Essays Written in the Intervals of Business

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W. Pickering, 1843 - 148 pages
 

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Page 84 - But if there be in the character not only sense and soundness, but virtue of a high order, then, however little appearance there may be of talent, a certain portion of wisdom may be relied upon almost implicitly. For the correspondences of wisdom and goodness are manifold ; and that they will accompany each other is to be inferred, not only because men's wisdom makes them good, but also because their goodness makes them wise.
Page 98 - A man of business should take care to consult occasionally with persons of a nature quite different from his own. To very few are given all the qualities requisite to form a good man of business. Thus a man may have the sternness and the fixedness of purpose so necessary in the conduct of affairs, yet these qualities prevent him, perhaps, from entering into the characters of those about him. He is likely to want tact. He will be unprepared for the extent of versatility and vacillation in other men....
Page 146 - I venture to prophesy that within six months you will come to consult me whether or not — for there is a great deal to be said on both sides of the question — you can make up your mind to sacrifice your own wishes and marry Walter Lester.
Page 25 - Infinite toil would not enable you to sweep away a mist ; but, by ascending a little, you may often look over it altogether. So it is with our moral improvement: we wrestle fiercely with a vicious habit, which would have no hold upon us if we ascended into a higher moral atmosphere.
Page 82 - The wisdom touching Negotiation or Business hath not been hitherto collected into writing, to the great derogation of learning, and the professors of learning. For from this root springeth chiefly that note or opinion, which by iw is expressed in adage to this efl'eot, "that there is no great concurrence between learning and wisdom.
Page 14 - ... aspect to them at all times; which is more than human nature can do. They try experiments to ascertain whether they are sufficiently loved: they watch narrowly the effects of absence, and require their friends to prove to them that the intimacy is exactly upon the same footing as it was before. Some persons acquire these suspicious ways from a natural diffidence in themselves; for which they are often loved the more : and they might find ample comfort in that, if they could but believe it. With...
Page 15 - You cannot hope for anything like contentment so long as you continue to attach that ridiculous degree of importance to the events of this life which so many people are inclined to do. Observe the effect which it has upon them ; they are most uncomfortable if their little projects do not turn out according to their fancy — nothing is to be angular to them — they regard...
Page 9 - We find the scheme, which we have chosen, " answer our expectations but indifferently — " most worldly projects will. We, therefore, " repent of our choice, and immediately fancy " happiness in the paths which we decline ; " and this heightens our uneasiness. We " might at least escape the aggravation of it. "It is not improbable, we had been more " unhappy, but extremely probable, we had " not been less so, had we made a different
Page 51 - As to there being anything really trifling in any act of humanity, however slight, it is moral blindness to suppose so. The few moments in the course of each day which a man absorbed in some worldly pursuit may carelessly expend in kind words or trifling charities to those around him, and kindness to an animal is one of these, are perhaps, in the sight of Heaven, the only time that he has lived to any purpose worthy of recording.

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