Beware of the beginnings of vice. Do not delude yourself with the belief that it can be argued against in the presence of the exciting cause. Nothing but actual flight can save you.
BENJAMIN HAYDONBeware of the beginnings of vice. Do not delude yourself with the belief that it can be argued against in the presence of the exciting cause. Nothing but actual flight can save you.
BENJAMIN HAYDONGenius in poverty is never feared, because nature, though liberal in her gifts in one instance, is forgetful in another.
BENJAMIN HAYDONDanger is the very basis of superstition. It produces a searching after help supernaturally when human means are no longer supposed to be available.
BENJAMIN HAYDONNo man, perhaps, is so wicked as to commit evil for its own sake. Evil is generally committed under the hope of some advantage the pursuit of virtue seldom obtains. Yet the most successful result of the most virtuous heroism is never without its alloy.
BENJAMIN HAYDONThe safest principle through life, instead of reforming others, is to set about perfecting yourself.
BENJAMIN HAYDONIt is highly convenient to believe in the infinite mercy of God when you feel the need of mercy, but remember also his infinite justice.
BENJAMIN HAYDONGenius is nothing more than common faculties refined to a greater intensity. There are no astonishing ways of doing astonishing things. All astonishing things are done by ordinary materials.
BENJAMIN HAYDONOne of the surest evidences of an elevated taste is the power of enjoying works of impassioned terrorism, in poetry, and painting. The man who can look at impassioned subjects of terror with a feeling of exultation may be certain he has an elevated taste.
BENJAMIN HAYDONMen of genius are often considered superstitious, but the fact is, the fineness of their nerve renders them more alive to the supernatural than ordinary men.
BENJAMIN HAYDONNewton’s health, and confusion to mathematics.
BENJAMIN HAYDONTo procrastinate seems inherent in man, for if you do to-day that you may enjoy to-morrow it is but deferring the enjoyment; so that to be idle or industrious, vicious or virtuous, is but with a view of procrastinating the one or the other.
BENJAMIN HAYDONThere surely is in human nature an inherent propensity to extract all the good out of all the evil.
BENJAMIN HAYDONInvention is totally independent of the will.
BENJAMIN HAYDONHow difficult it is to get men to believe that any other man can or does act from disinterestedness!
BENJAMIN HAYDONAll government is an evil, but, of the two form’s of that evil, democracy or monarchy, the sounder is monarchy; the more able to do its will, democracy.
BENJAMIN HAYDONSatan is to be punished eternally in the end, but for a while he triumphs.
BENJAMIN HAYDON