It many times falls out, that we deem ourselves much deceived in others, because we first deceived ourselves.-Sir P. Sidney.

Nothing is so easy as to deceive one's self, for what we wish we readily believe; but such expectations are often inconsistent with the reality of things. -Demosthenes.

The coward reckons himself cautious; the miser thinks himself frugal.-Home. Every man is his own greatest dupe. -W. R. Alger.

Who has deceived thee so often as thyself?-Franklin.

The greatest of fools is he who imposes on himself, and in his greatest concerns thinks he knows that which he has least studied, and of which he is profoundly ignorant.-Shaftesbury.

The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat one's self. All sin is easy after that.-Bailey.

From the beginning of the world to this day there never was any great villainy acted by men but it was in the strength of some great fallacy put upon their minds by a false representation of evil for good, or good for evil.-South.

To be deceived by our enemies or betrayed by our friends is insupportable; yet by ourselves we are often content to be so treated.-Rochefoucauld.

We cheat ourselves in order to enjoy a quiet conscience, without possessing virtue.-Lambert.

Many a man has a kind of kaleidoscope, where the broken bits of glass are his own merits and fortunes; and they fall into harmonious arrangements and delight him, often most mischievously, and to his ultimate detriment; but they are a present pleasure.—A. Helps.

SELF-DENIAL.-The worst education which teaches self-denial, is better than the best which teaches everything else and not that.-Sterling.

Every personal consideration that we allow, costs us heavenly state. We sell the thrones of angels for a short and turbulent pleasure.-Emerson.

Teach self-denial, and make its practice pleasurable, and you can create for the world a destiny more sublime than

ever issued from the brain of the wildest dreamer.-Walter Scott.

Shall we call ourselves benevolent, when the gifts we bestow do not cost us a single privation?-Degerando.

The secret of all success is to know how to deny yourself.-Prove that you can control yourself, and you are an educated man; and without this all other education is good for nothing.

To you self-denial may only mean weariness, restraint, ennui; but it means, also, love, perfection, sanctification.

Of all sorts of earthly good the price is self-denial.-The lower must be sacrificed for the greater; the coarser give place to the finer.-Every step of our progress toward success is a sacrifice.We gain by losing; grow by dwindling; live by dying.-R. D. Hitchcock.

'Tis much the doctrine of the times that men should not please themselves, but deny themselves everything they take delight in; not look upon beauty, wear no good clothes, eat no good meat, etc., which seems the greatest accusation that can be upon the Maker of all good things. If they are not to be used, why did God make them?-Selden.

The more a man denies himself, the more he shall obtain from God. -Horace.

There never did, and never will exist anything permanently noble and excellent in the character which is a stranger to the exercise of resolute self-denial. -Walter Scott.

When you give, take to yourself no credit for generosity, unless you deny yourself something in order that you may give.-Henry Taylor.

Self-abnegation, that rare virtue, that good men preach and good women practice.-O. W. Holmes.

In vain do they talk of happiness who never subdued an impulse in obedience to a principle. He who never sacrificed a present to a future good, or a personal to a general one, can speak of happiness only as the blind speak of color.-H. Mann.

Self-denial is an excellent guard of virtue, for it is safer and wiser to abate somewhat of our lawful enjoyments than to gratify our desires to the utmost of what is permitted, lest the bent of

nature toward pleasure hurry us further.-Townson.

He is one of the noblest conquerors who carries on a successful warfare against his own appetites and passions, and has them under wise and full control.-Tryon Edwards.

One secret act of self-denial, one sacrifice of inclination to duty, is worth all the mere good thoughts, warm feelings, passionate prayers in which idle people indulge themselves.-J. H. New- |

man.

Self-denial does not belong to religion as characteristic of it; it belongs to human life. The lower nature must always be denied when you are trying to rise to a higher sphere.-It is no more necessary to be self-denying to be a Christian, than it is to be an artist, or an honest man, or a man at all in distinction from a brute.-Of all joyous experiences there are none like those which spring from true religion.-H. W. Beecher.

