Discretion of speech is more than eloquence; and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal, is more than to speak in good words or in good order. A good continued speech, without a good speech of interlocution, shows slowness; and a good reply, or second speech, without a good settled speech, showeth shallowness and weakness. 911 Bacon: Essays. Of Discourse. Conversation stock being a joint and common property. every one should take a share in it; and yet there may be societies in which silence will be our best contribution. 912 Paul Chatfield, M.D. (Horace Smith): The Tin Trumpet. Conversation. Conversation is the music of the mind, an intellectual orchestra, where all the instruments should bear a part, but where none should play together. 913 Colton: Lacon. A great thing is a great book, but greater than all is the talk of a great man. 914 Disraeli (Earl of Beaconsfield): Coningsby. Conversation is a game of circles. 915 student. 916 Conversation is the laboratory and work-shop of the Emerson: Society and Solitude. Clubs. Conversation is the vent of character as well as of thought. Emerson: Society and Solitude. Clubs. Conversation, which, when it is best, is a series of intoxi 917 cations. 918 Emerson: Letters and Social Aims. The best of life is conversation. 919 Emerson: Conduct of Life. Inspiration. Behavior. Wise, cultivated, genial conversation is the last flower of civilization, and the best result which life has to offer us, -a cup for gods, which has no repentance. Conversation is our account of ourselves. All we have, all we can, all we know, is brought into play, and as the reproduction in finer form, of all our havings. 920 Emerson: Miscellanies. Woman. The great secret of succeeding in conversation is to admire little, to hear much; always to distrust our own reason, and sometimes that of our friends; never to pretend to wit, but to make that of others appear as much as possibly we can; to hearken to what is said, and to answer to the purpose. 921 Benjamin Franklin: Miscellaneous Observations. It is by speech that many of our best gains are made. A large part of the good we receive comes to us in conversation. 922 Washington Gladden: Things Old and New. VIII. The Tamed Tongue. Conversation is interesting in proportion to the originality of the central ideas which serve as pivots, and the fitness of the little facts and observations which are contributed by the talkers. 923 Hamerton: The Intellectual Life. Pt. vii. Repose is as necessary in conversation as in a picture. 924 Hazlitt: Characteristics. No. 179. Silence is one great art of conversation. He is not a fool who knows when to hold his tongue; and a person may gain credit for sense, eloquence, wit, who merely says nothing to lessen the opinion which others have of these qualities in themselves. 925 Hazlitt: Characteristics. No. 59. Among the arts of conversation no one pleases more than mutual deference or civility, which leads us to resign our own inclinations to those of our companions, and to curb and conceal that presumption and arrogance so natural to the human mind. 926 Hume: Essays. XIII. Of the Rise and the Progress of the Arts and Sciences. The perfection of conversational intercourse is when the breeding of high life is animated by the fervor of genius. 927 Leigh Hunt: Table Talk. There is nothing by which a man exasperates most people more than by displaying a superior ability or brilliancy in conversation. They seem pleased at the time, but their envy makes them curse him at their hearts. 928 Johnson: Boswell's Life of Johnson. IV. 195. (George Birkbeck Hill, Editor, 1887.) The fool only is troublesome. A man of sense perceives when he is agreeable or tiresome; he disappears the very minute before he would have been thought to have stayed too long. 929 La Bruyère: Characters. Of Society and Conversation. (Rowe, Translator.) Conceit causes more conversation than wit. 930 La Rochefoucauld: Reflections; or, Sentences and It is given to few persons to keep this secret well. Those who lay down rules too often break them, and the safest we are able to give is to listen much, to speak little, and to say nothing that will ever give ground for regret. 931 La Rochefoucauld: Reflections; or, Sentences and Moral Maxims. On Conversation. It is never more difficult to speak well than when we are ashamed of being silent. 932 La Rochefoucauld: Reflections; or, Sentences and Moral Maxims, No. 94. Men of great conversational powers almost universally practise a sort of lively sophistry and exaggeration, which deceives, for the moment, both themselves and their auditors. 933 Macaulay Essays. On the Athenian Orators. (Knight's Quarterly Magazine, August, 1824.) The study of books is a languishing and feeble motion, that heats not, whereas conversation teaches and exercises at once. 934 Montaigne Essays. Bk. iii. Ch. 8. (Hazlitt, Translator.) Equality is the life of conversation; and he is as much out who assumes to himself any part above another, as he who considers himself below the rest of the society. 