Tryon Edwards Quotes

This world is the land of the dying; the next is the land of 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.

Indolence is the dry rot of even a good mind and a good character; the practical uselessness of both. It is the waste of what might be a happy and useful life.

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.

Common sense is, of all kinds, the most uncommon. It implies good judgment, sound discretion, and true and practical wisdom applied to common life.

Conscience is merely our own judgment of the right or wrong of our actions, and so can never be a safe guide unless enlightened by the word of God.

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

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

The most we can get out of life is its discipline for ourselves, and its usefulness for others.

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

True religion extends alike to the intellect and the heart. Intellect is in vain if it lead not to emotion, and emotion is vain if not enlightened by intellect; and both are vain if not guided by truth and leading to duty.

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

Hell is truth seen too lateduty neglected in its season.

A holy life is not an ascetic, or gloomy or solitary life, but a life regulated by divine truth and faithful in Christian duty. It is living above the world while we are still in it.

My books are my tools, and the greater their variety and perfection the greater the help to my literary work.

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

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.

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.

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

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

If rich men would remember that shrouds have no pockets, they would, while living, share their wealth with their children, and give for the good of others, and so know the highest pleasure wealth can give.

All things are ordered by God, but His providence takes in our free agency, as well as His own sovereignty.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

To possess money is very well; it may be a valuable servant; to be possessed by it is to be possessed by the devil, and one of the meanest and worst kind of devils.

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

The first evil choice or act is linked to the second; and each one to the one that follows, both by the tendency of our evil nature and by the power of habit, which holds us as by a destiny

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.

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.

Some persons are exaggerators by temperament. They do not mean untruth, but their feelings are strong, and their imaginations vivid, so that their statements are largely discounted by those of calm judgment and cooler temperament. They do not realize that we always weaken what we exaggerate.

He that resolves upon any great and good end, has, by that very resolution, scaled the chief barrier to it. He will find such resolution removing difficulties, searching out or making means, giving courage for despondency, and strength for weakness, and like the star to the wise men of old, ever guiding him nearer and nearer to perfection.

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.

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

Thoroughly to teach another is the best way to learn for yourself.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Never think that God's delays are God's denials. True prayer always receives what it asks, or something better.