35. If you slander a dead man, you stab him in the grave. Anon. 36. No one loves to tell a tale of scandal but to him that loves to hear it. Learn, then, to rebuke and silence the detracting tongue by refusing to hear. Never make your ear the grave of another's good name. Bishop Berkeley. 37. Some people write, and others talk themselves out of their reputation. Bishop Berkeley. 38. There are men of prey as well as beasts of prey. Anon. 39. Slander is a vice that strikes a double blow, wounding both him that commits, and him against whom it is committed. B. J. Saurin. 40. Believe nothing against another but on good authority; nor report what may hurt another, unless it be a greater hurt to another to conceal it. Penn. 41. In ancient days the most celebrated precept was, "Know thyself"; in modern time it has been supplanted by the more fashionable maxim, "Know thy neighbor, and everything about him." Johnson. 42. Never does a man portray his own character more vividly than in his manner of portraying another. Richter. 43. Life would be a perpetual flea-hunt if a man were obliged to run down all the innuendoes, inveracities, insinuations and suspicions which are uttered against him. H. W. Beecher. 44. Slander issuing from red and beautiful lips, are like the foul and ugly spiders, crawling from the blushing heart of a rose. G. D. Prentice. 45. Whoever lends a greedy ear to slanderous reports, is either himself of a radically bad disposition, or a mere child in Menander. 46. If slander be a snake, it is a winged one; it flies as well as creeps. sense. Douglas Jerrold. 47. There would not be so many open mouths if there were not so many open ears. Bishop Hall. 48. If there is any person to whom you feel a dislike, that is the person of whom you ought never to speak. Richard Cecil. 49. No greater damage can be done to a man than to damage his character. Old Proverb. 50. Praise is life in death; vituperation is death in life. Arabian Proverb. 51. Great numbers of moderately good people think it fine to talk scandal; they regard it as a sort of evidence of their own goodness. F. W. Faber. 52. He who stabs you in the dark with a pen, would do the same with a penknife, were he equally safe from detection and the law. Quintilian. 53. A cruel story runs on wheels, and every hand oils the wheels as they run. George Eliot. CHAPTER XXX. LIFE, OLD AGE AND DEATH. Life's a short summer, man a flower; Johnson. I. A good man doubles the length of his existence; to have lived so as to look back with pleasure on our past existence is to live twice. Martial. 2. We live in deeds, not in years; in thoughts, not in breaths; in feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, and acts the best. P. J. Bailey. 3. The great fact is that life is a service. The only question is: "Whom will we serve?" F. W. Faber. 4. That life is long which answers life's great end; the tree that bears no fruit de serves no name; the man of wisdom is the Edward Young. man of years. 5. It is impossible to live pleasurably without living prudently, and honorably, and justly; or to live prudently, and honorably and justly without living pleasurably. Epicurus. 6. Life is composed of two parts: That which is passed-a dream; and that which is to come-a wish. Arabian Proverb. 7. With most men life is like a backgammon-half skill and half luck. O. W. Holmes. 8. What is life but a circulation of little mean actions? We lie down and rise again, dress and undress, feed and grow hungry, work or play, and are weary; and then we lie down again and the circle returns. Bishop Burnet. 9. One should never think of death. One should think of life; that is real piety. Lord Beaconsfield. 10. The life of man is a journey; a journey that must be travelled, however bad the roads or the accommodation. Goldsmith. |