Rectitude vs. Attitude

This is the final test of a gentleman:

his respect for those who can be of no possible service to him.

— William Lyon Phelps, in A Treasury of the Familiar, Ralph L. Woods, p. 9.

             ARABIAN PROVERBS

He who knows not and knows not that he knows not,

            He is a fool — shun him; 

He who knows not and knows he knows not,

            He is simple — teach him;

 He who knows and knows not he knows.

            He is asleep — wake him;

He who knows and knows he knows,

            He is wise; follow him.
— In Ibid., p. 17.

AS THE TWIG IS BENT

 ‘Tis education forms the common mind;
Just as the twig is bent, the tree’s inclined.

— Alexander Pope, from Moral Essays, in Ibid., p. 41.

RETRIBUTION           

 Though the mills of God grind slowly,

Yet they grind exceeding small;

Though with patience he stands waiting,

With exactness grinds he all.

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in Ibid., p. 87.

          INVICTUS

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeoning of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gait,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate;

I am the captain of my soul.

— William Earnest Henley, in Ibid., p. 97.

            MAN PROPOSES

 Man proposes, but God disposes.

When he is out of sight, quickly also is he out of mind.

Of two evils, the less is always to be chosen.

— Thomas à Kempis, from Imitation of Christ, in Ibid., p. 173.