Page:Three Thousand Selected Quotations from Brilliant Writers.djvu/300

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GREATNESS.

There is a voice from the tomb sweeter than song. There is a remembrance of the dead to which we turn even from the charms of the living. O, the grave! the grave! It buries every error, covers every defect, extinguishes every resentment. From its peaceful bosom spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections.


The grave has a door on its inner side.


GREATNESS.

The greatest man is he who chooses the right with the most invincible resolution; who resists the sorest temptation from within and without; who bears the heavest burdens cheerfully; who is calmest in storms, and most fearless under menaces and frowns; whose reliance on truth, on virtue, and on God is most unfaltering.

Seneca.

Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the using of strength.


True greatness does not consist so much in doing extraordinary things, as in conducting ordinary affairs with a noble demeanor and from a right motive. It is necessary and most profitable to remember the advice to Titus, "Showing all good fidelity in all things."


A solemn and religious regard to spiritual and eternal things is an indispensable element of all true greatness.