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SECRECY.

stowed, and whether a secret has not some subtile volatility by which it escapes imperceptibility, at the smallest vent, or some power of fermentation, by which it expands itself, so as to burst the heart that will not give it way.-Johnson.

If a fool knows a secret, he tells it because he is a fool: if a knave knows one, he tells it whenever it is his interest to tell it. But women and young men are very apt to tell what secrets they know, from the vanity of having been trusted. Trust none of these whenever you can help it.-Chesterfield.

He who trusts secrets to a servant makes him his master.-Dryden.

To tell our own secrets is generally folly, but that folly is without guilt; to communicate those with which we are intrusted is always treachery, and treachery for the most part combined with folly.Johnson.

Trust no secrets to a friend, which, if reported, would bring infamy.—Thales.

Washington, having been asked by an officer on the morning of a battle, what were his plans for the day, replied in a whisper, Can you keep a secret? "On being answered in the affirmative, the general added-so can I.

He deserves small trust who is not privy counsellor to himself.-Ford.

I have play'd the fool, the gross fool, to believe the bosom of a friend would hold a secret mine own could not contain.—Massinger.

How can we expect another to keep our secret if we cannot keep it ourselves?— Rochefoucauld.

The truly wise man should have no keeper of his secret but himself.-Guizot. Who shall be true to us, when we are so unsecret to ourselves ?-Shakespeare.

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.-Franklin.

It is said that he or she who admits the possession of a secret, has already half revealed it. It is a great deal gained toward the acquisition of a treasure, to know exactly where it is.-Simms.

Secrecy is the chastity of friendship.Jeremy Taylor.

Nothing is so oppressive as a secret.-It is difficult for ladies to keep it long; and I know, in this matter, a good number of men who are women.-Fontaine.

When a secret is revealed, it is the fault of the man who has intrusted it.—Bruyère. A secret is too little for one, enough for two, and too much for three.-Howell.

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Secrecy is best taught by commencing with ourselves.-Chamfort.

He that discovers himself till he hath made himself master of his desires, lays himself open to his own ruin, and makes himself a prisoner to his own tongue.— Quarles.

I will govern my life and my thoughts as if all the world were to see the one and to read the other; for what does it signify to make anything a secret to my neighbor, when to God all our privacies are open ?— Seneca.

A resolution that is communicated is no longer within thy power; thy intentions become now the plaything of chance; he who would have his commands certainly carried out must take men by surprise.Goethe.

A secret in his mouth is like a wild bird put into a cage; whose door no sooner opens, but it is out.-Ben Johnson.

He was a wise fellow, and had good discretion, that, being bid to ask what he would of the king, desired he might know none of his secrets.-Shakespeare.

To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.O. W. Holmes.

A man is more faithful to the secret of another than to his own; a woman, on the contrary, preserves her own secret better than that of another.-Bruyère.

Where secrecy or mystery begins, vice or roguery is not far off.-Johnson.

Fire that is closest kept burns most of all.-Shakespeare.

Secrecy is for the happy; misery, hopeless misery needs no veil; under a thousand suns it dares act openly.-Schiller.

People addicted to secrecy are so without knowing why they are not so for cause, but for secrecy's sake.-Hazlitt.

Secrets with girls, like guns with boys, are never valued till they make a noise.Crabbe.

Never confide your secrets to paper; it is like throwing a stone in the air, you do not know where it may fall.— Calderon.

Thou hast betrayed thy secret as a bird betrays her nest, by striving to conceal it. -Longfellow.

What thou seest speak of with caution.Solon.

'Tis in my memory locked, and you yourself shall keep the key of it.-Shakespeare. I vow and protest there's more plague than pleasure with a secret.-Colman.

SECTS.

Trust him not with your secrets, who, when left alone in your room, turns over your papers.-Lavater.

Conceal thy domestic ills.-Thales.

When two friends part they should lock up one another's secrets, and interchange their keys.-Feltham.

There is as much responsibility in imparting your own secrets, as in keeping those of your neighbor.-Darley.

None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them. Such persons covet secrets as spendthrifts do money, for the purpose of circulation.-Colton.

SECTS.-Sects and Christians that desire to be known by the undue prominence of doing some single feature of Christianity, are imperfect just in proportion to the distinctness of their peculiarities. The power of Christian truth is in its unity and sympathy, and not in the saliency or brilliancy of any of its special doctrines. The spirit of Christ is the great essential truth. -H. W. Beecher.