Whoever will labor to get rid of self, to deny himself according to the instructions of Christ, strikes at once at the root of every evil, and finds the germ of every good.-Fénelon.

They that deny themselves for Christ, shall enjoy themselves in Christ.-J. M. Mason.

One never knows himself till he has denied himself. The altar of sacrifice is the touchstone of character.-O. P. Gifford.

Sacrifice alone, bare and unrelieved, is ghastly, unnatural, and dead; but self-sacrifice, illuminated by love, is warmth and life; it is the death of Christ, the life of God, and the blessedness and only proper life of man.-F. W. Robertson.

Contempt of all outward things that come in competition with duty fulfils the ideal of human greatness. It is sanctioned by conscience, that universal and eternal lawgiver, whose chief principle is, that everything must be yielded up for right.-Channing.

That which especially distinguishes a high order of man from a lower, and which constitutes human goodness and nobleness, is self-forgetfulness, selfsacrifice, the disregard of personal pleas

ure, personal indulgence, personal advantage, remote or present, because some other line of conduct is more right.-J. A. Froude.

The first lesson in Christ's school is self-denial.-M. Henry.

Self-denial is the result of a calm, deliberate, invincible attachment to the highest good, flowing forth in the voluntary renunciation of everything inconsistent with the glory of God or the good of our fellow-men.-G. Spring.

The very act of faith by which we receive Christ is an act of utter renunciation of self and all its works, as a ground of salvation. It is really a denial of self, and a grounding of arms in the last citadel into which it can be driven, and is, in its principle, inclusive of every subsequent act of self-denial by which sin is forsaken or overcome. -Mark Hopkins.

Self-denial is indispensable to a strong character, and the loftiest kind thereof comes only of a religious stock-from consciousness of obligation and dependence on God.-Theodore Parker.

Brave conquerors! for so you are, that war against your own affections and the huge army of the world's desires.-Shakespeare.

Self-denial is a kind of holy association with God; and by making him your partner interests him in all your happiness.-Boyle.

SELF-EXAMINATION. Observe thyself as thy greatest enemy would do, so shalt thou be thy greatest friend. -Jeremy Taylor.

The superior man will watch over himself when he is alone. He examines his heart that there may be nothing wrong there, and that he may have no cause of dissatisfaction with himself. Confucius.

We should every night call ourselves to an account: What infirmity have I mastered to-day? what passions opposed? what temptation resisted? what virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.-Seneca.

Think not rightly to examine yourself by looking only to your own inner motives and feelings, which are the hardest of all things to analyze if looked

SELF-EXAMINATION

at in the abstract, and apart from outward actions. But ask, "Do I believe all that God teaches, and endeavor to do all that God commands?" For in this is the evidence of true love to him.-Tryon Edwards.

It belongs to every large nature, when it is not under the immediate power of some strong unquestioning emotion, to suspect itself, and doubt the truth of its own impressions, conscious of possibilities beyond its own horizon.-George Eliot.

In self-examination, take no account of yourself by your thoughts and resolutions in the days of religion and solemnity, but examine how it is with you in the days of ordinary conversation and in the circumstances of secular employment.-Jeremy Taylor.

Let not sleep fall upon thy eyes till thou hast thrice reviewed the transactions of the past day. Where have I turned aside from rectitude? What have I been doing? What have I left undone, which I ought to have done? Begin thus from the first act, and proceed; and, in conclusion, at the ill which thou hast done, be troubled, and rejoice for the good.-Pythagoras.

If any speak ill of thee, fly home to thy own conscience and examine thy heart. If thou art guilty, it is a just correction; if not guilty, it is a fair instruction.-Herbert.

Never lose sight of this important truth, that no one can be truly great until he has gained a knowledge of himself, a knowledge which can only be acquired by occasional retirement. -Zimmermann.

If thou seest anything in thyself which may make thee proud, look a little further and thou shalt find enough to humble thee; if thou be wise, view the peacock's feathers with his feet, and weigh thy best parts with thy imperfections.-Quarles.

I will chide no breather in the world but myself, against whom I know most faults-Shakespeare.

