“Nothing progresses more rapidly in a heart set upon doing good than an ability to be useful. They who at first are timid, shy, awkward, in such efforts, soon acquire courage, expertness, and efficiency.”

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 121.

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

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Nothing progresses more rapidly in a heart set upon doing good than an ability to be useful. They who at first are timi…" by John Angell James?
John Angell James photo
John Angell James 22
British abolitionist 1785–1859

Related quotes

Ignatius Sancho photo

“…an awkward loon- whom I do sometimes care about- who has more wit than money- more good sense than wit- more urbanity than sense- and more pride than some princes”

Ignatius Sancho (1729–1780) British composer, writer and grocer

(from vol 2, letter 42: 9 Oct 1779, to Mr M___ ) [describing a friend]

François de La Rochefoucauld photo
Alexis De Tocqueville photo
Sydney Smith photo

“A great deal of talent is lost to the world for the want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves a number of obscure men who have only remained obscure because their timidity has prevented them from making a first effort.”

Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English writer and clergyman

Lecture IX : On the Conduct of the Understanding
Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy (1849)

Louise Burfitt-Dons photo
Aldous Huxley photo

“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.”

"Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" in Adonis and the Alphabet (1956); later in Collected Essays (1959), p. 293
Source: Ends and Means

Harry Gordon Selfridge photo
Seneca the Younger photo
Pierre Trudeau photo

“What sets a canoeing expedition apart is that it purifies you more rapidly and inescapably than any other.”

Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) 15th Prime Minister of Canada

"Exhaustion and Fulfillment : The Ascetic in a Canoe" (1944) http://www.canoe.ca/che-mun/102trudeau.html <!-- republished in Trudeau: PM, Patriot, Paddler -->
Context: What sets a canoeing expedition apart is that it purifies you more rapidly and inescapably than any other. Travel a thousand miles by train and you are a brute; pedal five hundred on a bicycle and you remain basically a bourgeois; paddle a hundred in a canoe and you are already a child of nature.

Ernest Hemingway photo

Related topics