Context: A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next to escape the censures of the world: if the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applauses of the public: a man is more sure of his conduct, when the verdict which he passes upon his own behaviour is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of all that know him.
On "Sir Roger", in The Spectator No. 122 (20 July 1711).
“Man, during his abode in this world, knows not his own heart.”
On the Last Day
Context: Man, during his abode in this world, knows not his own heart. Self-love spreads a veil over his imperfections, and conceals the knowledge of his true state, both from himself and from others. But on this day he shall be seen in his true dress, both by himself and by all mankind. The just man is disregarded and despised in this world: he is subjected in a great measure to the will of the sinner; his life is esteemed folly, and his end without honour. He, likewise, shall be seen in his true light on this day, and shall be honoured before the whole world with that honour to which his merits are entitled.
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Jean Baptiste Massillon 11
French Catholic bishop and famous preacher 1663–1742Related quotes
“A brave man's country is wherever he chooses his abode.”
Patria est ubicumque vir fortis sedem elegerit.
VI, 4, 13.
Historiarum Alexandri Magni Macedonis Libri Qui Supersunt, Book VI
6 : God is Shy of Strangers, p. 7.
The Everything and the Nothing (1963)
Context: If you are convinced of God's existence then it rests with you to seek Him, to see Him and to realize Him.
Do not search for God outside of you. God can only be found within you, for His only abode is the heart.
Second Dialogue; translated by Judith R. Bush, Christopher Kelly, Roger D. Masters
Dialogues: Rousseau Judge of Jean-Jacques (published 1782)
“Man exists in a world of his own creation.”
Lecture I. Introductory.
A Treatise on Language: Or, The Relation which Words Bear to Things, in Four Parts (1836)
Context: Man exists in a world of his own creation. He cannot step, but on ground transformed by culture; nor look, but on objects produced by art. The animals which constitute his food are unknown to nature, while trees, fruits, and herbs, are the trophies of his labour. In himself nearly every natural impulse is suppressed as vicious, and every mortification solicited as a virtue. His language, actions, sentiments, and desires are nearly all factitious. Stupendous in achievement, he is boundless in attempt. Having subdued the earth's surface, he would explore its centre; having vanquished diseases, he would subdue death. Unsatisfied with recording the past, he would anticipate the future. Uncontented with subjugating the ocean, he would traverse the air. Success but sharpens his avidity, and facility but augments his impatience.
“Instead of clearing his own heart the zealot tries to clear the world.”
Source: The Hero with a Thousand Faces
“A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.”
“The human heart is a tangled wood wherein no man knows his way.”
Four Minute Essays Vol. 5 (1919), The Human Heart
Source: The Theosophist, Volume 33 http://books.google.co.in/books?id=wJ9VAAAAYAAJ, p. 190