Infinite toil would not enable you to sweep away a mist; but by ascending a little, you may often look over it altogether. So it is with our moral improvement: we wrestle fiercely with a vicious habit, which could have no hold upon us if we ascended into a higher moral atmosphere.

Arthur Helps

Categorized in : Littles Toil Atmosphere

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground, but a kind word is neve... by Arthur Helps

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground, but a kind word is never thrown away.

gratitude wise inspirational

Keep your feet on the ground, but let your heart soar as high as it will. Refuse to be average or to surrender to the chill of your spiritual environment.

spiritual heart inspirational

To hear always, to think always, to learn always, it is thus that we live truly. He who aspires to nothing, who learns nothing, is not worthy of living.

worthy improvement thinking

In a balanced organization, working towards a common objective, t... by Arthur Helps

In a balanced organization, working towards a common objective, there is success.

congratulations business success

Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought. by Arthur Helps

Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought.

reading beer book

There are no better cosmetics than a severe temperance and purity, modesty and humility, a gracious temper and calmness of spirit; and there is no true beauty without the signatures of these graces in the very countenance.

humility grace beauty

The apparent foolishness of others is but too frequently our own... by Arthur Helps

The apparent foolishness of others is but too frequently our own ignorance.

foolishness ignorance

Do not be deceived into thinking that how a man acts is the full... by Arthur Helps

Do not be deceived into thinking that how a man acts is the full picture.

deceived men thinking

Routine is not organization, any more than paralysis is order. by Arthur Helps

Routine is not organization, any more than paralysis is order.

routine organization order

Some persons, instead of making a religion for their God, are content to make a god of their religion.

persons religion

The sense of danger is never, perhaps, so fully apprehended as wh... by Arthur Helps

The sense of danger is never, perhaps, so fully apprehended as when the danger has been overcome.

has-beens overcoming danger

Man ceased to be an ape, vanquished the ape, on the day the first... by Arthur Helps

Man ceased to be an ape, vanquished the ape, on the day the first book was written.

reading men book

Every happiness is a hostage to fortune. by Arthur Helps

Every happiness is a hostage to fortune.

hostage fortune

I do not know any way so sure of making others happy as of being... by Arthur Helps

I do not know any way so sure of making others happy as of being so oneself, to begin with.

self happiness way

Alas! it is not the child but the boy that generally survives in... by Arthur Helps

Alas! it is not the child but the boy that generally survives in the man.

men boys children

It takes a great man to make a great listener by Arthur Helps

It takes a great man to make a great listener

empathy understanding men

A mixture of admiration and pity is one of the surest recipes for... by Arthur Helps

A mixture of admiration and pity is one of the surest recipes for affection.

admiration mixtures recipes

They tell us that "Pity is akin to Love;" if so, Pity must be a p... by Arthur Helps

They tell us that "Pity is akin to Love;" if so, Pity must be a poor relation.

pity poor relation

The heroic example of other days is in great part the source of the courage of each generation; and men walk up composedly to the most perilous enterprises, beckoned onward by the shades of the brave that were.

example bravery men

Any one who is much talked of be much maligned. This seems to be a harsh conclusion; but when you consider how much more given men are to depreciate than to appreciate, you will acknowledge that there is some truth in the saying.

harsh appreciate men