William Gilmore Simms Quotes

The Amiable Is A Duty Most Certainly, But Must Not Be Exercised At The Expense Of Any Of The Virtues. He Who Seeks To Do The Amiable Always, Can Only Be Successful At The Frequent Expense Of His Manhood.

There Is A Native Baseness In The Ambition Which Seeks Beyond Its Desert, That Never Shows More Conspicuously Than When, No Matter How, It Temporarily Gains Its Object.

Philosophy Has Its Bugbears, As Well As Superstition.

I Know Not That There Is Anything In Nature More Soothing To The Mind Than The Contemplation Of The Moon, Sailing, Like Some Planetary Bark, Amidst A Sea Of Bright Azure. The Subject Is Certainly Hackneyed; The Moon Has Been Sung By Poet And Poetaster. Is There Any Marvel That It Should Be So?

Modesty Is Policy, No Less Than Virtue.

The Apothegm Is The Most Portable Form Of Truth.... It Is Thus That The Proverb Answers Where The Sermon Fails, As A Well-charged Pistol Will Do More Execution Than A Whole Barrel Of Gunpowder Idly Expended In The Air.

Genius Is The Very Eye Of Intellect And The Wing Of Thought; It Is Always In Advance Of Its Time, And Is The Pioneer For The Generation Which It Precedes.

Neither Praise Nor Blame Is The Object Of True Criticism. Justly To Discriminate, Firmly To Establish, Wisely To Prescribe And Honestly To Award - These Are The True Aims And Duties Of Criticism.

It Is A Bird-flight Of The Soul, When The Heart Declares Itself In Song. The Affections That Clothe Themselves With Wings Are Passions That Have Been Subdued To Virtues.

Stagnation Is Something Worse Than Death. It Is Corruption, Also.

Vanity May Be Likened To The Smooth-skinned And Velvet-footed Mouse, Nibbling About Forever In Expectation Of A Crumb; While Self-esteem Is Too Apt To Take The Likeness Of The Huge Butcher's Dog, Who Carries Off Your Steaks, And Growls At You As Be Goes.

What We Call Vice In Our Neighbor May Be Nothing Less Than A Crude Virtue. To Him Who Knows Nothing More Of Precious Stones Than He Can Learn From A Daily Contemplation Of His Breastpin, A Diamond In The Mine Must Be A Very Uncompromising Sort Of Stone.