Status Updates From Some Fruits of Solitude

If Men would once consider one another reasonably, they would either reconcile their Differences, or more Amicably maintain them.

To Hord up all to ourselves is great Injustice as well as Ingratitude.

Truly then it is, that Sense shines with the greatest Beauty when it is set in Humility.

Death cannot kill, what never dies.

‘T is very observable, if our Civil Rights are invaded…we are mightily touch’d, and fill every Place with our Resentment and Complaint; while we suffer our selves, our Better and Nobler Selves, to be the Property and Vassals of Sin, the worst of Invaders.

Disappointments are not always to be measured by the Loss of the Thing, but the Over-value we put upon it.

We are too apt to love Praise, but not to Deserve it…No more lessen or dissemble thy Merit, than over-rate it: For tho’ Humility be a Virtue, an affected one is none.

It too often happens in some Conversations, as in Apothecary-Shops, that those Pots that are Empty, or have Things of Small Value in them, are as gaudily Dress’d and Flourish’d, as those that are full of precious Drugs.

But certainly they are in the Wrong, that can think they are lessened, because others have their Due. Such People generally have less Merit than Ambition, that Covet the Reward of other Men’s; and to be sure a very ill Nature, that will rather Rob others of their Due, than allow them their Praise…But Just and Noble Minds Rejoice in other Men’s Success, and help to augment their Praise.

What shall we say of the Man that Rebels against his Father, is an Ill Husband, or an Abusive Neighbor; one that’s Lavish of his Time, of his Health, and of his Estate, in which his Family is so nearly concerned? Must he go for a Right Moralist, because he pays his Rent well? If paying what we owe, makes the Moral Man, is it not fit we should begin to render our Dues, where we owe our very Beginning; ay, our All?

Love is the hardest Lesson in Christianity; but, for that reason, it should be most our care to learn it.

We naturally fear most to offend what we most Love.

To have Religion upon Authority, and not upon Conviction, is like a Finger Watch, to be set forwards or backwards, as he pleases that has it in keeping.

A good End cannot sanctifie evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it. Some Folks think they may Scold, Rail, Hate, Rob and Kill too; so it be but for God’s sake. But nothing in us unlike him, can please him.

A Minister of the Gospel ought to be one of Christ’s making, if he would pass for one of Christ’s Ministers. And if he be one of his making, he Knows and Does as well as Believes.

As the Ministers of Christ are made by him, and are like him, so they beget People into the same Likeness.

God is better served in resisting a Temptation to Evil, than in many formal prayers.

He that does Good, for Good’s sake, sells neither Praise nor Reward; tho’ sure of both at last. Perhaps thou art rather Innocent than Virtuous, and owest more to thy Constitution, than thy Religion. Innocent, is not to be Guilty: But Virtuous is to overcome our evil Inclinations. If thou hast not conquer’d thy self in that which is thy own particular Weakness, thou hast no Title to Virtue…

Where Example keeps pace with Authority, Power hardly fails to be obey’d…

Certainly Service upon Inclination is like to go farther than Obedience upon Compulsion.

How ugly do our own Failings look to us in the Persons of others, which yet we see not in our selves.

We have a call to do good, as often as we have the Power and Occasion. They are taught so by his Example…from whom they have borrowed their Name.

Patience and Diligence, like Faith, remove Mountains.

Unless Virtue guide us, our Choice must be wrong.

[Passion] more than any thing deprives us of the use of our Judgment; for it raises a Dust very hard to see through.

He that corrects out of Passion, raises Revenge sooner than Repentance.

Be not provoked by Injuries, to commit them.

If we would amend the World, we should mend Our selves; and teach our Children to be, not what we are, but what they should be.

The Country Life is to be preferr’d; for there we see the Works of God; but in Cities little else but the Works of Men: And the One makes a better Subject for our Contemplation than the other.

The Country is both the Philosopher’s Garden and his Library…

A true Friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.

Truth often suffers more by the Heat of its Defenders, than from the Arguments of its Opposers.

It is great Wisdom equally to avoid the Extreams.

But in Marriage do…be wise; prefer the Person before Money; Vertue before Beauty, the Mind before the Body: Then thou hast a Wife, a Friend, a Companion, a Second Self…that bears an equal Share with thee…Nothing can be more entire and without Reserve; nothing more zealous, affectionate and sincere; nothing more contented and constant than such a Couple; nor no greater temporal Felicity than to be one of them.

[We cannot] fall below the Arms of God, how low soever it be we fall. For though our Saviour’s Passion is over, his Compassion is not. That never fails his humble, sincere Disciples: In him, they find more than all that they lose in the World.

They have a Right to censure, that have a Heart to help: The rest is Cruelty, not Justice.

It is admirable to consider how many Millions of People come into, and go out of the World, Ignorant of themselves, and…the World they…lived in.

It would go a great way to caution…People in their Use of the World, that they were better studied…in the Creation of it. For how could Man find…Confidence to abuse it, while they should see the Great Creator stare them in the Face, in all and every part thereof?

“Solitude [is the] School few care to learn in, tho’ None instructs us better.”

“There is nothing of which we are apt to be so lavish as of Time, and about which we ought to be more solicitous; since without it we can do nothing in this World.”