Tryon Edwards Quotes

“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.”

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

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

“Duty performed gives clearness and firmness to faith, and faith thus strengthened through duty becomes the more assured and satisfying to the soul.”

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

“Facts are God's arguments; we should be careful never to misunderstand or pervert them.”

“High aims form high characters, and great objects bring out great minds.”

“If you would thoroughly know anything, teach it to others. One who ceases to learn cannot adequately teach.”

“Mystery is but another name for ignorance; if we were omniscient, all would be perfectly plain!”

“One of the great lessons the fall of the leaf teaches, is this: do your work well and then be ready to depart when God shall call.”

“People never improve unless they look to some standard or example higher or better than themselves.”

“Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past.”

“Seek happiness for its own sake, and you will not find it; seek for duty, and happiness will follow as the shadow comes with the sunshine.”

“Sincerity is not test of truth-no evidence of correctness of conduct. You may take poison sincerely believing it the needed medicine, but will it save your life?”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.”

“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.”

“To rejoice in another's prosperity is to give content to your lot; to mitigate another's grief is to alleviate or dispel your own.”

“To rule one's anger is well; to prevent it is better.”

“To waken interest and kindle enthusiasm is the sure way to teach easily and successfully.”

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

“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.”

“Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both.”

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

“Most controversies would soon be ended, if those engaged in them would first accurately define their terms, and then adhere to their definitions.”

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

“Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past – the best evidence of regret for them that we can offer, or the world receive.”

“The first step to improvement, whether mental, moral, or religious, is to know ourselves – our weaknesses, errors, deficiencies, and sins, that, by divine grace, we may overcome and turn from them all.”