Tryon Edwards Quotes

Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past.

Any act often repeated soon forms a habit; and habit allowed, steady gains in strength, At first it may be but as a spider's web, easily broken through, but if not resisted it soon binds us with chains of steel.

Every parting is a form of death, as every reunion is a type of heaven.

Some so speak in exaggerations and superlatives that we need to make a large discount from their statements before we can come at their real meaning.

We never reach our ideals, whether of mental or moral improvement, but the thought of them shows us our deficiencies, and spurs us on to higher and better things.

Prejudices are rarely overcome by argument; not being founded in reason they cannot be destroyed by logic.

Always have a book at hand, in the parlor, on the table, for the family; a book of condensed thought and striking anecdote, of sound maxims and truthful apothegms. It will impress on your own mind a thousand valuable suggestions, and teach your children a thousand lessons of truth and duty. Such a book is a casket of jewels for your housebold.

If you would thoroughly know anything, teach it to others.

Thoughts lead on to purpose, purpose leads on to actions, actions form habits, habits decide character, and character fixes our destiny.

Age does not depend upon years, but upon temperament and health. Some men are born old, and some never grow so.

Some of the best lessons we ever learn we learn from our mistakes and failures. — The error of the past is the wisdom and success of the future.

True humility is not an abject, groveling, self-despising spirit; it is but a right estimate of ourselves as God sees us.

The first step to improvement, whether mental, moral, or religious, is to know ourselves - our weaknesses, errors, deficiencies, and sins, that, by divine grace, we may overcome and turn from them all.

We weep over the graves of infants and the little ones taken from us by death; but an early grave may be the shortest way to heaven.

The great end of education is, to discipline rather than to furnish the mind; to train it to the use of its own powers, rather than fill it with the accumulation of others.

Sinful and forbidden pleasures are like poisoned bread; they may satisfy appetite for the moment, but there is death in them at the end.

He that never changes his opinions, never corrects his mistakes, will never be wiser on the morrow than he is today.

Quiet and sincere sympathy is often the most welcome and efficient consolation to the afflicted. Said a wise man to one in deep sorrow, I did not come to comfort you; God only can do that; but I did come to say how deeply and tenderly I feel for you in your affliction.

Seek for duty, and happiness will follow as the shadow comes with the sunshine.

Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both.

Credulity is belief in slight evidence, with no evidence, or against evidence.

Anxiety is the poison of human life; the parent of many sins and of more miseries.

Science has sometimes been said to be opposed to faith, and inconsistent with it. But all science, in fact, rests on a basis of faith, for it assumes the permanence and uniformity of natural laws - a thing which can never be demonstrated.

He who can suppress a moments anger may prevent a day of sorrow.

Anecdotes are sometimes the best vehicles of truth, and if striking and appropriate are often more impressive and powerful than argument.

To waken interest and kindle enthusiasm is the sure way to teach easily and successfully.

Sincerity is not test of truth-no evidence of correctness of conduct. You may take poison sincerely believing it the needed medicine, but will it save your life?

To rejoice in another's prosperity is to give content to your lot; to mitigate another's grief is to alleviate or dispel your own

What we gave, we have; What we spent, we had; What we left, we lost.

Most controversies would soon be ended, if those engaged in them would first accurately define their terms, and then adhere to their definitions.

No true civilization can be expected permanently to continue which is not based on the great principles of Christianity.

To murder character is as truly a crime as to murder the body: the tongue of the slanderer is brother to the dagger of the assassin

Contemplation is to knowledge what digestion is to food - the way to get life out of it

Whoever in prayer can say, 'Our Father', acknowledges and should feel the brotherhood of the whole race of mankind.

To rule one's anger is well; to prevent it is still better.

Anxiety is the rust of life, destroying its brightness and weakening its power. A childlike and abiding trust in Providence is its best preventive and remedy.

Nature hath nothing made so base, but can read some instruction to the wisest man.

Compromise is but the sacrifice of one right or good in the hope of retaining another - too often ending in the loss of both.

Happiness is like manna; it is to be gathered in grains, and enjoyed every day. It will not keep; it cannot be accumulated; nor have we got to go out of ourselves or into remote places to gather it, since it has rained down from a Heaven, at our very door.

Have a time and place for everything, and do everything in its time and place, and you will not only accomplish more, but have far more leisure than those who are always hurrying.

There is nothing so elastic as the human mind. The more we are obliged to do, the more we are able to accomplish.

Anxiety is the poison of human life; the parent of many sins and of more miseries. In a world where everything is doubtful, and where we may be disappointed, and be blessed in disappointment, why this restless stir and commotion of mind? Can it alter the cause, or unravel the mystery of human events?

The slanderer and the assassin differ only in the weapon they use; with the one it is the dagger, with the other the tongue. The former is worse that the latter, for the last only kills the body, while the other murders the reputation.

Most of our censure of others is only oblique praise of self, uttered to show the wisdom and superiority of the speaker. It has all the invidiousness of self-praise, and all the ill-desert of falsehood.

Never be so brief as to become obscure.

High aims form high characters, and great objects bring out great minds.

We should be as careful of the books we read, as of the company we keep. The dead very often have more power than the living.

To be good, we must do good; and by doing good we take a sure means of being good, as the use and exercise of the muscles increase their power.

There is often as much independence in not being led as in not being driven.

Apothegms are the wisdom of the past condensed for the instruction and guidance of the present.