Hannah More Quotations | Page 2

It is an excellent sign, that after the cares and labors of the day, you can return to your pious exercises and meditations with undiminished attention.

Proportion and propriety are among the best secrets of domestic wisdom; and there is no surer test of integrity than a well-proportioned expenditure.

When we read, we fancy we could be martyrs; when we come to act, we cannot bear a provoking word.

Luxury and dissipation, soft and gentle as their approaches are, and silently as they throw their silken chains about the heart, enslave it more than the most active and turbulent vices

Sow an action, reap a habit.

A slowness to applaud betrays a cold temper or an envious spirit.

Nothing raises the price of a blessing like its removal; whereas it was its continuance which should have taught us its value. There are three requisitions to the proper enjoyment of earthly blessings,--a thankful reflection on the goodness of the Giver, a deep sense of our unworthiness, a recollection of the uncertainty of long possessing them. The first would make us grateful; the second, humble; and the third, moderate.

Rage is for little wrongs; despair is dumb.

Sound economy is a sound understanding brought into action; it is calculation realized; it is the doctrine of proportion reduced to practice; it is foreseeing contingencies, and providing against them.

How short is human life! the very breath Which frames my words accelerates my death.