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DICTIONARY OF THOUGHTS

A Cyclopedia of Quotations

From the Best Authors of the World,
Both Ancient and Modern,
Alphabetically Arranged by Subjects

ORIGINALLY COMPILED BY

TRYON EDWARDS, D. D.
REVISED AND ENLARGED, 1927

A great thought is a great boon, for which
God is to be first thanked, then he who is the
first to utter it, and then, in a lesser, but still
in a considerable degree, the man who is the
first to quote it to us.-BOVEE.

BRITKIN PUBLISHING COMPANY

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA
1927

COPYRIGHT, 1927, BY

BRITKIN PUBLISHING COMPANY

MANUFACTURED COMPLETE BY THE
KINGSPORT PRESS
KINGSPORT, TENNESSEE
United States of America

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PREFACE

There have been available many Dictionaries of WORDS. Only one Dictionary of THOUGHTS has been compiled to our knowledge. Such a gathering of the condensed and striking thoughts of the world's best thinkers on important and interesting subjects, arranged, as in verbal dictionaries, in alphabetical order of topics, for ready reference and familiar use, is a daily necessity.

Tillotson has said, speaking of the brief and noticeably striking sayings of wise and good men: "They are of great value, like the dust of gold, or the sparks of diamonds." Johnson counts "him a benefactor of mankind who condenses the great thoughts and rules of life into short sentences that are easily impressed on the memory, and recur promptly to the mind." Swift compares such thoughts to "burning glasses, as they collect the diffused rays of wit and learning in authors, and make them point with warmth and quickness on the reader's imagination."

A carefully compiled, intelligently edited and properly arranged DICTIONARY OF THOUGHTS finds eager users wherever there shall exist by virtue of habit, or desire, an inclination among students, readers and speakers, to develop and broaden their scope of knowledge, and to learn and know the thoughts and the expressions of the world's greatest and most renowned writers, speakers and thinkers, from ancient to modern time.

THE NEW DICTIONARY OF Thoughts, originally compiled by Tryon Edwards during more than fifty years of active literary effort, revised, amplified with many additions, and entirely reset in a new face of type, is now presented in a new format to those who hunger for "rich drafts from life's literary fountains." THE PUBLISHERS

December, 1927

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A DICTIONARY OF THOUGHTS

BEING

A CYCLOPEDIA OF LACONIC QUOTATIONS

A

ABILITY.-Ability is a poor man's wealth.-M. Wren.

Ability involves responsibility; power, to its last particle, is duty.-A. Maclaren.

What we do upon some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are; and what we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline. -H. P. Liddon.

Natural abilities can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural abilities. Schopenhauer.

Ability doth hit the mark where presumption over-shooteth and diffidence falleth short. Cusa.

All may do what has by man been done. Young.

The height of ability consists in a thorough knowledge of the real value of things, and of the genius of the age in which we live-Rochefoucauld.

Who does the best his circumstance allows, does well, acts nobly, angels could no more.Young.

The force of his own merit makes his way-a gift that heaven gives for him.Shakespeare.

The art of being able to make a good use of moderate abilities wins esteem, and often confers more reputation than greater real merit.-Rochefoucauld.

Men are often capable of greater things than they perform. They are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent.

Walpole.

on one side or the other, like too scanty a blanket when you are abed. If you pull it upon your shoulders, your feet are left bare; if you thrust it down to your feet, your shoulders are uncovered. -Sir W. Temple.

An able man shows his spirit by gentle words and resolute actions. He is neither hot nor timid. Chesterfield.

No man's abilities are so remarkably shining as not to stand in need of a proper opportunity, a patron, and even the praises of a friend to recommend them to the notice of the world.-Pliny.

Some persons of weak understanding are so sensible of that weakness, as to be able to make a good use of it.Rochefoucauld.

We are often able because we think we are able.-J. Hawes.

The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators. Gibbon.

ABSENCE. - Absence from those we love is self from self-a deadly banishment. Shakespeare.

Short absence quickens love; long absence kills it. - Mirabeau.

Love reckons hours for months, and days for years; and every little absence is an age.-Dryden.

Absence in love is like water upon fire; a little quickens, but much extinguishes it.-Hannah More.

The absent are like children, helpless to defend themselves. - Charles Reade. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. -Bailey.

Absence lessens moderate passions and increases great ones; as the wind extin

ing dwelling.-Rochefoucauld.

As we advance in life, we learn the guishes the taper, but kindles the burnlimit of our abilities. -Froude. The abilities of man must fall short

1

Distance of time and place generally

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