Hannah More Quotes

Prayer is not eloquence but earnestness not the definition of helplessness but the feeling of it not figures of speech but earnestness of soul.

In grief we know the worst of what we feel But who can tell the end of what we fear?

Twas doing nothing was his curse. Is there a vice can plague us worse?

Imagination frames events unknown In wild fantastic shapes of hideous ruin And what it fears creates.

Forgiveness spares the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.

One kernel is felt in a hogshead; one drop of water helps to swell the ocean; a spark of fire helps to give light to the world. None are too small, too feeble, too poor to be of service. Think of this and act.

If the Almighty chose to establish his religion by miracles, he chooses to carry it on by means.

I did not intend making a philippic against covetousness, a sin to which I believe no one here is addicted. Let us not, however, plume ourselves in not being guilty of a vice to which, as we have no natural bias so in not committing it, we resist no temptation. What I meant to insist on was, that exchanging a turbulent for a quiet sin, or a scandalous for an orderly one, is not reformation.

Just at that moment, Lucilla happened to cross the lawn at a distance. At sight of her, I could not, as I pointed to her, forbear exclaiming in the words of Sir John's favorite poet,There doth beauty dwell,There most conspicuous, e'en in outward shape,Where dawns the high expression of a mind."This is very fine," said Sir John, sarcastically. "I admire all you young enthusiastic philosophers, with your intellectual refinement. You pretend to be captivated only with _mind_. I observe, however, that previous to your raptures, you always take care to get this mind lodged in a fair and youthful form. This mental beauty is always prudently enshrined in some elegant corporeal frame, before it is worshiped. I should be glad to see some of these intellectual adorers in love with the mind of an old or ugly woman. I never heard any of you fall into ecstasies in descanting on the mind of your grandmother.

Going to the opera like getting drunk is a sin that carries its own punishment with it and that a very severe one.

Forgiveness is the economy of the heart.…forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.

I call education, not that which smothers a woman with accomplishments, but that which tends to consolidate a firm and regular system of character; that which tends to form a friend, a companion, and a wife. I call education not that which is made up of the shreds and patches of useless arts, but that which inculcates principles, polishes taste, regulates temper, cultivates reason, subdues the passions, directs the feelings, habituates to reflection, trains to self-denial, and, more especially, that which refers all actions, feelings, sentiments, tastes, and passions, to the love and fear of God.

It should be held as an eternal truth, that what is morally wrong can never be politically right.