Tryon Edwards Quotes

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

Where duty is plain delay is both foolish and hazardous; where it is not, delay may be both wisdom and safety.

The secret of a good memory is attention, and attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds.

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.

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

Ridicule may be the evidence of with or bitterness and may gratify a little mind, or an ungenerous temper, but it is no test of reason or truth.

Accuracy is the twin brother of honesty; inaccuracy is a near kin to falsehood.

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

Never be so brief as to become obscure.

One of the great lessons the fall of the leaf teaches, is this: do your work well and then be ready to depart when God shall call.

Superstitions are, for the most part, but the shadows of great truths.

Some men are born old, and some men never seem so. If we keep well and cheerful, we are always young and at last die in youth even when in years would count as old.

Sin with the multitude, and your responsibility and guilt are as great and as truly personal, as if you alone had done the wrong

He that is possessed with a prejudice is possessed with a devil, and one of the worst kinds of devils, for it shuts out the truth, and often leads to ruinous error.