Quotes from George Stillman Hillard

The ruin of most men dates from some idle moment.

Man is an animal that cannot long be left in safety without occupation; the growth of his fallow nature is apt to run into weeds.

Sunsets in themselves are generally superior to sunrises; but with the sunset we appreciate images drawn from departed peace and faded glory.

A statesman makes the occasion, but the occasion makes the politician.

The shadow of human life is traced upon a golden ground of immortal hope.

For my boyhood's friend hath fallen, the pillar of my trust, The true, the wise, the beautiful, is sleeping in the dust.

Great men are among the best gifts which God bestows upon a people.

A sluggish, dawdling, and dilatory man may have spasms of activity, but he never acts continuously and consecutively with energetic quickness.

Artists will sometimes speak of Rome with disparagement or indifference while it is before them; but no artist ewer lived in Rome and then left it, without sighing to return.

Strategy is the most important department of the art of war, and strategical skill is the highest and rarest function of military genius.

Many persons feel art, some understand it; but few both feel and understand it.

Misfortunes have their dignity and their redeeming power.

Nothing is more binding than the friendship of companions-in-arms.