CHAPTER-9 “We shan’t get much here,” whispered a lady to her companion, as John Murray blew out one of the two candles by whose light he had been writing when they asked him to contribute to some benevolent object. He listened to their story and gave one hundred dollars. “Mr. Murray, I am very agreeably […]
CHAPTER-8 “Friends and comrades,” said Pizarro, as he turned toward the south, after tracing with his sword upon the sand a line from east to west, “on that side are toil, hunger, nakedness, the drenching storm, desertion, and death; on this side, ease and pleasure. There lies Peru with its riches; here, Panama and its
CHAPTER-7 “I was a mere cipher in that vast sea of human enterprise,” said Henry Bessemer, speaking of his arrival in London in 1831. Although but eighteen years old, and without an acquaintance in the city, he soon made work for himself by inventing a process of copying bas-reliefs on cardboard. His method was so
CHAPTER-6 “Colonel Crockett makes room for himself!” exclaimed a backwoods congressman in answer to the exclamation of the White House usher to “Make room for Colonel Crockett!” This remarkable man was not afraid to oppose the head of a great nation. He preferred being right to being president. Though rough, uncultured, and uncouth, Crockett was
CHAPTER-5 “Why do you lead such a solitary life?” asked a friend of Michael Angelo. “Art is a jealous mistress,” replied the artist; “she requires the whole man.” During his labours at the Sistine Chapel, according to Disraeli, he refused to meet any one, even at his own house.“That day we sailed westward, which was
CHAPTER-4 “I have here three teams that I want to get over to Staten Island,” said a boy of twelve one day in 1806 to the innkeeper at South Amboy, N. J. “If you will put us across, I’ll leave with you one of my horses in pawn, and if I don’t send you back
CHAPTER-3 “As well can the Prince of Orange pluck the stars from the sky, as bring the ocean to the wall of Leyden for your relief,” was the derisive shout of the Spanish soldiers when told that the Dutch fleet would raise that terrible four months’ siege of 1574. But from the parched lips of
CHAPTER-2 “Steady, men! Every man must die where he stands!” said Colin Campbell to the Ninety-third Highlanders at Balaklava, as an overwhelming force of Russian cavalry came sweeping down. “Ay, ay, Sir Colin! we’ll do that!” was the cordial response from men many of whom had to keep their word by thus obeying.“Bring back the
CHAPTER-1 “In a thousand cups of life,” says Emerson, “only one is the right mixture. The fine adjustment of the existing elements, where the well-mixed man is born with eyes not too dull, nor too good, with fire enough and earth enough, capable of receiving impressions from all things, and not too susceptible, then no
Chapter-23 “It is better to get wisdom than gold; for wisdom is better than rubies, and all things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.”“Better a cheap coffin and a plain funeral after a useful, unselfish life, than a grand mausoleum after a loveless, selfish life.”“I don’t want such things,” said
CHAPTER-22 “Do you want to know,” asks Robert Collyer, “how I manage to talk to you in this simple Saxon? I read Bunyan, Crusoe, and Goldsmith when I was a boy, morning, noon, and night. All the rest was task work; these were my delight, with the stories in the Bible, and with Shakespeare, when
CHAPTER-21 “Yes,” said a half-drunken man in a cellar to a parish visitor, a young girl, “I am a tough and a drunkard, and am just out of jail, and my wife is starving; but that doesn’t give you the right to come into my house without knocking to ask questions.”Another zealous girl declared in
CHAPTER-20 “He is as stiff as a poker,” said a friend of a man who could never be coaxed or tempted to smile. “Stiff as a poker,” exclaimed another, “why he would set an example to a poker.”Even Christians are not celebrated for entering into the ‘joy’ of their Lord.We are told that “Pascal would
CHAPTER-19 “I know no such unquestionable badge and ensign of a sovereign mind as that tenacity of purpose which, through all changes of companions, or parties, or fortunes, changes never, bates no jot of heart or hope, but wearies out opposition and arrives at its port.”“Well done, Tommy Brooks!” exclaimed his teacher in pleased surprise
CHAPTER-18 “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and myself have founded empires,” said Napoleon to Montholon at St. Helena; “but upon what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ alone founded his empire on love, and at this moment millions of men would die for Him. I die before my time and my