You've got to save your own soul first, and then the souls of
your neighbors if they will let read more

You've got to save your own soul first, and then the souls of
your neighbors if they will let you; and for that reason you must
cultivate, not a spirit of criticism, but the talents that
attract people to the hearing of the Word.

Influencing people is dangerous. Their acts and thoughts become your illegitimate children. You can't get away from them and Heaven read more

Influencing people is dangerous. Their acts and thoughts become your illegitimate children. You can't get away from them and Heaven knows what they mayn't grow up into.

Spontaneously to God should turn the soul,
Like the magnetic needle to the pole;
But what were read more

Spontaneously to God should turn the soul,
Like the magnetic needle to the pole;
But what were that intrinsic virtue worth,
Suppose some fellow, with more zeal than knowledge,
Fresh from St. Andrew's College,
Should nail the conscious needle to the north?

The strongest influences in my life and my work are always whomever I love. Whomever I love and am with read more

The strongest influences in my life and my work are always whomever I love. Whomever I love and am with most of the time, or whomever I remember most vividly. I think that's true of everyone, don't you?

A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

There is no such thing as a good influence. Because to influence a person is to give him one's own read more

There is no such thing as a good influence. Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtures are not real to him. His sins, if there are such thing as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him.

The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water
flowing hidden underground, secretly making read more

The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water
flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.

If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, the whole face of the
earth would have been changed.

If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, the whole face of the
earth would have been changed.

Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the
deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
read more

Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the
deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never
so wisely.