Precept and Practice – JULY 9 – Influence

Character is far more an inspiration than a manufacture.   Toil of discipline and patience of culture may accomplish wonders in shaping a soul;  but the uplook of a reverent love to a nobler nature will draw down into the inner springs of the being the forces of that better life, and they will move from within in deeper breathings and fuller pulsings of the spirit.   A deep, true love will lift a soul out of the shallows of selfishness and the mud of fleshliness, when all other powers combined have failed to extricate it from the slough.

(Heber Newton)

The older we grow, the more we understand our own lives and histories,  the more shall we see that the spirit of Wisdom is the spirit of Love;  that the true way to gain influence over our fellow-men is to have charity towards them.   That is a hard lesson to learn, and all those who learn it generally learn it late, almost – God forgive us, too late.

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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