Edwin Hubbel Chapin Quotes
Break up the institution of the family, deny the inviolability of its relations, and in a little while there would not be any humanity.
Death makes a beautiful appeal to charity. When we look upon the dead form, so composed and still, the kindness and the love that are in us all come forth.
Setting is preliminary to brighter rising; decay is a process of advancement; death is the condition of higher and more fruitful life.
Whatever touches the nerves of motive, whatever shifts man's moral position, is mightier than steam, or calorie, or lightening.
No one can truly see Christ, and drink in the influence of his character, and not be a Christian at heart.
Hill and valley, seas and constellations, are but stereotypes of divine ideas appealing to and answered by the living soul of man.
Influence is exerted by every human being from the hour of birth to that of death.
The temptation is not here, where you are reading about it or praying about it. It is down in your shop, among bales and boxes, ten-penny nails, and sand-paper.
Under the shadow of earthly disappointment, all unconscious to ourselves, our Divine Redeemer is walking by our side.
There have been men who could play delightful music on one string of the violin, but there never was a man who could produce the harmonies of heaven in his soul by a one-stringed virtue.
It is as bad to clip conscience as to clip coin; it is as bad to give a counterfeit statement as a counterfeit bill.
In the history of man it has been very generally the case that when evils have grown insufferable they have touched the point of cure.
The downright fanatic is nearer to the heart of things than the cool and slippery disputant.
The brightest crowns that are worn in heaven have been tried, and smelted, and polished and glorified through the furnaces of tribulation.
It is the penalty of fame that a man must ever keep rising. "Get a reputation, and then go to bed," is the absurdest of all maxims. "Keep up a reputation or go to bed, "would be nearer the truth.
Revolution does not insure progress. You may overturn thrones, but what proof that anything better will grow upon the soil?
As for environments, the kingliest being ever born in the flesh lay in a manger.
An aged Christian, with the snow of time upon his head, may remind us that those points of earth are whitest which are nearest to heaven.
A great many men - some comparatively small men now - if put in the right position, would be Luthers and Columbuses.
We may learn by practice such things upon earth as shall be of use to us in heaven. Piety, unostentatious piety, is never out of place.
Swift calls discretion low prudence; it is high prudence, and one of the most important elements entering into either social or political life.
Pure felicity is reserved for the heavenly life; it grows not in an earthly soil.
There is less misery in being cheated than in that kind of wisdom which perceives, or thinks it perceives, that all mankind are cheats.
The city reveals the moral ends of being, and sets the awful problem of life. The country soothes us, refreshes us, lifts us up with religious suggestion.
The conservative may clamor against reform, but he might as well clamor against the centrifugal force. He sighs for the "good old times,"--he might as well wish the oak back into the acorn.
Consider and act with reference to the true ends of existence. This world is but the vestibule of an immortal life. Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.
The highest genius never flowers in satire, but culminates in sympathy with that which is best in human nature, and appeals to it.
Is there anything so wretched as to look at a man of fine abilities doing nothing?
We move too much in platoons; we march by sections; we do not live in our vital individuality enough; we are slaves to fashion, in mind and in heart, if not to our passions and appetites.
Not only is music a beautiful and sublime science, the study of which ennobles and purifies the mind of its votary, but how many and excellent are its ministries to others!
I know a good many people, I think, who are bigots, and who know they are bigots, and are sorry for it, but they dare not be anything else.
The loss of fortune to a true man is but the trumpet challenge to renewed exertion, not the thunder stroke of destruction.
In the matter of faith, we have the added weight of hope to that of reason in the convictions which we sustain relating to a future state.
Profaneness is a brutal vice. He who indulges in it is no gentleman, I care not what his stamp may be in society; I care not what clothes he wears, or what culture he boasts.
Whatever may be our condition in life, it is better to lay hold of its advantages than to count its evils.
Each thing lives according to its kind; the heart by love, the intellect by truth, the higher nature of man by intimate communion with God.
Some souls are ennobled and elevated by seeming misfortunes, which then become blessings in disguise.
Seeking Heaven through righteousness is not seeking righteousness, but something else;--it is not loving goodness for goodness' sake, but for its rewards.
There are interests by the sacrifice of which peace is too dearly purchased. One should never be at peace to the shame of his own soul--to the violation of his integrity or of his allegiance to God.