Amos Bronson Alcott Quotations | Page 2

A check on itself, evil subserves the economies of good, as it were a condiment to give relish to good.

Debate is angular, conversation circular and radiant of the underlying unity.

Conversation is an abandonment to ideas, a surrender to persons.

A man defines his standing at the court of chastity by his views of women.

Nor do we accept, as genuine the person not characterized by this blushing bashfulness, this youthfulness of heart, this sensibility to the sentiment of suavity and self-respect. Modesty is bred of self-reverence. Fine manners are the mantle of fair minds. None are truly great without this ornament.

Our favorites are few; since only what rises from the heart reaches it, being caught and carried on the tongues of men wheresoever love and letters journey.

Pleasure, that immortal essence, the beauteous bead sparkling in the cup, effervesces soon and subsides.

Despair snuffs the sun from the firmament.

The history of religions, of which Christianity is a transcendent element, awaits the deepest study. It requires Bibles to free from Bibles. Comparative theology is the best of studies for liberating one's mind from geographical and traditional limitations. Like travelling, it shows the globe in its varying climates and zones, its latitude and longitude of intelligence. When the races shall have learned each other's language, the significance of things to thoughts, one faith becomes universal, one brotherhood.

Every dogma embodies some shade of truth to give it seeming currency.