Top 120 John Lancaster Spalding Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 3 of 3

101. “Folly will run its course and it is the part of wisdom not to take it too seriously.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

102. “If thy friends tire of thee, remember that it is human to tire of everything.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

103. “Agitators and declaimers may heat the blood, but they do not illumine the mind.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

104. “The able have no desire to appear to be so, and this is part of their ability.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

105. “We have lost the old love of work, of work which kept itself company, which was fair weather and music in the heart, which found its reward in the doing, craving neither the flattery of vulgar eyes nor the gold of vulgar men.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

106. “It is unpleasant to turn back, though it be to take the right way.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

107. “Those subjects have the greatest educational value, which are richest in incentives to the noblest self-activity.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

108. “Exercise of body and exercise of mind are supplementary, and both may be made recreative and educative.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

109. “Whom little things occupy and keep busy, are little men.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

110. “In education, as in religion and love, compulsion thwarts the purpose for which it is employed.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

111. “If there are but few who interest thee, why shouldst thou be disappointed if but few find thee interesting?”

— John Lancaster Spalding

112. “The world is a mirror into which we look, and see our own image.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

113. “If ancient descent could confer nobility, the lower forms of life would possess it in a greater degree than man.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

114. “We are not masters of the truth which is borne in upon us: it overpowers us.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

115. “As our power over others increases, we become less free; for to retain it, we must make ourselves its servants.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

116. “Dislike of another’s opinions and beliefs neither justifies our own nor makes us more certain of them: and to transfer the repugnance to the person himself is a mark of a vulgar mind.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

117. “They who see through the eyes of others are controlled by the will of others.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

118. “Where it is the chief aim to teach many things, little education is given or received.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

119. “To secure approval one must remain within the bounds of conventional mediocrity. Whatever lies beyond, whether it be greater insight and virtue, or greater stolidity and vice, is condemned. The noblest men, like the worst criminals, have been done to death.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

120. “The study of law is valuable as a mental discipline, but the practice of pleading tends to make one petty, formal, and insincere. To be driven to look to legality rather than to equity blurs the view of truth and justice.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

121. “He who leaves school, knowing little, but with a longing for knowledge, will go farther than one who quits, knowing many things, but not caring to learn more.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

122. “The study of science, dissociated from that of philosophy and literature, narrows the mind and weakens the power to love and follow the noblest ideals: for the truths which science ignores and must ignore are precisely those which have the deepest bearing on life and conduct.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

123. “When we have not the strength or the courage to grasp a new truth, we persuade ourselves that it is not a truth at all.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

124. “It is difficult to be sure of our friends, but it is possible to be certain of our loyalty to them.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

125. “As we can not love what is hateful, let us accustom ourselves neither to think nor to speak of disagreeable things and persons.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

126. “The lover of education labors first of all to educate himself.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

127. “We may outgrow the things of children, without acquiring sense and relish for those which become a man.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

128. “Reform the world within thyself, which is thy proper world.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

129. “States of soul rightly expressed, as the poet expresses them in moments of pure inspiration, retain forever the power of creating like states. It is this that makes genuine literature a vital force.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

130. “The exercise of authority is odious, and they who know how to govern, leave it in abeyance as much as possible.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

131. “Unless we consent to lack the common things which men call success, we shall hardly become heroes or saints, philosophers or poets.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

132. “The writers who accomplish most are those who compel thought on the highest and most profoundly interesting subjects.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

133. “The noblest are they who turning from the things the vulgar crave, seek the source of a blessed life in worlds to which the senses do not lead.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

134. “The smaller the company, the larger the conversation.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

135. “The seeking for truth is better than its loveless possession.”

— John Lancaster Spalding