Precept & Practice – MARCH 17 – Sympathy

‘Tis cheap and easy to destroy.   There is not a joyful boy or innocent girl buoyant with fine purposes of duty, in all the street full of eager and rosy faces, but a cynic can kill and dishearten with a single word.

Despondency comes readily enough to the most sanguine.   Yes, this is easy;  but to help the young soul, add energy, inspire hope, and blow the coals into a useful flame;  to redeem defeat by new thought, by firm action, that is not easy, that is the work of divine men.

R. W. Emerson

What we want is the old spirit of our forefathers;  the firm conviction that not by criticism, but by sympathy we must understand:  what we want is more reverence, more love, more humanity, more depth.

The Reverend F. W. Robertson

The wider our interests the broader our sympathies……. Blessed are those whose hearts beat to the throbs of humanity.

E. Gibson

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From the Introduction to Precept and Practice

The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.

The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;-  with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;-  with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.

CONSTANCE  M. WHISHAW