EDWIN HUBBEL CHAPIN

The downright fanatic is nearer to the heart of things than the cool and slippery disputant.

At the bottom of not a little of the bravery that appears in the world, there lurks a miserable cowardice. Men will face powder and steel because they have not the courage to face public opinion.

This is the essential evil of vice, that it debases man.

A true man never frets about his place in the world, but just slides into it by the gravitation of his nature, and swings there as easily as a star.

Ostentation is the signal flag of hypocrisy.

Gaiety is often the reckless ripple over depths of despair.

Through every rift of discovery some seeming anomaly drops out of the darkness, and falls, as a golden link into the great chain of order.

The essence of justice is mercy.

Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it foregoes revenge and dares to forgive an injury.

Skepticism has never founded empires, established principals, or changed the world's heart. The great doers in history have always been people of faith.

An aged Christian, with the snow of time upon his head, may remind us that those points of earth are whitest which are nearest to heaven.

Pride is the master sin of the devil, and the devil is the father of lies.

The bosom can ache beneath diamond brooches; and many a blithe heart dances under coarse wool.

Poetry is the utterance of deep and heart-felt truth - the true poet is very near the oracle.

Fashion is the science of appearances, and it inspires one with the desire to seem rather than to be.

No more duty can be urged upon those who are entering the great theater of life than simple loyalty to their best convictions.

Bigotry dwarfs the soul by shutting out the truth.

Neutral men are the devil's allies.

Tribulation will not hurt you, unless as it too often does; it hardens you and makes you sour, narrow and skeptical.

The creed of a true saint is to make the best of life, and to make the most of it.

Every action of your life touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.

Profaneness is a brutal vice. He who indulges in it is no gentleman.

Not in achievement, but in endurance, of the human soul, does it show its divine grandeur and its alliance with the infinite.

The conservative may clamor against reform, but he might as well clamor against the centrifugal force. He sighs for the "good old times,"--he might as well wish the oak back into the acorn.

Can you conceive of anything that so represents the glory, and truth, and marvelousness of God's nature as the idea of peace?