Noble Quotes - Page 29

• O blessed bounty, giving ail content!
  The only fautress of all noble arts
  That lend'st success to every good intent.
  A grace that rests in the most godlike hearts,
  By heav'n to none but happy souls infus'd
  Pity it is, that e'er thou wast abus'd.

  Michael Drayton

  Art, Blessed, Giving

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• Money is both the generation and corruption of purchased honor; honor is both the child and slave of potent money: the credit which honor hath lost, money hath found. When honor grew mercenary, money grew honorable. The way to be truly noble is to contemn both.

  Francis Quarles

  Money, Children, Honor

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• I never know why self-sacrifice is noble. Why is it better to sacrifice oneself than someone else?

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Sacrifice, Self, Knows

  Ivy Compton-Burnett (2012). “Mother and Son”, p.111, A&C Black

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• The noble grotesque involves the true appreciation of beauty.

  John Ruskin

  Beauty, Appreciation, Grotesque

  John Ruskin (1853). “The Stones of Venice: The fall”, p.160

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• In mortals there is a care for trifles which proceeds from love and conscience, and is most holy; and a care for trifles which comes of idleness and frivolity, and is most base. And so, also, there is a gravity proceeding from thought, which is most noble; and a gravity proceeding from dulness and mere incapability of enjoyment, which is most base.

  John Ruskin

  Care, Holy, Gravity

  John Ruskin (1867). “Precious Thoughts: Moral and Religious. Gathered from the Works of John Ruskin, A. M.”, p.302

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• While any one is base, none can be entirely free and noble.

  Margaret Fuller

  Freedom

  Margaret Fuller, Bell Gale Chevigny (1976). “The Woman and the Myth: Margaret Fuller's Life and Writings”, p.243, UPNE

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• Labor is like motherhood to most of our political leaders: a calling so fine and noble that it would be sullied by talk of vulgar, mundane things like pay.

  Barbara Ehrenreich

  Work, Motherhood, Leader

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• To argue over who is the more noble is nothing more than to dispute whether dirt is better for making bricks or for making mortar.

  Teresa of Avila

  Dirt, Bricks, Arguing

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• Though plunged in ills and exercised in care,
  Yet never let the noble mind despair.

  Wendell Phillips

  Mind, Despair, Care

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• Fortunes are made, if I the facts may state--
  Though poor myself, I know the fortunate:
  First, there's a knowledge of the way from whence
  Good fortune comes--and this is sterling sense:
  Then perseverance, never to decline
  The chase of riches till the prey is thine;
  And firmness never to be drawn away
  By any passion from that noble prey--
  By love, ambition, study, travel, fame,
  Or the vain hope that lives upon a name.

  George Crabbe

  Perseverance, Ambition, Passion

  George Crabbe (1839). “The Poetical Works of Crabbe, Heber, and Pollok: Complete in One Volume”, p.364

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• In the first seat, in robe of various dyes,
  A noble wildness flashing from his eyes,
  Sat Shakespeare: in one hand a wand he bore,
  For mighty wonders fam'd in days of yore:
  The other held a globe, which to his will
  Obedient turn'd, and own'd the master's skill:
  Things of the noblest kind his genius drew,
  And look'd through nature at a single view:
  A loose he gave to his unbounded soul,
  And taught new lands to rise, new seas to roll;
  Call'd into being scenes unknown before,
  And passing nature's bounds, was something more.

  Charles Churchill

  Eye, Views, Hands

  Charles Churchill (1764). “Poems”, p.12

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• Beware of sentimental alliances where the consciousness of good deeds is the only compensation for noble sacrifices.

  Otto von Bismarck

  Sacrifice, Alliances, Deeds

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• If antiquity be the only test of nobility, then cheese is a very noble thing ... The lineage of cheese is demonstrably beyond all record.

  Hilaire Belloc

  Food, Cooking, Records

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• Man was mark'd
  A friend in his creation to himself,
  And may, with fit ambition, conceive
  The greatest blessings, and the highest honors
  Appointed for him, if he can achieve them
  The right and noble way.

  Philip Massinger

  Ambition, Men, Blessing

  Philip Massinger, John Ford (1859). “The Dramatic Works of Massinger and Ford”, p.356

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• The proper work of man, the grand drift of human life, is to follow reason, that noble spark kindled in us from heaven.

  Isaac Barrow

  Men, Heaven, Sparks

  Isaac Barrow (1830). “The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow”, p.369

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• There actually isn't anything better than a noble failure. It will always teach you something and you will always learn from the experience.

  Cat Deeley

  Teach

  "Tim Gunn and Cat Deeley on Good Hosts, Bad Reality Shows and Unfair Judges". Interview with Debra Birnbaum, variety.com. August 5, 2014.

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• The Devil ... is much better served by exploiting our virtues than by appealing to our lower passions; consequently, it is when the Devil looks most noble and reasonable that he is most dangerous.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Passion, Devil, Looks

  Dorothy L. Sayers (2006). “The Poetry of Search and the Poetry of Statement: On Dante and Other Writers”, p.231, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• A politician is forced to make a habit of noble phrases and optimistic lies. In the end they infect himself.

  Storm Jameson

  Lying, Optimistic, Phrases

  Storm Jameson (1966). “The Early Life of Stephen Hind”

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• Labor! all labor is noble and holy!
  Let thy great deeds be thy prayer to thy God.

  Frances Sargent Osgood

  Prayer, Deeds, Holy

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• We can always find noble reasons for what we want to do.

  Mary Heaton Vorse

  Want, Reason

  Mary Heaton Vorse, Dee Garrison (1985). “Rebel pen: the writings of Mary Heaton Vorse”, Monthly Review Pr

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• You are so to put forth the power that God has given you; you are so to give, and sacrifice to give, as to earn the eulogium pronounced on the woman, "She hath done what she could." Do it now. It is not a safe thing to leave a generous feeling to the cooling influences of a cold world. If you intend to do a mean thing, wait till tomorrow; if you are to do a noble thing, do it now,--now!

  Thomas Guthrie

  Mean, Sacrifice, Giving

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• Who has not experienced how, on near acquaintance, plainness becomes beautified, and beauty loses its charm, exactly according to the quality of the heart and mind? And from this cause am I of opinion that the want of outward beauty never disquiets a noble nature or will be regarded as a misfortune. It never can prevent people from being amiable and beloved in the highest degree.

  Fredrika Bremer

  Beauty, Heart, People

  Fredrika Bremer (1844). “New Sketches of Every-day Life: A Diary. Together with Strife and Peace”, p.94

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• Numerous are the academic professors, but rare are wise and noble teachers.

  Albert Einstein

  Wise, Teacher, Academic

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• It is that faculty by which we discover and enjoy the beautiful, the picturesque, and the sublime in literature, art, and nature; which recognizes a noble thought, as a virtuous mind welcomes a pure sentiment by a involuntary glow of satisfaction. But while the principle of perception is inherent in the soul, it requires a certain amount of knowledge to draw out and direct it.

  Robert Aris Willmott

  Beautiful, Art, Soul

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• Amnesty, that noble word, the genuine dictate of wisdom.

  Aeschines

  Amnesty, Genuine

  Demosthenes, Aeschines, Dinarchus (1836). “The Orations of Demosthenes”, p.159

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