Quotes from James Ellis

A knowledge of general literature is one of the evidences of an enlightened mind; and to give an apt quotation at a fitting time, proves that the mind is stored with sentential lore that can always be used to great advantage by its possessor.

Books are the beehives of thought; laconics, the honey taken from them.

A defeat to a brave man is only a victory deferred.

An inherent sense of man makes him long for an eternal paradise.

Angels worship God with purity and love; men, with fear and trembling.

To the lazy man the world appears bereft of all blessings; if poor, he has no friends; if rich, he has no ambition; he aims at nothing, and generally hits his mark.

Twilight is like death; the dark portal of night comes upon us, to open again in the glorious morning of immortality.

The rustling of the leaves is like a low hymn to nature.

Among all the accomplishments of life none are so important as refinement; it is not, like beauty, a gift of Nature, and can only be acquired by cultivation and practice.

We can all be heroes in our virtues, in our homes, in our lives.

Style in painting is the same as in writing,-a power over materials, whether words or colors.

There is no heart without remorse, no life without some misfortune, no one but what is something stained with sin.

Let us lend cheerfully, for the time is pretty sure to come when we will wish to borrow.

Newspapers are the world's mirrors.

Better an ugly face than an ugly mind.

Our own actions are the accidents of fortune that we sometimes place to the credit of luck or misfortune.

The lazy man aims at nothing, and generally hits it.

Our leisure is the time the Devil seizes upon to make us work for him; and the only way we can avoid conscription into his ranks is to keep all our leisure moments profitably employed.

It is a sure sign of a mind not balanced as it ought to be, when it is insensible to the pleasures of the domestic hearth, and to the little joys and endearments of a family.

Regrets over the past should chasten the future.