When you descant on the faults of others, consider whether you be not guilty of the same. To gain knowledge of ourselves, the best way is to convert the imperfections of others into a mirror for discovering our own.-Home.

I study myself more than any other subject; it is my metaphysic, and my physic.-Montaigne.

Inspect the neighborhood of thy life; every shelf, every nook of thine abode. -Richter.

Never let us be discouraged with ourselves. It is not when we are conscious of our faults that we are the most wicked; on the contrary, we are less We see by a brighter light; and let us remember for our consolation, that we never perceive our sins till we begin to cure them.-Fénelon.

So.

Though not always called upon to condemn ourselves, it is always safe to suspect ourselves.-Whately.

It is pretty safe to presume that about all the glaring effects or petty weaknesses which we are looking for in others may be found in ourselves, with a little careful investigation.

Go to your bosom, knock there and ask your heart what it doth know that is like my brother's fault; if it confess a natural guiltiness, such as his is, let it not sound a thought upon your tongue against my brother.-Shakespeare.

How shall we learn to know ourselves? By reflection? Never; but only through action. Strive to do thy duty; then shalt thou know what is in thee.-Goethe.

In order to judge of the inside of others, study your own; for men in general are very much alike, and though one has one prevailing passion, and another has another, yet their operations are much the same; and whatever engages or disgusts, pleases, or offends you in others will engage, disgust, please or offend others in you.-Chesterfield.

Of all exercises there are none of so much importance, or so immediately our concern, as those which let us into the knowledge of our Own nature. Others may exercise the understanding or amuse the imagination; but these only can improve the heart and form the human mind to wisdom.-Bp. Warburton.

SELF-IMPROVEMENT.-That discipline which corrects the eagerness of worldly passions, which fortifies the heart with virtuous principles, which enlightens the mind with useful knowl

edge, and furnishes to it matter of enjoyment from within itself, is of more consequence to real felicity than all the provisions which we can make of the goods of fortune.-Blair.

The best rules to form a young man, are, to talk little, to hear much, to reflect alone upon what has passed in company, to distrust one's own opinions, and value others that deserve it. -Sir W. Temple.

Self-inspection-the best cure for self

esteem.

By all means sometimes be alone; salute thyself; see what thy soul doth wear; dare to look in thy chest, and tumble up and down what thou findest there. Wordsworth.

You will find that the mere resolve not to be useless, and the honest desire to help other people, will, in the quickest and delicatest ways, improve yourself.-Ruskin.

A

Is it asked, how can the laboring man find time for self-culture? I answer, that an earnest purpose finds time, or makes it. It seizes on spare moments, and turns fragments to golden account. man who follows his calling with industry and spirit, and uses his earnings economically, will always have some portion of the day at command. And it is astonishing how fruitful of improvement a short season becomes, when eagerly seized and faithfully used. It has often been observed, that those who have the most time at their disposal profit by it the least. A single hour in the day, steadily given to the study of some interesting subject, brings unexpected accumulations of knowledge.— Channing.

"Know thyself," said the old philosophy." Improve thyself," saith the new. -Our great object in time is not to waste our passions and gifts on the things external that we must leave behind, but that we cultivate within us all that we can carry into the eternal progress beyond.-Bulwer.

Be always displeased at what thou art, if thou desire to attain to what thou art not; for where thou hast pleased thyself there thou abidest.-Quarles.

It is a very serious duty, perhaps of all duties the most serious, to look into one's own character and conduct, and

accurately read one's own heart. It is virtually looking into eternity, and all its vast and solemn realities, which must appear delightful or awful, according as the heart appears to be conformed or not conformed to God.-Emmons.

People seldom improve, when they have no other model but themselves to copy after.-Goldsmith.

Each year, one vicious habit rooted out in time ought to make the worst man good.-Franklin.

By these things examine thyself. By whose rules am I acting; in whose name; in whose strength; in whose glory? What faith, humility, self-denial, and love of God and to man have there been in all my actions?-J. Mason.

By undue and overstrained self-inspection the mind is apt to become morbid and depressed, and to breed scruples, which tease and harass without producing any real fruit. The man becomes a valetudinarian in religion, full of himself, his symptoms, his ailments, the delicacy of his moral health; and valetudinarians are always a plague, not only to themselves, but to everybody connected with them.-Gouldburn.

