"O brave youth, how good for thee it were couldst thou be made to understand how infinitely precious are thy school years—years when thou hast leisure to grow, when new worlds break in upon thee, and thou fashionest thy being in the light of the ideals of truth and goodness and beauty! If now thou dost not fit thyself to become free and whole, thou shalt, when the doors of this fair mother-house of the mind, close behind thee, be driven into ways that lead to bondage, be compelled to do that which cripples and dwarfs; for the work whereby men gain a livelihood involves mental and moral mutilation, unless it be done in the spirit of religion and culture. Ah! well for thee, canst thou learn while yet there is time that it will profit thee nothing to become the possessor of millions, if the price thou payest is thy manhood."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
pp. 58-59
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Lancaster_Spalding
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
John Lancaster Spalding
John Lancaster Spalding (June 2, 1840 – August 25, 1916) was the first bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria from 1877 to 1908, a notable scholarly writer of the time and, a co-founder of The Catholic University of America.
202 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by John Lancaster Spalding →
Related Quotes
"If the young are watched too closely, if they are kept habitually under surveillance, the spring of action is weakene…"
"The best money can procure for thee is freedom to live in thy true self. It is more apt however to enslave than to li…"
"If thy friends tire of thee, remember that it is human to tire of everything."
"They who think they know all, learn nothing."
"Agitators and declaimers may heat the blood, but they do not illumine the mind."
"Wouldst thou bestow some precious gift upon thy fellows, make thyself a noble man."
"What we think out for ourselves forms channels in which other thoughts will flow."
"If we are disappointed that men give little heed to what we utter is it for their sake or our own?"
"Be content that others have position, if thou hast ability: that others have riches, if thou hast virtue."
"The value of a mind is measured by the nature of the objects it habitually contemplates. They whose thoughts are of t…"