“If thou wouldst be interesting, keep thy personality in the background, and be great and strong in and through thy subject.”

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 156

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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John Lancaster Spalding202

Catholic bishop 1840–1916

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If thou the truth wouldst teach;
Thy soul must overflow, if thou
Another's soul would'st reach!
It needs the overflow of heart
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Shall the world's famine feed;
Speak truly, and each word of thine
Shall be a fruitful seed;
Live truly, and thy life shall be
A great and noble creed.”

Horatius Bonar (1808–1889) British minister and poet

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“Thousands of angels at thy gate,
And great archangels stand,
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Great Lord, thy dread command!
Through all thy great, thy vast domains,
With godlike honours clad,
Captivity in captive chains
Triumphing thou hast led.”

William Julius Mickle (1734–1788) British writer

Paraphrase of the 68th Psalm

“I have not seen Thee, yet I tell Thy praise,
Nor known Thee, yet I image forth Thy ways.
For by Thy seers' and servants' mystic speech
Thou didst Thy sov'ran splendour darkly teach,
And from the grandeur of Thy work they drew
The measure of Thy inner greatness, too.
They told of Thee, but not as Thou must be,
Since from Thy work they tried to body Thee.
To countless visions did their pictures run,
Behold through all the visions Thou art one.”

Yehuda he-Hasid (1140–1217) German philosopher

Shir Hakovod, trans. from the Hebrew by Israel Zangwill

“Thou unrelenting Past!
Strong are the barriers round thy dark domain,
And fetters, sure and fast,
Hold all that enter thy unbreathing reign.”

William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) American romantic poet and journalist

The Past http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16341/16341-h/16341-h.htm#page143, st. 1 (1828)

“2597. Keep thy Judgment to thyself. Why should others know what thou art? or paraphrase upon thy Opinion? Herein thou hast the Advantage of changing thy Mind when thou art mistaken, and yet continue ( for ought others know ) in the same Mind.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727)

“Life is a voyage. The winds of life come strong
From every point; yet each will speed thy course along,
If thou with steady hand when tempests blow
Canst keep thy course aright and never once let go.”

Theodore Chickering Williams (1855–1915) American hymnwriter

The Voyage of Life, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“So weak thou art, that fools thy power despise;
And yet so strong, thou triumph'st o'er the wise.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

To Love, found in Miss Vanhomrigh's desk after her death, in Swift's handwriting

“In life's small things be resolute and great
To keep thy muscle trained: know'st thou when Fate
Thy measure takes, or when she'll say to thee,
"I find thee worthy; do this deed for me?"”

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat

Epigram.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“And also to the alien, who is not of Thy people Israel, but comes from a distant land on account of Thy fame; for hearing of Thy great name and Thy strong hand, and Thine outstretched arm, he comes to this house to pray… do Thou listen in the heavens, the place where Thou dwellest, and perform all that the alien begs of Thee, so that all the peoples of the earth may know Thy name, to fear Thee like Thine own people Israel, and to know that Thy name is proclaimed over this house that I have built.”

Solomon (-990–-931 BC) king of Israel and the son of David

I Kings 8:41-43 on the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem

“Strong be thy wallis that about the standis;
Wise be the people that within the dwellis;
Fresh is thy ryver with his lusty strandis;
Blith be thy chirches, wele sownyng be thy bellis;
Riche be thy merchauntis in substance that excellis
Fair be thy wives, right lovesom, white and small;
Clere be thy virgyns, lusty under kellis:
London, thou art the flour of Cities all.”

William Dunbar (1460–1520) Poet and civil servant

"London, thou art of townes A per se", line 41.
John Stow's ascription of this poem to Dunbar, though unchallenged for centuries, is no longer accepted.
Misattributed

“If thou wouldst be interesting, keep thy personality in the background, and be great and strong in and through thy subject.”

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John Lancaster Spalding202

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