Quotes from Hugh Blair

Only mediocrity of enjoyment is allowed to man.

Those who are learning to compose and arrange their sentences with accuracy and order are learning, at the same time, to think with accuracy and order.

As the primary end of History is to record truth, impartiality, fidelity and accuracy are the fundamental qualities of an Historian.

Exercise is the chief source of improvement in our faculties.

The great standard of literature as to purity and exactness of style is the Bible.

Gentleness corrects whatever is offensive in our manner.

Fretfulness of temper will generally characterize those who are negligent of order.

Worry not about the possible troubles of the future; for if they come, you are but anticipating and adding to their weight; and if they do not come, your worry is useless; and in either case it is weak and in vain, and a distrust of God's providence

Exercise is the chief source of improvement in our faculties.

Only mediocrity of enjoyment is allowed to man.

People first abandon reason, and then become obstinate; and the deeper they are in error the more angry they are.

Gentleness corrects whatever is offensive in our manner.

Nothing, except what flows from the heart, can render even external manners truly pleasing.

Pride makes us esteem ourselves; vanity makes us desire the esteem of others.

Idleness is the great corrupter of youth, and the bane and dishonor of middle age. He who, in the prime of life, finds time to hang heavy on his hands, may with much reason suspect that he has not consulted the duties which the consideration of his age imposed upon him; assuredly he has not consulted his happiness.

Embellish truth only with a view to gain it the more full and free admission into your hearer's minds; and your ornaments will, in that case, be simple, masculine, natural.

The spirit of true religion breathes gentleness and affability; it gives a native, unaffected ease to the behavior; it is social, kind, cheerful; far removed from the cloudy and illiberal disposition which clouds the brow, sharpens the temper, and dejects the spirit.

True gentleness is founded on a sense of what we owe to him who made us and to the common nature which we all share. It arises from reflection on our own failings and wants, and from just views of the condition and duty of man. It is native feeling heightened and improved by principle.