Character and Conduct – 19 June – Balance

TEMPERANCE is reason’s girdle and passion’s bridle.

JEREMY TAYLOR

BE wary and keep cool.   A cool head is as necessary as a warm heart.  In any negotiations, steadiness and coolness are invaluable;   while they will often carry you in safety through times of danger and difficulty.

LORD AVEBURY

PLACE a guard over your strong points!   Thrift may run into niggardliness, generosity into prodigality or shiftlessness, Gentleness may become pusillanimity, tact become insincerity, power become oppression.   Characters need sentries at their points of weakness, true chough, but often the points of greatest strength are, paradoxically, really points of weakness.

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These quotes are from ‘Character and Conduct’ A selection of helpful thoughts from various authors arranged for daily reading.

Collected by Constance M Whishaw and first published in 1905 as a follow up to her volume of Daily Readings for members of the Being and Doing Guild who asked for an additional volume

In her preface Whishaw writes:

‘This collection of noble thoughts expressed by men and women of past and present ages who have endeavoured to leave the world a little better than they found it.’

It is my hope in publishing them here readers may be inspired to imitate the example of the authors.