Hannah More Quotes

“A small unkindness is a great offence.”

“Absence in love is like water upon fire; a little quickens, but much extinguishes it.”

“Activity may lead to evil; but inactivity cannot be led to good.”

“All desire the gifts of God, but they do not desire God.”

“All reformations seem formidable before they are attempted.”

“Forgiveness is the economy of the heart. Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.”

“He who has once taken to drink can seldom be said to be guilty of one sin only.”

“How short is human life! The very breath
which frames my words accelerates my death.”

“If I wished to punish my enemy, I should make him hate somebody.”

“It is not so important to know everything as to know the exact value of everything, to appreciate what we learn and to arrange what we know.”

“It should be held as an eternal truth, that what is morally wrong can never be politically right.”

“Love never reasons but profusely gives... gives like a thoughtless prodigal, it's all and trembles then, lest it has done too little.”

“Luxury! More perilous to youth than storms or quicksand, poverty or chains.”

“No man ever repented of being a Christian on his death bed.”

“Prayer is not eloquence, but earnestness; not the definition of helplessness, but the feeling of it; not figures of speech, but earnestness of soul.”

“Pride never sleeps. The principle at least is always awake. An intemperate man is sometimes sober, but a proud man is never humble.”

“Sow an action, reap a habit.”

“Sweet is the breath of praise when given by those whose own high merit claims the praise they give.”

“The ingenuity of self-deception is inexhaustible.”

“The soul on Earth is an immortal guest.”

“The world does not require so much to be informed as to be reminded.”

“Twas doing nothing was his curse. Is there a vice can plague us worse?”

“When we read, we fancy we could be martyrs; when we come to act, we cannot bear a provoking word.”