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| S. Austin Allibone, comp. Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay. 1880. |
| William Law |
| The obedience of men is to imitate the obedience of angels, and rational beings on earth are to live unto God, as rational beings in heaven live unto him. William Law. | 1 |
| Money we either lock up in chests, or waste it in needless and ridiculous expenses upon ourselves, whilst the poor and the distressed want it for necessary uses. William Law. | 2 |
| He that rightly understands the reasonableness and excellency of charity will know that it can never be excusable to waste any of our money in pride and folly. William Law. | 3 |
| There is nothing noble in a clergyman but burning zeal for the salvation of souls; nor anything poor in his profession but idleness and worldly spirit. William Law. | 4 |
| Feasts, and business, and pleasures, and enjoyments, seem great things to us, whilst we think of nothing else; but as soon as we add death to them they all sink into an equal littleness. William Law. | 5 |
| The eyes of our souls only then begin to see when our bodily eyes are closing. William Law. | 6 |
| What a strange thing is it, that a little health, or the poor business of a shop, should keep us so senseless of these great things that are coming so fast upon us! William Law. | 7 |
| Think upon the vanity and shortness of human life, and let death and eternity be often in your minds. William Law. | 8 |
| Take away this measure from our dress and habits, and all is turned into such paint, and glitter, and ridiculous ornaments, as are a real shame to the wearer. William Law. | 9 |
| If it is our glory and happiness to have a rational nature, that is endued with wisdom and reason, that is capable of imitating the divine nature, then it must be our glory and happiness to improve our reason and wisdom, to act up to the excellency of our rational nature, and to imitate God in all our actions, to the utmost of our power. William Law. | 10 |
| Next to reading, meditation, and prayer, there is nothing that so secures our hearts from foolish passions, nothing that preserves so holy and wise a frame of mind, as some useful, humble employment of ourselves. William Law. | 11 |
| If there be nothing so glorious as doing good, if there is nothing that makes us so like God, then nothing can be so glorious in the use of our money as to use it all in works of love and goodness. William Law. | 12 |
| This useful, charitable, humble employment of yourselves is what I recommend to you with greatest earnestness, as being a substantial part of a wise and pious life. William Law. | 13 |
| Through the want of a sincere intention of pleasing God in all our actions, we fall into such irregularities of life as, by the ordinary means of grace, we should have power to avoid. William Law. | 14 |
| Whatever raises a levity of mind, a trifling spirit, renders the soul incapable of seeing, apprehending, and relishing the doctrines of piety. William Law. | 15 |
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| A rule that relates even to the smallest part of our life is of great benefit to us, merely as it is a rule. William Law. | 16 |
| I desire nothing, I press nothing upon you, but to make the most of human life, and to aspire after perfection in whatever state of life you choose. William Law. | 17 |
| Learn to live for your own sake and the service of God; and let nothing in the world be of any value with you but that which you can turn into a service to God, and a means of your future happiness. William Law. | 18 |
| Unreasonable and absurd ways of life, whether in labour or diversion, whether they consume our time or our money, are like unreasonable and absurd prayers, and are as truly an offence to God. William Law. | 19 |
| It is not his intent to live in such ways as, for aught we know, God may perhaps pardon, but to be diligent in such ways as we know that God will infallibly reward. William Law. | 20 |
| Perhaps it may he found more easy to forget the language than to part entirely with those tempers which we learnt in misery. William Law. | 21 |
| As the health and strength or weakness of our bodies is very much owing to their methods of treating us when we were young, so the soundness or folly of our minds is not less owing to those first tempers and ways of thinking which we eagerly received from the love, tenderness, authority, and constant conversation of our mothers. William Law. | 22 |
| If parents should be daily calling upon God in a solemn deliberate manner, altering and extending their intercessions as the state and growth of their children required, such devotion would have a mighty influence upon the rest of their lives. William Law. | 23 |
| Pray for others in such forms, with such length, importunity, and earnestness, as you use for yourself; and you will find all little, ill-natured passions die away, your heart grow great and generous, delighting in the common happiness of others, as you used only to delight in your own. William Law. | 24 |
| Personal pride and affectation, a delight in beauty, and fondness of finery, are tempers that must either kill all religion in the soul, or be themselves killed by it: they can no more thrive together than health and sickness. William Law. | 25 |
| Calidus contents himself with thinking that he never was a friend to heretics and infidels; that he has always been civil to the minister of his parish, and very often given something to the charity-schools. William Law. | 26 |
| When a right knowledge of ourselves enters into our minds, it makes as great a change in all our thoughts and apprehensions as when we awake from the wanderings of a dream. William Law. | 27 |
| You are to honour, improve, and perfect the spirit that is within you: you are to prepare it for the kingdom of heaven, to nourish it with the love of God and of virtue, to adorn it with good works, and to make it as holy and heavenly as you can. William Law. | 28 |
| Whatever littleness and vanity is to be observed in the minds of women, it is, like the cruelty of butchers, a temper that is wrought into them by that life which they are taught and accustomed to lead. William Law. | 29 |
| Being thus saved himself, he may be zealous in the salvation of souls. William Law. | 30 |
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