Robert BlairThinkers

Affectation is certain deformity; by forming themselves on fantastic models, the young begin with being ridiculous, and often end in being vicious.

Anxiety is the poison of human life. It is the parent of many sins, and of more miseries. In a world where everything is doubtful, where you may be disappointed, and be blessed in disappointment, wbat means this restless stir and commotion of mind? Can your solicitude alter the cause or unravel the intricacy of human events?

The Conscience is too great a power in the nature of man to be altogether subdued; it may be for a time repressed and kept dormant; but conjectures there are in human life which awaken it, and when once reawakened, it flashes on the sinner's mind with all the horrors of an invisible ruler and a future judgment.

Dissimulation is, in youth, the forerunner of perfidy in old age; its first appearance is the fatal omen of growing depravity and future shame.

Hard work is not only the instrument of improvement, but the foundation of pleasure. He who is a stranger to it may possess, but cannot enjoy ; for it is labor only which gives relish to pleasure. It is the appointed vehicle of every good to man. It is the indispensable condition of possessing a sound mind in a sound body.

The Pyramid is the Egyptian's pride and wonder of the world, whose spiky, tapered top has wounded the thick cloud.

Silence is one of the great arts of conversation, as allowed by Cicero himself, who says “ there is not only an art, but an eloquence in it ” ; and this opinion is confirmed by a great modern, Lord Bacon. For a wellbred woman may easily and effectually promote the most useful and elegant conversation without speaking a word. The modes of speech are scarcely more variable than the modes of silence.