Quotes from Hugh Black

The fear of God kills all other fears.

At the heart of happiness lies peace. It is the last and the highest attainment of the soul.

It is the paradox of life that the way to miss pleasure is to seek it first.

Friendship cannot become permanent unless it becomes spiritual. There must be fellowship in the deepest things of the soul, community in the highest thoughts, sympathy with the best endeavors.

We walk among worlds unrealized until we have learned the secret of love.

Only God can fully satisfy the hungry heart of man.

No friendship has done its work until it reaches the supremest satisfaction of spiritual communion.

The idea, so common in the ancient writers, is not all a poetic conceit, that the soul of a man is only a fragment of a larger whole, and goes out in search of other souls in which it will find its true completion. We walk among worlds unrealized, until we have learned the secret of love. We know this, and in our sincerest moments admit this, even though we are seeking to fill up our lives with other ambitions and other hopes.

We simply cannot get on as a society by purely individualistic methods, jealously guarding our own interests, governed by thought of self and fear of others. Progress, peace, victory--industrially, nationally, religiously, and in every sphere of life--are given to union, not to disunion.

The duty of happiness becomes clearer when we see how it affects others. It is the merry heart that makes the cheerful countenance, and it is the cheerful countenance that spreads cheer to make other hearts merry. The sunny soul brings sunshine everywhere. A bright and happy temperament is a great social asset, adding to the happiness of the world.

At the heart of happiness lies peace. It is the last and the highest attainment of the soul.

The world thinks we idealize our friend, and tells us that love is proverbially blind. Not so: it is only love that sees.

On the whole, however, it is not our own liability to death which oppresses us. The fear of it to a brave man, not to speak of a man of faith, can be overcome. It is the fear of it for others whom we love, which is its sting.

Masters and men do not trust each other; they fear each other, ever thinking that each side is ready to take advantage.

Life is more than meat, and it is also more than theory.

Friendship is not an obsolete sentiment. It is as true now as in Aristotle's time that no one would care to live without friends, though he had all other good things. It is still necessary to our life in its largest sense.

Sorrows come and will come, but faith is not made perfect till they are driven out by the strong hand of joy.

True, this golden friendship is not a common thing to be picked up in the street. It would not be worth much if it were. Like wisdom it must be sought for as for hid treasures, and to keep it demands care and thought.

The divine meaning of a true friendship is that it is often the first unveiling of the secret of love. It is not an end in itself, but has most of its worth in what it leads to, the priceless gift of seeing with the heart rather than with the eyes. To love one soul for its beauty and grace and truth is to open the way to appreciate all beautiful and true and gracious souls, and to recognize spiritual beauty wherever it is seen.

Love is the only permanent relationship among men, and the permanence is not an accident of it, but is of its very essence.

Christ's ideal is the ideal of a Kingdom, men banded together in a common cause, under common laws, serving the same purpose of love.

It is not easy to solve the problem of sorrow. Indeed there is no solution of it, unless the individual soul works out its own solution.

Fear, which blights life and darkens death, is killed by love, as the cloud is dispersed by the sunshine.

Friendship means to be a strong hand in the dark to another in the time of need.