Quotessence
Home / Authors / Arthur Helps
Arthur Helps

Arthur Helps Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenMayIfsWorldCharacterPersonsMightPeopleActionAdvice

Famous Arthur Helps Quotes

“Those who are successfully to lead their fellow-men, should have once possessed the nobler feelings. We have all known individuals whose magnanimity was not likely to be troublesome on any occasion; but then they betrayed their own interests by unwisely omitting the consideration, that such feelings might exist in the breasts of those whom they had to guide and govern: for they themselves cannot even remember the time when in their eyes justice appeared preferable to expediency, the happiness of others to self-interest, or the welfare of a State to the advancement of a party.”

MenShouldSelfStatesFeelingsMightEyeRememberIndividualInterestLeadershipJusticePartyKnownShould HaveFellowsGuidesOccasionsWelfareBreastsConsiderationPossessedBetrayedFellow ManAdvancementSelf InterestTroublesomeExpediencyMagnanimityOmitting
Book:Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd
Create image

“A great many wise sayings have been uttered about the effects of solitary retirement; but the motives which impel men to seek it are not more various than the effects which it produces on different individuals. One thing is certain, that those who can with truth affirm that they are "never less alone than when alone," might generally add that they never feel more lonely than when not alone.”

MenFeelsHas BeensDifferentMightCertainIndividualWiseOne ThingEffectsLonelinessProduceLonelyAddVariousMotiveGreat MenRetirementWise SayingsSolitaryNot Alone
Book:Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd
Create image

“There are few who would need advisers, if they were only accustomed to appeal to themselves in their calmest, holiest moments. If, when embarrassed with doubt as to any course of action, they would turn aside from the immediate tumult of the world, and from the vain speaking of those who "darken counsel by words without knowledge;" and would then commune with their hearts alone, at night, the heavens their silent counsellors, they would act not always in accordance with the wise men of this world, but with that wisdom which bringeth peace.”

IfsMenWorldNeedsHeartMomentsWisdomActionNightTurnsCoursesHeavenDoubtWiseThis WorldSilentAppealsVainEmbarrassedAccustomedAdviserCommunesTumultCounsellors
Book:Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd
Create image

“No doubt hard work is a great police agent. If everybody were worked from morning till night, and then carefully locked up, the register of crime might be greatly diminished. But what would become of human nature? Where would be the room for growth in such a system of things? It is through sorrow and mirth, plenty and need, a variety of passions, circumstances, and temptations, even through sin and misery, that men's natures are developed.”

IfsMenNeedsHumansHardMightWould BeNightPassionGrowthSinRoomsMorningDoubtHuman NatureCrimeHard WorkCircumstancesSorrowPoliceMiseryTemptationAgentsPlentyVarietyNo DoubtLockedRegisterMirthLocked Up
Book:Friends in Council: A Series of Readings and Discourse Thereon
Create image

“Infinite toil would not enable you to sweep away a mist; but by ascending a little, you may often look over it altogether. So it is with our moral improvement: we wrestle fiercely with a vicious habit, which could have no hold upon us if we ascended into a higher moral atmosphere.”

IfsLooksMayLittlesMoralHabitHigherInfiniteImprovementAtmosphereOver ItToilViciousMistAscending
Book:Fruits of leisure: Essays written in the intervals of business
Create image

“Always say a kind word if you can, if only that it may come in, perhaps, with singular opportuneness, entering some mournful man's darkened room, like a beautiful firefly, whose happy circumvolutions he cannot but watch, forgetting his many troubles.”

IfsMenKindMayBeautifulForgetRoomsWatchesKindnessTroubleEnteringKind WordsFirefly
Book:Friends in Council: A Series of Readings and Discourses Thereon. A New Series
Create image

“Rare almost as great poets, rarer, perhaps, than veritable saints and martyrs; are consummate men of business. A man, to be excellent in this way, requires a great knowledge of character, with that exquisite tact which feels unerringly the right moment when to act. A discreet rapidity must pervade all the movements of his thought and action. He must be singularly free from vanity, and is generally found to be an enthusiast who has the art to conceal his enthusiasm.”

MenWayFeelsArtMomentsCharacterActionFoundBusinessMovementPoetSaintEnthusiasmVanityExcellentMartyrExquisiteTactGreat PoetRight MomentThoughts And ActionsDiscreetGreat Knowledge
Author:Arthur Helps
Create image

“Many a man has a kind of a kaleidoscope, where the bits of broken glass are his own merits and fortunes; and they fall into harmonious arrangements, and delight him, often most mischievously and to his ultimate detriment; but they are a present pleasure.”

MenKindFallBitsPleasureBrokenUltimateFortuneGlassesDelightMeritArrangementsHarmoniousKaleidoscopeBroken Glass
Book:Friends in Council: A Series of Readings and Discourse Thereon
Create image