Tryon Edwards Quotations

High aims form high characters, and great objects bring out great minds.

Any act often repeated soon forms a habit; and habit allowed, steady gains in strength, At first it may be but as a spider's web, easily broken through, but if not resisted it soon binds us with chains of steel.

Age does not depend upon years, but upon temperament and health. Some men are born old, and some never grow so.

Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past.

Seek happiness for its own sake, and you will not find it; seek for duty, and happiness will follow as the shadow comes with the sunshine.

One of the great lessons the fall of the leaf teaches, is this: do your work well and then be ready to depart when God shall call.

To rule one's anger is well; to prevent it is better.

Sinful and forbidden pleasures are like poisoned bread; they may satisfy appetite for the moment, but there is death in them at the end.

Every parting is a form of death, as every reunion is a type of heaven.

Compromise is but the sacrifice of one right or good in the hope of retaining another - too often ending in the loss of both.

Facts are God's arguments; we should be careful never to misunderstand or pervert them.

Mystery is but another name for ignorance; if we were omniscient, all would be perfectly plain!

He that never changes his opinion never corrects mistakes and will never be wiser on the morrow than he is today.

The great end of education is to discipline rather than to furnish the mind; to train it to the use of its own powers rather than to fill it with the accumulation of others.

People never improve unless they look to some standard or example higher or better than themselves.

Most controversies would soon be ended, if those engaged in them would first accurately define their terms, and then adhere to their definitions.

Science has sometimes been said to be opposed to faith, and inconsistent with it. But all science, in fact, rests on a basis of faith, for it assumes the permanence and uniformity of natural laws - a thing which can never be demonstrated.

Never be so brief as to become obscure.

To be good, we must do good; and by doing good we take a sure means of being good, as the use and exercise of the muscles increase their power.

To waken interest and kindle enthusiasm is the sure way to teach easily and successfully.

Some men are born old, and some men never seem so. If we keep well and cheerful, we are always young and at last die in youth even when in years would count as old.

We weep over the graves of infants and the little ones taken from us by death; but an early grave may be the shortest way to heaven.

Accuracy of statement is one of the first elements of truth; inaccuracy is a near kin to falsehood.

To rejoice in another's prosperity is to give content to your lot; to mitigate another's grief is to alleviate or dispel your own

We should be as careful of the books we read, as of the company we keep. The dead very often have more power than the living.

Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both.

Credulity is belief in slight evidence, with no evidence, or against evidence.

What we gave, we have; What we spent, we had; What we left, we lost.

Mystery is another name for our ignorance; if we were omniscient, all would be perfectly plain

Whoever in prayer can say, ""Our Father,"" acknowledges and should feel the brotherhood of the whole race of mankind

Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.

Some so speak in exaggerations and superlatives that we need to make a large discount from their statements before we can come at their real meaning

Where duty is plain delay is both foolish and hazardous; where it is not, delay may be both wisdom and safety.

The secret of a good memory is attention, and attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds.

To rule one's anger is well; to prevent it is still better.

Deviation from either truth or duty is a downward path.

Conscience is merely our own judgment of the right or wrong of our actions, and so can never be a safe guide unless enlightened by the word of God.

We never do evil so thoroughly and heartily as when led to it by an honest but perverted, because mistaken, conscience.

Thoroughly to teach another is the best way to learn for yourself.

Some so speak in exaggerations and superlatives that we need to make a large discount from their statements before we can come at their real meaning.

Hell is truth seen too lateduty neglected in its season.

We never reach our ideals, whether of mental or moral improvement, but the thought of them shows us our deficiencies, and spurs us on to higher and better things.

To possess money is very well; it may be a valuable servant; to be possessed by it is to be possessed by the devil, and one of the meanest and worst kind of devils.

He that is possessed with a prejudice is possessed with a devil, and one of the worst kinds of devils, for it shuts out the truth, and often leads to ruinous error.

Contemplation is to knowledge what digestion is to food - the way to get life out of it

There is often as much independence in not being led as in not being driven.

Appreciation, whether of nature, or books, or art, or men, depends very much on temperament. What is beauty or genius or greatness to one, is far from being so to another.

Common sense is, of all kinds, the most uncommon. It implies good judgment, sound discretion, and true and practical wisdom applied to common life.

Apothegms are the wisdom of the past condensed for the instruction and guidance of the present.

To murder character is as truly a crime as to murder the body: the tongue of the slanderer is brother to the dagger of the assassin

The first evil choice or act is linked to the second; and each one to the one that follows, both by the tendency of our evil nature and by the power of habit, which holds us as by a destiny

Sin with the multitude, and your responsibility and guilt are as great and as truly personal, as if you alone had done the wrong

Duty performed gives clearness and firmness to faith, and faith thus strengthened through duty becomes the more assured and satisfying to the soul.

Superstitions are, for the most part, but the shadows of great truths.

Some blame themselves to extort the praise of contradiction from others.

Some persons are exaggerators by temperament. They do not mean untruth, but their feelings are strong, and their imaginations vivid, so that their statements are largely discounted by those of calm judgment and cooler temperament. They do not realize that we always weaken what we exaggerate.

He that resolves upon any great and good end, has, by that very resolution, scaled the chief barrier to it. He will find such resolution removing difficulties, searching out or making means, giving courage for despondency, and strength for weakness, and like the star to the wise men of old, ever guiding him nearer and nearer to perfection.

