Character and Conduct – 15 November – Contentment

MAN seeks pleasure and self-great unforeseen results follow.   Man seeks God and others – and there follows pleasure.

ARNOLD TOYNBEE

THE true felicity of life is to be free from perturbations;  to understand our duties towards God and man;  to enjoy the present without any serious dependence upon the future.   Not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears, but to rest satisfied with what we have.   The great blessings of mankind are within our reach;  but we shut our eyes, and, like people in the dark, we fall foul upon the very thing we search for, without finding it.   Tranquillity is the state of human perfection, it raises us as high as we can go, and makes every man his own supporter;  whereas he that is borne up by anything else may fall.   He that judges right and perseveres in it, enjoys a perpetual calm;  he takes a true prospect of things;  he observes an order, measure, a decorum in all his actions;  he has a benevolence in his nature;  and squares his life according to reason, and draws to himself love and admiration.   Without a certain and un-changeable judgment, all the rest is but fluctuation.   Liberty and serenity of mind must necessarily ensue upon the mastering of those things which either allure or affright us, when, instead of those flashy pleasures we shall find ourselves possessed of joys transporting and everlasting.

SENECA

NOTHING can bring you peace but yourself, nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principle.

EMERSON

oooOOOooo

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.