“When the captain throws out his sheet-anchor, and the ship "rides at anchor," as it is called, there is a great strain on every link of that chain; and if one bad link breaks, off goes the anchor, and the ship is driven before the winds, and may be destroyed. Now, our character is very much like the chain; one bad piece vitiates and spoils it. So we must have a pure character.”

—  John Hall

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 44.

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John Hall 20
Presbyterian pastor from Northern Ireland in New York, died… 1829–1898

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