The most we can get out of life is its discipline for ourselves, and its usefulness for others.

Let your holidays be associated with great public events, and they may be the life of patriotism as well as a source of relaxation and personal employment.

Attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it.

All things are ordered by God, but His providence takes in our free agency, as well as His own sovereignty.

A holy life is not an ascetic, or gloomy or solitary life, but a life regulated by divine truth and faithful in Christian duty. It is living above the world while we are still in it.

Unbelief, in distinction from disbelief, is a confession of ignorance where honest inquiry might easily find the truth. - "Agnostic" is but the Greek for "ignoramus."

My books are my tools, and the greater their variety and perfection the greater the help to my literary work.

Never think that God's delays are God's denials. True prayer always receives what it asks, or something better.

The leaves do not change color from the blighting touch of the frost, but from the process of natural decay. They fall when the fruit has been ripened and their work is done. And their splendid change of coloring is but their graceful and beautiful surrender of life, when they have finished their summer offering of service to God and man.

Ridicule may be the evidence of with or bitterness and may gratify a little mind, or an ungenerous temper, but it is no test of reason or truth.

True art is reverent imitation of God.

Words are both better and worse than thoughts, they express them, and add to them; they give them power for good or evil; they start them on an endless flight, for instruction and comfort and blessing, or for injury and sorrow and ruin.

If rich men would remember that shrouds have no pockets, they would, while living, share their wealth with their children, and give for the good of others, and so know the highest pleasure wealth can give.

Sincerity is not test of truth-no evidence of correctness of conduct. You may take poison sincerely believing it the needed medicine, but will it save your life?

He that is possessed with a prejudice is possessed with a devil.

Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past - the best evidence of regret for them that we can offer, or the world receive.

True religion extends alike to the intellect and the heart. Intellect is in vain if it lead not to emotion, and emotion is vain if not enlightened by intellect; and both are vain if not guided by truth and leading to duty.

Anecdotes are sometimes the best vehicles of truth, and if striking and appropriate are often more impressive and powerful than argument.

Whatever our place allotted to us by Providence that for us is the post of honor and duty. God estimates us, not by the position we are in, but by the way in which we fill it.

Whoever in prayer can say, 'Our Father', acknowledges and should feel the brotherhood of the whole race of mankind.

Anxiety is the poison of human life; the parent of many sins and of more miseries. In a world where everything is doubtful, and where we may be disappointed, and be blessed in disappointment, why this restless stir and commotion of mind? Can it alter the cause, or unravel the mystery of human events?

He that never changes his opinions, never corrects his mistakes, will never be wiser on the morrow than he is today.

Most of our censure of others is only oblique praise of self, uttered to show the wisdom and superiority of the speaker. It has all the invidiousness of self-praise, and all the ill-desert of falsehood.

Have a time and place for everything, and do everything in its time and place, and you will not only accomplish more, but have far more leisure than those who are always hurrying.

Nature hath nothing made so base, but can read some instruction to the wisest man.

Accuracy is the twin brother of honesty; inaccuracy is a near kin to falsehood.

Indolence is the dry rot of even a good mind and a good character; the practical uselessness of both. It is the waste of what might be a happy and useful life.

Anxiety is the rust of life, destroying its brightness and weakening its power. A childlike and abiding trust in Providence is its best preventive and remedy.

The slanderer and the assassin differ only in the weapon they use; with the one it is the dagger, with the other the tongue. The former is worse that the latter, for the last only kills the body, while the other murders the reputation.

Piety and morality are but the same spirit differently manifested. Piety is religion with its face toward God; morality is religion with its face toward the world.

The first step to improvement, whether mental, moral, or religious, is to know ourselves - our weakness, errors, deficiencies, and sins, that, by divine grace, we may overcome and turn from them all.

Happiness is like manna; it is to be gathered in grains, and enjoyed every day. It will not keep; it cannot be accumulated; nor have we got to go out of ourselves or into remote places to gather it, since it has rained down from a Heaven, at our very door.

This world is the land of the dying; the next is the land of the living.

There is nothing so elastic as the human mind. The more we are obliged to do, the more we are able to accomplish.

Preventives of evil are far better than remedies; cheaper and easier of application, and surer in result.

Quiet and sincere sympathy is often the most welcome and efficient consolation to the afflicted. Said a wise man to one in deep sorrow, I did not come to comfort you; God only can do that; but I did come to say how deeply and tenderly I feel for you in your affliction.

He who can suppress a moments anger may prevent a day of sorrow.

Seek for duty, and happiness will follow as the shadow comes with the sunshine.

Always have a book at hand, in the parlor, on the table, for the family; a book of condensed thought and striking anecdote, of sound maxims and truthful apothegms. It will impress on your own mind a thousand valuable suggestions, and teach your children a thousand lessons of truth and duty. Such a book is a casket of jewels for your housebold.

Some of the best lessons we ever learn we learn from our mistakes and failures. The error of the past is the wisdom of the future.

No true civilization can be expected permanently to continue which is not based on the great principles of Christianity.

Prejudices are rarely overcome by argument; not being founded in reason they cannot be destroyed by logic.

Thoughts lead on to purpose, purpose leads on to actions, actions form habits, habits decide character, and character fixes our destiny.