The effective strength of sects is not to be ascertained merely by counting heads. -Macaulay.

It is written, that the coat of our Saviour was without seam; whence some would infer, that there should be no division in the church of Christ. It should be so indeed; yet seams in the same cloth neither hurt the garment, nor misbecome it; and not only seams, but schisms will be while men are fallible.-Milton.

I do not want the walls of separation between different orders of Christians to be destroyed, but only lowered, that we may shake hands a little easier over them. -Rowland Hill.

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SELF-APPROBATION.-We the world in approving others; we go far before it in approving ourselves.- Colton. 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 behavior is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of all that know him.-Addison.

One self-approving hour whole years outweighs of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas.-Pope.

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SELF-CONCEIT.-He who gives himself airs of importance, exhibits the credentials of impotence.-Lavater.

The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit, than seven men who can render a reason. He who has no inclination to learn more, will be very apt to think that he knows enough. Nor is it wonderful that he should pride himself in the abundance of his wisdom, with whom every wavering thought, every half-formed imagination, passes for a fixed and substantial truth. Obstinacy also, which makes him unable to discover his mistakes, makes him believe himself unable to commit them.-Powell.

There are few people who are more often in the wrong than those who cannot endure to be thought so.-Rochefoucauld.

All men who know not where to look for truth save in the narrow well of self, will find their own image at the bottom and mistake it for what they are seeking.-J. R. Lowell.

The weakest spot in every man, is where he thinks himself to be the wisest.-Em

mons.

Conceited men are a harmless kind of creatures, who, by their overweening selfrespect, relieve others from the duty of respecting them at all.-H. W. Beecher.

Of all the follies incident to youth, there are none which blast their prospects, or render them more contemptible, than selfconceit, presumption, and obstinacy. By checking progress in improvement, they fix one in long immaturity, and produce irreparable mischief.-Blair.

He that fancies himself very enlightened, because he sees the deficiencies of others, may be very ignorant, because he has not studied his own.-Bulwer.

I look upon the too good opinion that man has of himself as the nursing mother of all false opinions, both public and private.-Montaigne.

When a person feels disposed to overestimate his own importance, let him remember that mankind got along very well before his birth, and that in all probability they will get along very well after his death.

SELF-CONCEIT.

A wise man knows his own ignorance; a fool thinks he knows everything.-C. Sim

mons.

The proportion of those who think is extremely small; yet every individual flatters himself that he is one of the number.—Colton.

We are very apt to be full of ourselves, instead of Him that made what we so much value, and but for whom we have no reason to value ourselves. For we have nothing that we can call our own, no, not ourselves; for we are all but tenants, and at will too, of the great Lord of ourselves, and of this great farm, the world that we live upon.-Penn.

In one thing men of all ages are alike: they have believed obstinately in themselves.-Jacobi.

Self-conceit is a weighty quality, and will sometimes bring down the scale when there is nothing else in it. It magnifies a fault beyond proportion, and swells every omission into an outrage.-Jeremy Collier.

The less a man thinks or knows about his virtues the better we like him.-Emer

son.

Prize not thyself by what thou hast, but by what thou art; he that values a jewel by its golden frame, or a book by its silver clasps, or a man by his vast estate, errs. -Quarles.

Many men spend their lives in gazing at their own shadows, and so dwindle away into shadows thereof.-Hare.

Even dress is apt to inflame a man's opinion of himself.-Home.

Whenever nature leaves a hole in a person's mind, she generally plasters it over with a thick coat of self-conceit.-Longfellow.

In the same degree that we overrate ourselves, we shall underrate others; for injustice allowed at home is not likely to be corrected abroad.- Washington Allston.

Wouldest thou not be thought a fool in another's conceit, be not wise in thy own : he that trusts to his own wisdom, proclaims his own folly: he is truly wise, and shall appear so, that hath folly enough to be thought not worldly wise, or wisdom enough to see his own folly.-—Quarles.

He who is always his own counsellor, will often have a fool for his client.—Hunter.

Oftentimes nothing profits more than self-esteem, grounded on what is just and right.-Milton.

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SELF-CONTROL.-If you would learn self-mastery, begin by yielding yourself to the One Great Master.-Lobstein.