935 Sir Richard Steele: The Tatler. No. 225. Conversation is a traffic; and if you enter it without some stock of knowledge to balance the account perpetually betwixt you, the trade drops at once. 936 Laurence Sterne: Sermons. The Prodigal Son. CONVICTION. Sooner or later the world comes round to see the truth and do the right. 937 George S. Hillard: Life and Campaigns of George CORPORATIONS. They cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed, nor excommunicate, for they have no souls. 938 COURAGE Sir Edward Coke: Case of Sutton's Hospital, x. Rep. 32. see Boldness, Death, Necessity, Patriotism, Truth, Woman. Courage that grows from constitution very often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it, and, when it is only a kind of instinct in the soul, breaks out on all occasions, without judgment or discretion. That courage which proceeds from the sense of our duty, and from the fear of offending Him that made us, acts always in a uniform manner, and according to the dictates of right reason. 939 Addison: The Guardian. No. 117. Courage, considered in itself or without reference to its causes, is no virtue, and deserves no esteem. It is found in the best and the worst, and is to be judged according to the qualities from which it springs and with which it is conjoined. 940 William Ellery Channing: Discourse, 1835. War. Courage multiplies the chances of success by sometimes making opportunities, and always availing itself of them; and in this sense Fortune may be said to favor fools by those who, however prudent in their opinion, are deficient in valor and enterprise. 941 Coleridge: The Friend. The Third Landing-Place. Courage is generosity of the highest order, for the brave are prodigal of the most precious things. 942 Colton: Lacon. I like to read about Moses best, in th' Old Testament. He carried a hard business well through, and died when other folks were going to reap the fruits; a man must have courage to look after his life so, and think what'll come of it after he's dead and gone. 943 George Eliot: Adam Bede. Ch. 50. Courage is temperamental, scientific, ideal. 944 Courage of the soldier awakes the courage of woman. 945 Emerson: Society and Solitude. Courage. Emerson: Society and Solitude. Courage. Half a man's wisdom goes with his courage. 946 Emerson: Lectures and Biographical Sketches. He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear. 947 Emerson: Society and Solitude. Courage. The charm of the best courages is that they are inventions, inspirations, flashes of genius. 948 Emerson: Society and Solitude. Courage. To bear other people's afflictions, every one has courage enough and to spare. 949 Benjamin Franklin: Poor Richard's Almanac. Courage is, on all hands, considered as an essential of high character. 950 Froude: Short Studies on Great Subjects. Representative Men. Courage, when it is not heroic self-sacrifice, is sometimes a modification and sometimes a result of faith. 951 J. C. and A. W. Hare: Guesses at Truth. Few persons have courage to appear as good as they really are. 952 J. C. and A. W. Hare: Guesses at Truth. A stout heart may be ruined in fortune but not in spirit. Victor Hugo: The Toilers of the Sea. Pt. i. Bk. iii. Ch. 3. 953 When moral courage feels that it is in the right, there is no personal daring of which it is incapable. 954 Leigh Hunt: Table Talk. Courage. Moral and Personal Whatever enlarges hope will exalt courage. 955 Johnson: Works. IX. 161. (Oxford edition, 1825.) The man who has never been in danger cannot answer for his courage. 956 La Rochefoucauld: Reflections; or, Sentences and Moral Maxims. First Supplement. No. 42. Religion gives a man courage. I mean the higher moral courage which can look danger in the face unawed and undismayed; the courage that can encounter loss of ease, of wealth, of friends, of your own good name; the courage that can face a world full of howling and of scorn — ay, of loathing and of hate; can see all this with a smile, and, suffering it all, can still toil on, conscious of the result, yet fearless still. 957 Theodore Parker: Ten Sermons of Religion. Of Conscious Religion as a Source of Strength. Courage, like cowardice, is undoubtedly contagious, but some persons are not liable to catch it. 958 George D. Prentice: Prenticeana. Courage is a virtue of no doubtful seeming; there can be no contradiction, no diversity of opinion, about it. 959 Richter: Levana. Fifth Fragment. Ch. i. Sec. 109. To hope for safety in flight, when you have turned away from the enemy the arms by which the body is defended, is indeed madness. In battle those who are most afraid are always in most danger; but courage is equivalent to rampart. 960 Sallust: Conspiracy of Catiline. LVIII. (Watson, Translator.) O, what men dare do! what men may do! what men daily do, not knowing what they do! 961 Shakespeare: Much Ado about Nothing. When you meet your antagonist, do everything in a mild and agreeable manner. Let your courage be as keen, but at the same time as polished, as your sword. 962 COURTESY. Sheridan: The Rivals. Act iii. Sc. 4. Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy. 963 Emerson: Letters and Social Aims. Social Aims. |