When a tradesman is about to weigh his goods, he first of all looks to his scales and sees that his weights are right. And so for all wise, or safe, or profitable self-examination, we are not to look to frames, or feelings, or to the conduct of others, but to God's word, which is the only true standard of decision.Tryon Edwards.

SELFISHNESS.-Selfishness is that detestable vice which no one will forgive in others, and no one is without in himself.-H. W. Beecher.

One thing is clear to me, that no indulgence of passion destroys the spiritual nature so much as respectable selfishness.-G. Macdonald.

A man is called selfish, not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor's. Whately.

He who lives only to benefit himself confers on the world a benefit when he dies. Tertullian.

Show me the man who would go to heaven alone, and I will show you one who will never be admitted there.-Feltham.

How much that the world calls self

ishness is only generosity with narrow walls a too exclusive solicitude to maintain a wife in luxury, or make one's children rich.-T. W. Higginson.

Our infinite obligations to God do not fill our hearts half as much as a petty uneasiness of our own; nor his infinite perfections as much as Our smallest wants.-Hannah More.

The essence of true nobility is neglect of self. Let the thought of self pass in, and the beauty of a great action is gone like the bloom from a soiled flower.J. A. Froude.

The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are in the sea.-Rochefoucauld.

There are some tempers wrought up by habitual selfishness to an utter insensibility of what becomes of the fortunes of their fellow-creatures, as if they were not partakers of the same nature or had no lot or connection at all with the species.-Sterne.

He who makes an idol of his self-interest, will often make a martyr of his integrity.

Those who are most disinterested, and have the least of selfishness, have best materials for being happy.-Mrs. Sigour ney.

There are too many who reverse both the principles and the practice of the apostle; they become all things to all men, not to serve others, but themselves; and they try all things only to hold fast that which is bad.-Colton.

So long as we are full of self we are shocked at the faults of others. Let us think often of our own sin, and we shall be lenient to the sins of others.-Fénelon.

It is astonishing how well men wear when they think of no one but themselves.-Bulwer.

Our gifts and attainments are not only to be light and warmth in our own dwellings, but are to shine through the window, into the dark night, to guide and cheer bewildered travellers on the road. -H. W. Beecher.

The selfish man suffers more from his selfishness than he from whom that selfishness withholds some important benefit.-Emerson.

Sordid selfishness doth contract and narrow our benevolence, and cause us,

like serpents, to infold ourselves within ourselves, and to turn out our stings to all the world besides.-Walter Scott.

Whenever education and refinement grow away from the common people, they are growing toward selfishness, which is the monster evil of the world. -H. W. Beecher.

Selfishness is the root and source of all natural and moral evils.-Emmons. Supreme and abiding self-love is a very dwarfish affection, but a giant evil.

The very heart and root of sin is an independent spirit. We erect the idol self, and not only wish others to worship, but worship it ourselves.-Cecil.

Heroism, magnanimity, and self-denial, in all instances in which they do not spring from a principle of religion, are but splendid altars on which we sacrifice one kind of self-love to another. -Colton.

It is very natural for a young friend and a young lover to think the persons they love have nothing to do but to please them-Pope.

It is not truth, justice, liberty, that men seek; they seek only themselves.And oh, that they knew how to seek themselves aright!-Jacobi.

That household god, a man's own self.-Flavel.

Some people think that all the world should share their misfortunes, though they do not share in the sufferings of any one else.-A. Poincelot.

The world is governed only by selfinterest.-Schiller.

Milton has carefully marked, in his Satan, the intense selfishness which would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven.-Coleridge.

Self-interest, that leprosy of the age, attacks us from infancy, and we are startled to observe little heads calculate before knowing how to reflect.-Mad. Girardin.

As a man goes down in self, he goes up in God.-G. B. Cheever.

Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within s-Spurgeon.

We are too much haunted by ourselves, projecting the central shadow of self on everything around us.-And then comes the Gospel to rescue u from this