Conquer thyself. Till thou hast done this, thou art but a slave; for it is almost as well to be subjected to another's appetite as to thine own.-Burton.

The command of one's self is the greatest empire a man can aspire unto, and consequently, to be subject to our own passions is the most grievous slavery. He who best governs himself is best fitted to govern others.

He who reigns within himself and rules his passions, desires, and fears, is more than a king.-Milton.

For want of self-restraint many men are engaged all their lives in fighting with difficulties of their own making, and rendering success impossible by their own crossgrained ungentleness; whilst others, it may be much less gifted, make their way and achieve success by simple patience, equanimity, and self-control.-Smiles.

Self-government is, indeed, the noblest rule on earth; the object of a loftier ambition than the possession of crowns or sceptres. The truest conquest is where the soul is bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. The monarch of his own mind is the only real potentate.-Caird.

The man whom Heaven appoints to govern others, should himself first learn to bend his passions to the sway of reason. -Thomson.

To rule self and subdue our passions is the more praiseworthy because so few know how to do it.— Guiccardini.

Every temptation that is resisted, every noble aspiration that is encouraged, every sinful thought that is repressed, every bitter word that is withheld, adds its little item to the impetus of that great movement which is bearing humanity onward toward a richer life and higher character. -Fiske.

Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.-Seneca.

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SELF-CONTROL.

He that lays down precepts for governing our lives and moderating our passions, obliges humanity not only in the present, but for all future generations.-Seneca.

Those who can command themselves, command others.-Hazlitt.

More dear in the sight of God and His angels than any other conquest is the conquest of self.-A. P. Stanley.

Let not any one say that he cannot govern his passions, nor hinder them from breaking out and carrying him to action; for what he can do before a prince or a great man, he can do alone, or in the presence of God if he will.-Locke.

Self-control is promoted by humility. Pride is a fruitful source of uneasiness. It keeps the mind in disquiet. Humility is the antidote to this evil.—Mrs. Sigourney.

I will have a care of being a slave to myself, for it is a perpetual, a shameful, and the heaviest of all servitudes; and this may be done by uncontrolled desires.-Seneca.

The constancy of sages is nothing but the art of locking up their agitation in their hearts.-Rochefoucauld.

One of the most important, but one of the most difficult things for a powerful mind is, to be its own master. A pond may A pond may lie quiet in a plain; but a lake wants mountains to compass and hold it in.-Addison.

He who would govern others should first be master of himself.-Massinger.

He is a fool who cannot be angry; but he is a wise man who will not.-Old Proverb.

A man must first govern himself, ere he be fit to govern a family; and his family, ere he be fit to bear the government in the commonwealth.-Sir W. Raleigh.

Real glory springs from the silent conquest of ourselves; without that the conqueror is only the first slave.-Thomson.

No conflict is so severe as his who labors to subdue himself.―Thomas à Kempis.

Do you want to know the man against whom you have most reason to guard yourself? Your looking-glass will give you a very fair likeness of his face. Whately.

Over the times thou hast no power.-To redeem a world sunk in dishonesty has not been given thee. Solely over one man therein thou hast a quite absolute, uncontrollable power.-Him redeem and make honest.-Carlyle.

No man is free who cannot command himself.-Pythagoras.

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It is the man who is cool and collected, who is master of his countenance, his voice, his actions, his gestures, of every part, who can work upon others at his pleasure. -Diderot.

Wouldst thou have thy flesh obey thy spirit? Then let thy spirit obey thy God. Thou must be governed, that thou may'st govern.-Augustine.

Better conquest never canst thou make, than warn thy constant and thy nobler parts against giddy, loose suggestions.— Shakespeare.

Who to himself is law, no law doth need. -Chapman.

When Alexander had subdued the world, and wept that none were left to dispute his arms, his tears were an involuntary tribute to a monarchy that he knew not, man's empire over himself.-Jane Porter.

No one who cannot master himself is worthy to rule, and only he can rule.— Goethe.

May I govern my passions with absolute sway, and grow wiser and better as life wears away.-Watts.

The most precious of all possessions, is power over ourselves; power to withstand trial, to bear suffering, to front danger; power over pleasure and pain; power to follow our convictions, however resisted by menace and scorn; the power of calm reliance in scenes of darkness and storms. He that has not a mastery over his inclinations; he that knows not how to resist the importunity of present pleasure or pain, for the sake of what reason tells him is fit to be done, wants the true principle of virtue and industry, and is in danger of never being good for anything.-Locke.

