Nothing is comparable to the pleasure of an active and prevailing thought—a thought prevailing over the difficulty and obscurity of the object, and refreshing the soul with new discoveries and images of things; and thereby extending the bounds of apprehension, and as it were enlarging the territories of reason.
—Robert South
Topics: Thought
He that is a good man is three-quarters of his way toward the being a good Christian, wheresoever he lives, or whatsoever he is called.
—Robert South
Topics: Goodness, Religion
Oh, let the steps of youth be cautious how they advance into a dangerous world; our duty only can conduct us safe, our passions are seducers; and of all, the strongest is love.
—Robert South
Topics: Love
It is not for man to rest in absolute contentment. He is born to hopes and aspirations as the sparks fly upward, unless he has brutified his nature and quenched the spirit of immortality which is his portion.
—Robert South
Topics: Goal, Aspirations, Dreams
God never accepts a good inclination instead of a good action, where that action may be done; nay, so much the contrary, that, if a good inclination be not seconded by a good action, the want of that action is made so much the more criminal and inexcusable.
—Robert South
In all worldly things that a man pursues with the greatest eagerness and intention of mind, he finds not half the pleasure in the actual possession of them as he proposed to himself in the expectation.
—Robert South
Topics: Anticipation, Possessions
Defeat should never be a source of discouragement, but rather a fresh stimulus.
—Robert South
There is no security in a good disposition if the support of good principles, that is to say, of religion—of Christian faith, be wanting.—It may be soured by misfortune, corrupted by wealth, blighted by neediness, and lose all its original brightness, if destitute of that support.
—Robert South
The disappointed man turns his thoughts toward a state of existence where his wiser desires may be fixed with the certainty of faith.—The successful man feels that the objects he has ardently pursued fail to satisfy the craving of an immortal spirit. The wicked man turneth away from his wickedness, that he may save his soul alive.
—Robert South
Topics: Eternity
The most voluptuous and loose person breathing, were he tied to follow his hawks and his hounds, his dice and his courtships every day, would find it the greatest torment and calamity that could befall him; he would fly to the mines and galleys for his recreation.
—Robert South
There are not a few who believe in no God but Mammon, no devil but the absence of gold, no damnation but being poor, and no hell but an empty purse; and not a few of their descendants are living still.
—Robert South
Topics: Wealth
The wages that sin bargains for with the sinner, are life, pleasure, and profit; but the wages it pays him, are death, torment, and destruction. To understand the falsehood and deceit of sin, we must compare its promises and payments together.
—Robert South
Topics: Sin
There is no weariness like that which rises from doubting—from the perpetual jogging of unfixed reason.—The torment of suspense is very great; but as soon as the wavering, perplexed mind begins to determine, be the determination which way so ever it may be, it will find itself at ease.
—Robert South
Topics: Doubt, Uncertainty
Passion is the drunkenness of the mind.
—Robert South
Topics: Passion
Pride is the common forerunner of a fall. It was the devil’s sin, and the devil’s ruin; and has been, ever since, the devil’s stratagem, who, like an expert wrestler, usually gives a man a lift before he gives him a throw.
—Robert South
Topics: Pride
Never let a man imagine that he can pursue a good end by evil means, without sinning against his own soul. The evil effect on himself is certain.
—Robert South
Topics: Evils, Evil
How little do they see what really is, who frame their hasty judgment upon that which seems.
—Robert South
Topics: Appearance, Judgment
Men must love the truth before they thoroughly believe it.
—Robert South
Topics: Truth
Days of respite are golden days.
—Robert South
Topics: Leisure
He that despairs measures Providence by his own little contracted model and limits infinite power to finite apprehensions.
—Robert South
Topics: Despair
How inevitably does an immoderate laughter end in a sigh!
—Robert South
Topics: Laughter
Jeer not at others upon any occasion. If they be foolish, God hath denied them understanding; if they be vicious, you ought to pity, not revile them; if deformed, God framed their bodies; and will you scorn his workmanship? Are you wiser than your Creator? If poor, poverty was designed for a motive to charity, not to contempt; you cannot see what riches they have within.
—Robert South
Prodigality is the devil’s steward and purse-bearer, ministering to all sorts of vice; and it is hard, if not impossible, for a prodigal person to be guilty of no other vice but prodigality. For men generally are prodigal because they are first intemperate, luxurious, or ambitious. And these, we know, are vices too costly to be kept and maintained at an easy rate; they must have large pensions, and be fed with both hands, though the man that feeds them starves for his pains.
—Robert South
I have told you of the Spaniard who always put on his spectacles when about to eat cherries, that they might look bigger and more tempting. In like manner I make the most of my enjoyments; and though I do not cast my cares away, I pack them in as little compass as I can, and carry them as conveniently as I can for myself, and never let them annoy others.
—Robert South
Topics: Enjoyment, Appearance
Covetousness is both the beginning and end of the devil’s alphabet—the first vice in corrupt nature that moves, and the last which dies.
—Robert South
He that governs well, leads the blind; put he that teaches, gives him eyes; and it is glorious to be a sub-worker to grace, in freeing it from some of the inconveniences of original sin.
—Robert South
Topics: Teaching
Seldom shall we see in cities, courts, and rich families, where men live plentifully, and eat and drink freely, that perfect health and athletic soundness and vigor of constitution which are commonly seen in the country, where nature is the cook, and necessity the caterer, and where they have no other doctor but the sun and fresh air.
—Robert South
Topics: Health
They who engage in iniquitous designs miserably deceive themselves when they think they will go so far and no farther; one fault begets another; one crime renders another necessary; and thus they are impelled continually downward into a depth of guilt, which at the commencement of their career they would have died rather than have incurred.
—Robert South
Topics: Guilt
The Scripture vouches Solomon for the wisest of men; and his proverbs prove him so. The seven wise men of Greece, so famous for their wisdom all the world over, acquired all that fame each of them by a single sentence, consisting of two or three words.
—Robert South
Topics: Proverbs
John Bunyan had a great dread of spiritual pride; and once, after he had preached a very fine sermon, and his friends crowded round to shake him by the hand, while they expressed the utmost admiration of his eloquence, he interrupted them, saying: “Ay! you need not remind me of that, for the Devil told me of it before I was out of the pulpit!”
—Robert South
Topics: Pride
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Henry Liddon English Theologian
- Philip James Bailey English Poet
- Matthew Prior English Poet, Diplomat
- Ford Madox Ford English Novelist, Poet, Critic
- Walter Savage Landor English Writer
- Charles Kingsley English Clergyman
- Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford English Poet, Courtier
- John Berger English Art Critic, Essayist, Novelist
- Francis Quarles English Religious Poet
- John Keats English Poet
Leave a Reply