Arthur Helps Quotes (1813-1875)

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

“Even the most careless people have a sort of aversion to signing things which they have never considered.”

“There is hardly a more common error than that of taking the man who has one talent, for a genius.”

“Self-indulgence takes many forms; and we should bear in mind that there may be a sullen sensuality as well as a gay one.”

“How often we should stop in the pursuit of folly, if it were not for the difficulties that continually beckon us onwards.”

“Friendship is often outgrown; and his former child’s clothes will no more fit a man than some of his former friendships.”

“You must work for yourself; for what you reject may be as important for you to have seen and thought about, as what you adopt.”

“Soothe the present as much as we may; look forward as hopefully as we can to the future, still the dreadful past must overshadow us.”

“The envious man desires some good which another possesses; the jealous man would often be content to be without the good so that that other did not possess it.”

“The knowledge of others which experience gives us, is of slight value when compared with that which we obtain from having proved the inconstancy of our own desires.”

“The greatest luxury of riches is that they enable you to escape so much good advice. The rich are always advising the poor; but the poor seldom return the compliment.”

“There is one statesman of the present day, of whom I always say that he would have escaped making the blunders that he has made if he had only ridden more in omnibuses.”

“There is nothing so easily made offensive as good reasoning; and men of clear logical minds, if not gifted at the same time with tact, make more enemies than men with bad hearts and unsound understandings.”

“Our knowledge of human nature is for the most part empirical; and it would often be better, if, instead of endeavouring to say some new things ourselves, we were to confirm without more words the sayings of another.”

“It has always appeared to me that there is so much to be done in this world, that all self-inflicted suffering which cannot be turned to good account for others, is a loss—a loss, if you may so express it, to the spiritual world.”

“Any one who is much talked of, must 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.”

“The unfortunate Ladurlad did not desire the sleep that for ever fled his weary eyelids with more earnestness than most people seek the deep slumber of a decided opinion.”

“The more truth you can get into any business, the better. Let the other side know the defects of yours, let them know how you are to be satisfied, let there be as little to be found as possible (I should say nothing), and if your business be an honest one, it will be best tended in this way.”

“Love, like the opening of the heavens to the Saints, shows for a moment, even to the dullest man, the possibilities of the human race. He has faith, hope, and charity for another being, perhaps but a creation of his imagination: still it is a great advance for a man to be profoundly loving even in his imagination.”