William Gilmore Simms Quotes
He who would acquire fame must not show himself afraid of censure. The dread of censure is the death of genius.
Genius is the very eye of intellect and the wing of thought; it is always in advance of its time, and is the pioneer for the generation which it precedes.
It should console us for the fact that sin has not totally disappeared from the world, that the saints are not wholly deprived of employment.
I believe that economists put decimal points in their forecasts to show they have a sense of humor.
It is a bird-flight of the soul, when the heart declares itself in song. The affections that clothe themselves with wings are passions that have been subdued to virtues.
The true law of the race is progress and development. Whenever civilization pauses in the march of conquest, it is overthrown by the barbarian.
No errors of opinion can possibly be dangerous in a country where opinion is left free to grapple with them.
The effect of character is always to command consideration. We sport and toy and laugh with men or women who have none, but we never confide in them.
The only rational liberty is that which is born of subjection, reared in the fear of God and the love of man.
Solitude bears the same relation to the mind that sleep does to the body. It affords it the necessary opportunities for repose and recovery.
Tears are the natural penalties of pleasure. It is a law that we should pay for all that we enjoy.
The fool is willing to pay for anything but wisdom. No man buys that of which he supposes himself to have an abundance already.
Most men remember obligations, but not often to be grateful; the proud are made sour by the remembrance and the vain silent.
There is a native baseness in the ambition which seeks beyond its desert, that never shows more conspicuously than when, no matter how, it temporarily gains its object.
Our cares are the mothers, not only of our charities And virtues, but of our best joys and most cheering and enduring pleasures.
No doubt solitude is wholesome, but so is abstinence after a surfeit. The true life of man is in society.
Our possessions are wholly in our performances. He owns nothing to whom the world owes nothing.
Neither praise nor blame is the object of true criticism. Justly to discriminate, firmly to establish, wisely to prescribe and honestly to award - these are the true aims and duties of criticism.
Vanity is so constantly solicitous of self, that even where its own claims are not interested, it indirectly seeks the aliment which it loves, by showing how little is deserved by others.
Distinction is an eminence that is attained but too frequently at the expense of a fireside.
Not in sorrow freely is never to open the bosom to the sweets of the sunshine.
There is no doubt such a thing as chance, but I see no reason why Providence should not make use of it.
We must calculate not on the weather, nor on fortune, but upon God and ourselves. He may fail us in the gratification of our wishes, but never in the encounter with our exigencies.
To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary. They must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain.
Have I done anything for society? I have then done more for myself. Let that question and truth be always present to thy mind, and work without cessation.
