Precept and Practice – SEPTEMBER 2 – A Mind of Narrow Compass

The careless use of other people’s names is one of the evidences of untrained thought. In my opinion the want of occupation is no less the plague of society than of solitude.   Nothing is so apt to narrow the mind;  nothing produces more trifling silly stories, mischief-making, lies, than being eternally shut up in a room with one another, reduced, as the only alternative, to be constantly twaddling. When everybody is occupied, we only speak when we have something to say;  but when we are doing nothing, we are compelled to be always talking;  and of all torments, that is the most annoying and the most dangerous.

(Rousseau)

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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