dots-menu
×

Home  »  Dictionary of Quotations  »  Simms

James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.

Simms

Distinction is an eminence that is attained but too frequently at the expense of a fireside.

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 is much more easy to inspire a passion than a faith.

Justice is the whole secret of success in governments; as absolutely essential to the training of an infant as to the control of a mighty nation.

Love is just another name for the inscrutable presence by which the soul is connected with humanity.

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.

Philosophy is reason with the eyes of the soul.

Poetry is the offspring of the rarest beauty, begot by imagination upon thought, and clad by taste and fancy in habiliments of grace.

Revelation may not need the help of reason, but man does, even when in possession of revelation. Reason may be described as the candle in the man’s hand, to which revelation brings the necessary flame.

Stagnation is something more than death, it is corruption also.

Strong passions are the life of manly virtues. But they need not necessarily be evil because they are passions and because they are strong. The passions may be likened to blood horses, that need training and the curb only to enable them whom they carry to achieve the most glorious triumphs.

Tact is one of the first of mental virtues, the absence of which is often fatal to the best talents. It supplies the place of many talents.

The dread of censure is the death of genius.

The only true source of politeness is consideration.

The passions may be likened to blood horses, that need training and the curb only to enable them when they carry to achieve most glorious triumphs.

The true life of man is in society.

We have but to toil awhile, endure awhile, believe always, and never turn back.