Quotes from barbauld anna letitia ii

If I were a king, the mischief would be much greater; for I should ruin not only myself, but my subjects.

A Star appears; they marked its kindling beam O'er night's dark breast unusual splendours stream: The lesser lights that deck the sky, In wondering silence softly gliding by, At the fair stranger seemed to gaze, Or veiled their trembling fires and half withdrew their rays.

Those high and lofty notions of morals which you brought with you from the schools must be considerably lowered, and mixed with the baser alloy of a jealous and worldly-minded prudence. You must learn to do hard, if not unjust things; and for the nice embarrassments of a delicate and ingenuous spirit, it is necessary for you to get rid of them as fast as possible. You must shut your heart against the Muses, and be content to feed your understanding with plain, household truths.

We can only love what we know.

Education, in its largest sense, is a thing of great scope and extent. It includes the whole process by which a human being is formed to be what he is, in habits, principles, and cultivation of every kind.

No man is so rich as to buy every thing his unrestrained fancy might prompt him to desire. Hounds and horses, pictures and statues and buildings, will exhaust any fortune. There is hardly any one taste so simple or innocent, but what a man might spend his whole estate in it, if he were resolved to gratify it to the utmost. A nobleman may just as easily ruin himself by extravagance as a private man, and indeed many do so.

Fair Spring! whose simplest promise more delights Than all their largest wealth, and thro' the heart Each joy and new-born hope With softest influence breathes.

Do not expect the mind of your son is to resemble yours, as your figure is reflected by the image in the glass; he was formed, like you, to use his own judgment, and he claims the high privilege of his nature.

Remember that the true pleasures of life consist in the exertion of our own powers. If you were to feast every day upon roasted partridges from off Dresden china, and dip your whiskers in syllabubs and creams, it could never give you such true enjoyment as the commonest food procured by the labor of your own paws.

As most of the unhappiness in the world arises rather from disappointed desires than from positive evil, it is of the utmost consequence to attain just notions of the laws and order of the universe, that we may not vex ourselves with fruitless wishes, or give way to groundless and unreasonable discontent.

Happy is he to whom, in the maturer season of life, there remains one tried and constant friend: their affection, mellowed by the hand of time, endeared by the recollection of enjoyments, toils, and even sufferings shared together, becomes the balm, the consolation, and the treasure of life.

Do you ask, then, what will educate your son? Your example will educate him.

Is there not A tongue in every star that talks with man, And wooes him to be wise?

And oft the starry scope of heaven beneath, When day's tumultuous sounds had ceased to breathe, With fixed feet, as rooted there, Through the long night they drew the chilly air; While sliding o'er their head, In solemn silence dread, The' ethereal orbs their shining course pursued, In holy trance enwrapt the sages stood, With folded arms laid on their reverent breast, And to that Heaven they knew, their orisons addressed.

The fact is, that no man, whatever his system may be, refrains from instilling prejudices into his child in any matter he has much at heart.

Are children then to be neglected? Surely not: but having given them the instruction and accomplishments which their situation in life requires, let us reject superfluous solicitude, and trust that their characters will form themselves from the spontaneous influence of good examples, and circumstances which impel them to useful action.

You speak of beginning the education of your son. The moment he was able to form an idea his education was already begun; the education of circumstances — insensible education—which, like insensible perspiration, is of more constant and powerful effect, and of infinitely more consequence to the habit, than that which is direct and apparent.