

--_Arab Proverb._

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Quiet night, that brings Rest to the laborer, is the outlaw"s day, In which he rises early to do wrong, And when his work is ended, dares not sleep.

--_P. Ma.s.singer._

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Night is the time for rest; How sweet, when labors close, To gather "round an aching breast The curtain of repose.

Stretch the tir"d limbs and lay the head Down on our own delightful bed!

--_Jas. Montgomery._

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Learn to say No! and it will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin.

--_Spurgeon._

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_Duty._--A wise man who does not a.s.sist with his counsels, a rich man with his charity, and a poor man with his labor, are perfect n.o.bodies in a commonwealth.

--_Swift._

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IMPORTANT.

n.o.body likes to be n.o.body; But everybody is pleased to think himself somebody.

And everybody is somebody: But when anybody thinks himself to be somebody, He generally thinks everybody else to be n.o.body.

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