Hugh Blair Quotes
Gentleness corrects whatever is offensive in our manner.
Graceful, particularly in youth, is the tear of sympathy, and the heart that melts at the tale of woe; we should not permit ease and indulgence to contract our affections, and wrap us up in selfish enjoyment. But we should accustom ourselves to think of the distresses of human life, of the solitary cottage, the dying parent, and the weeping orphan. Nor ought we ever to sport with pain and distress in any of our amusements, or treat even the meanest insect with wanton cruelty.
The least degree of ambiguity which leaves the mind in suspense as to the meaning ought to be avoided with the greatest care.
It is difficult to descend with grace without seeming to fall.
Silence is one of the great arts of conversation, as allowed by Cicero himself, who says "there is not only an art, but an eloquence in it"; and this opinion is confirmed by a great modern, Lord Bacon. For a well-bred woman may easily and effectually promote the most useful and elegant conversation without speaking a word. The modes of speech are scarcely more variable than the modes of silence.
Oft in the lone churchyard at night I've seen,
By glimpse of moonshine, chequering through the trees,
The school-boy with his satchel in his hand,
Whistling aloud to bear his courage up;
And lightly tripping o'er the long flat stones,
(With nettles skirted, and with moss o'ergrown,
That tell in homely phrase who lie below;)
Sudden he starts! and hears, or thinks he hears,
The sound of something purring at his heels.
You may discover tribes of men without policy, or laws, or cities, or any of the arts of life; but nowhere will you find them without some form of religion.
The spirit of true religion breathes gentleness and affability; it gives a native, unaffected ease to the behavior; it is social, kind, cheerful; far removed from the cloudy and illiberal disposition which clouds the brow, sharpens the temper, and dejects the spirit.
All the principles which religion teaches, and all the habits which it forms, are favorable to strength of mind. It will be found that whatever purifies fortifies also the heart.
It is pride which fills the world with so much harshness and severity. We are rigorous to offenses as if we had never offended.