SELF-DECEPTION. -No man was ever so much deceived by another, as by himself.-Gréville.

It many times falls out, that we deem ourselves much deceived in others, because we first deceived ourselves.- Sir P. Sidney.

Nothing is so easy as to deceive one's self, for what we wish we readily believe; but such expectations are often inconsistent with the reality of things.-Demosthe

nes.

The coward reckons himself cautious; the miser thinks himself frugal.-Home. Every man is his own greatest dupe.W. R. Alger.

Who has deceived thee so often as thyself?-Franklin,

SELF-DENIAL.

The greatest of fools is he who imposes on himself, and in his greatest concerns thinks he knows that which he has least studied, and of which he is profoundly ignorant.-Shaftesbury.

The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat one's self. All sin is easy after that. -Bailey.

From the beginning of the world to this day there never was any great villainy acted by men but it was in the strength of some great fallacy put upon their minds by a false representation of evil for good, or good for evil.-South.

To be deceived by our enemies or betrayed by our friends is insupportable; yet by ourselves we are often content to be so treated.-Rochefoucauld.

We cheat ourselves in order to enjoy a quiet conscience, without possessing virtue. -Lambert.

Many a man has a kind of kaleidoscope, where the broken bits of glass are his own merits and fortunes; and they fall into harmonious arrangements and delight him, often most mischievously, and to his ultimate detriment; but they are a present pleasure.-A. Helps.

SELF-DENIAL.-The worst education which teaches self-denial, is better than the best which teaches everything else and not that.-Sterling.

Every personal consideration that we allow, costs us heavenly state. We sell the thrones of angels for a short and turbulent pleasure.-Emerson.

Teach self-denial, and make its practice pleasurable, and you create for the world a destiny more sublime than ever issued from the brain of the wildest dreamer.Walter Scott.

Shall we call ourselves benevolent, when the gifts we bestow do not cost us a single privation?-Degerando.

The secret of all success is to know how to deny yourself.-Prove that you can control yourself, and you are an educated man ; and without this all other education is good for nothing.

To you self-denial may only mean weariness, restraint, ennui; but it means, also, love, perfection, sanctification.

Of all sorts of earthly good the price is self-denial.-The lower must be sacrificed for the greater; the coarser give place to the finer.-Every step of our progress toward success is a sacrifice.-We gain by losing; grow by dwindling; live by dying. -R. D. Hitchcock,

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'Tis much the doctrine of the times that men should not please themselves, but deny themselves everything they take delight in; not look upon beauty, wear no good clothes, eat no good meat, etc., which seems the greatest accusation that can be upon the Maker of all good things. If they are not to be used, why did God make them?— Selden.

The more a man denies himself, the more he shall obtain from God.—Horace.

There never did, and never will exist anything permanently noble and excellent in the character which is a stranger to the exercise of resolute self-denial.- Walter Scott.

When you give, take to yourself no credit for generosity, unless you deny yourself something in order that you may give.-Henry Taylor.

Self-abnegation, that rare virtue, that good men preach and good women practice.-O. W. Holmes.

In vain do they talk of happiness who never subdued an impulse in obedience to a principle. He who never sacrificed a present to a future good, or a personal to a general one, can speak of happiness only as the blind speak of color.-H. Mann.

Self-denial is an excellent guard of virtue, for it is safer and wiser to abate somewhat of our lawful enjoyments than to gratify our desires to the utmost of what is permitted, lest the bent of nature toward pleasure hurry us further.-Townson.

He is one of the noblest conquerors who carries on a successful warfare against his own appetites and passions, and has them under wise and full control.-Tryon Edwards.

One secret act of self-denial, one sacrifice of inclination to duty, is worth all the mere good thoughts, warm feelings, passionate prayers in which idle people indulge themselves.-J. H. Newman.

Self-denial does not belong to religion as characteristic of it; it belongs to human life. The lower nature must always be denied when you are trying to rise to a higher sphere. It is no more necessary to be selfdenying to be a Christian, than it is to be an artist, or an honest man, or a man at all in distinction from a brute.-Of all joyous experiences there are none like those which spring from true religion.-H. W. Beecher.

Whoever will labor to get rid of self, to deny himself according to the instructions of Christ, strikes at once at the root of every evil, and finds the germ of every good.-Fénelon.

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