J. A. Froude Quotes
Scepticism, like wisdom, springs out in full panoply only from the brain of a god, and it is little profit to see an idea in its growth, unless we track its seed to the power which sowed it.
The Providence that watches over the affairs of men works out of their mistakes, at times, a healthier issue than could have been accomplished by their wisest forethought.
Woe to the unlucky man who as a child is taught, even as a portion of his creed, what his grown reason must forswear.
We are complex, and therefore, in our natural state, inconsistent, beings, and the opinion of this hour need not be the opinion of the next.
It is ill changing the creed to meet each rising temptation. The soul is truer than it seems, and refuses to be trifled with.
I have long been convinced that the Christian Eucharist is but a continuation of the Eleusinian mysteries. St Paul, in using the word teleiois, almost confirms this.
I cannot think the disputes and jealousies of Heaven are tried and settled by the swords of earth.
Charity is from person to person; and it loses half, far more than half, its moral value when the giver is not brought into personal relation with those to whom he gives.
Nature is less partial than she appears, and all situations in life have their compensations along with them.
What is called virtue in the common sense of the word has nothing to do with this or that man's prosperity, or even happiness.
True greatness is the most ready to recognize and most willing to obey those simple outward laws which have been sanctioned by the experience of mankind.
Our human laws are but the copies, more or less imperfect, of the eternal laws, so far as we can read them.
The secret of a person's nature lies in their religion and what they really believes about the world and their place in it.
The moral of human life is never simple, and the moral of a story which aims only at being true to human life cannot be expected to be any more so.
The first duty of an historian is to be on his guard against his own sympathies...
Those who seek for something more than happiness in this world must not complain if happiness is not their portion.
Life is change, to cease to change is to cease to live; yet if you may shed a tear beside the death-bed of an old friend, let not your heart be silent on the dissolving of a faith.
The best that we can do for one another is to exchange our thoughts freely; and that, after all, is about all.
Men are made by nature unequal. It is vain, therefore, to treat them as if they were equal.
Every one of us ... knows better than he practices, and recognizes a better law than he obeys.
Truth only smells sweet forever, and illusions, however innocent, are deadly as the canker worm.
Men think to mend their condition by a change of circumstances. They might as well hope to escape from their shadows.
I scarcely know a professional man I can like, and certainly not one who has been what the world calls successful, that I should the least wish to resemble.
But the world was also so constructed, owing to the nature of the Maker of it, that superior strength was found in the long run to lie with those who had the right on their side.
I would sooner perish for ever than stoop down before a Being who may have power to crush me, but whom my heart forbids me to reverence.
Man is a real man, and can live and act manfully in this world, not in the strength of opinions, not according to what he thinks, but according to what he is .
Superior strength is found in the long run to lie with those who had right on their side.
Of all the evil spirits abroad at this hour in the world insincerity is the most dangerous.
Philosophy goes no further than probabilities and in every assertion keeps a doubt in reserve.
You cannot dream yourself into a character you must hammer and forge one for yourself.
Men are made by nature unequal. It is vain therefore to treat them as if they were equal.
