Circumstances Quotes - Page 38

• Character is built out of circumstances. From exactly the same materials, one man builds palaces, while another builds hovels.

  George Henry Lewes

  Character, Men, Palaces

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• A true and safe leader is likely to be one who has no desire to lead, but is forced into a position by the inward pressure of the Holy Spirit and the press of [circumstances]... The man who is ambitious to lead is disqualified as a leader. The true leader will have no desire to lord it over God's heritage, but will be humble, gentle, self-sacrificing and altogether ready to follow when the Spirit chooses another to lead.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Humble, Sacrifice, Men

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• There can be moments in your life where you may feel attracted to someone depending on circumstance, depending on the person of one gender or another, and sometimes where that is less of an influence in your life.

  Charles M. Blow

  May, Influence, Sometimes

  "After Childhood Abuse, 'Times' Columnist Says He Chose Life Over Vengeance". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. September 24, 2014.

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• When Fate wills that something should come to pass, she sends forth a million of little circumstances to clear and prepare the way.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Fate, Littles, Way

  William Makepeace Thackeray (1868). “The Adventures of Philip on His Way Through the World: Shewing who Robbed Him, who Helped Him, and who Passed Him by : to which is Now Prefixed A Shabby Genteel Story”, p.53

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• In vain do science and philosophy pose as the arbiters of the human mind, of which they are in fact only the servants. Religion has provided a conception of life, and science travels in the beaten path. Religion reveals the meaning of life, and science only applies this meaning to the course of circumstances.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Philosophy, Mind, Religion

  Leo Tolstoy (2014). “My Religion”, p.105, The Floating Press

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• Cassius and Brutus were the more distinguished for that very circumstance that their portraits were absent.
  [Lat., Praefulgebant Cassius atque Brutus eo ipso, quod effigies eorum non videbantur.]

  Tacitus

  Portraits, Cassius, Brutus

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• He is a friend who, in dubious circumstances, aids in deeds when deeds are necessary.

  Plautus

  Friends, Dubious, Deeds

  Titus Maccius Plautus (1852). “The comedies of Plautus literally tr., with notes, by H.T. Riley”, p.427

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• The science of government is only a science of combinations, of applications, and of exceptions, according to times, places and circumstances.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Government, Combination, Exception

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• Very great personages are not likely to form very just estimates either of others or of themselves; their knowledge of themselves is obscured by the flattery of others; their knowledge of others is equally clouded by circumstances peculiar to themselves. For in the presence of the great, the modest are sure to suffer from too much diffidence, and the confident from too much display.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Character, Suffering, Peculiar

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.75

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• When you see reference to a new paradigm you should always, under all circumstances, take cover.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Should, Paradigm

  "Galbraith on Crashes, Japan and Walking Sticks" by Ben Laurance and William Keegan, The Observer, June 21, 1998.

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• Far better, and more cheerfully, I could dispense with some part of the downright necessaries of life, than with certain circumstances of elegance and propriety in the daily habits of using them.

  Thomas de Quincey

  Elegance, Habit, Refinement

  Thomas De Quincey, James Thomas Fields (1851). “De Quincey's Writings: Life and manners; from The autobiography of an English opium-eater. 1851”, p.14

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• As flowers always wear their own colors and give forth their own fragrance every day alike, so should Christians maintain their character at all times and under all circumstances.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Christian, Flower, Character

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• If in addition to being physically unattractive you find that you do not get along well with others, do not under any circumstances attempt to alleviate this situation by developing an interesting personality. An interesting personality, is, in an adult, insufferable. In a teenager it is frequently punishable by law.

  Fran Lebowitz

  Teenager, Law, Interesting

  Fran Lebowitz (2011). “The Fran Lebowitz Reader”, p.222, Vintage

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• I have always thought of myself as a painter derailed by circumstance.

  Joni Mitchell

  Painter, Profession

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• The parallel circumstances and kindred images to which we readily conform our minds are, above all other writings, to be found in the lives of particular persons, and therefore no species of writing seems more worthy of cultivation than biography.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Mind, Biographies

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.382

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• I too acknowledge the all-out omnipotence of early culture and nature; hereby we have either a doddered dwarf-bush, or a high-towering, wide-shadowing tree! either a sick yellow cabbage, or an edible luxuriant green one. Of a truth, it is the duty of all men, especially of all philosophers, to note down with accuracy the characteristic circumstances of their education,--what furthered, what hindered, what in any way modified it.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Education, Men, Dwarves

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• When the Gauls laid waste Rome, they found the senators clothed in their robes, and seated in stern tranquillity in their curule chairs; in this manner they suffered death without resistance or supplication. Such conduct was in them applauded as noble and magnanimous; in the hapless Indians it was reviled as both obstinate and sullen. How truly are we the dupes of show and circumstances! How different is virtue, clothed in purple and enthroned in state, from virtue, naked and destitute, and perishing obscurely in a wilderness.

  Washington Irving

  Rome, Purple, Waste

  Washington Irving (1983). “History, Tales, and Sketches”, p.1011, Library of America

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• simply to ask a blessing upon one's circumstances, whatever they are, is somehow to improve them, and to tap some mysterious source of energy and joy.

  Marjorie Holmes

  Prayer, Blessing, Joy

  Marjorie Holmes (1982). “I've/Talk/Somebd/God”, Bantam Books

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• Our worst foes are not belligerent circumstances, but wavering spirits.

  Helen Keller

  Courage, Wavering, Spirit

  Helen Keller, Annie Sullivan (1904). “The story of my life”

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• Happiness is a state of mind, and depends very little on outward circumstances.

  Helen Keller

  Happiness, Mind, Littles

  Helen Keller (2000). “To Love this Life: Quotations”, p.25, American Foundation for the Blind

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• The works of a person that begin immediately to decay, while those of him who plants begin directly to improve. In this, planting promises a more lasting pleasure than building; which, were it to remain in equal perfection, would at best begin to moulder and want repairs in imagination. Now trees have a circumstance that suits our taste, and that is annual variety.

  William Shenstone

  Imagination, Perfection, Tree

  William Shenstone (1764). “The Works in Verse and Prose, of William Shenstone, Esq: Most of which Were Never Before Printed ...”, p.137

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• Justice must take account of infinite circumstances which a human being cannot understand.

  Clarence Darrow

  Justice, Infinite, Accounts

  Clarence Darrow (2012). “Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom”, p.43, University of Chicago Press

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• The friendship I have conceived will not be impaired by absence; but it may be no unpleasing circumstance to brighten the chain by a renewal of the covenant.

  George Washington

  Friendship, Covenant, May

  George Washington (1855). “Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral and Religious”, p.242

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• Fear hath the common fault of a justice of peace, and is apt to conclude hastily from every slight circumstance, without examining the evidence on both sides.

  Henry Fielding

  Fear, Justice, Faults

  Henry Fielding, Sir Walter Scott (1831). “The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling”, p.91

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• It has been remarked that almost every character which has excited either attention or pity has owed part of its success to merit, and part to a happy concurrence of circumstances in its favor. Had Caesar or Cromwell exchanged countries, the one might have been a sergeant and the other an exciseman.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Country, Character, Favors

  Oliver Goldsmith (1819). “Essays and poems, by Dr. Oliver Goldsmith. To which are prefixed, memoirs of the author”, p.3

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