A Quote by Honore de Balzac

Kindness is not without its rocks ahead. People are apt to put it down to an easy temper and seldom recognize it as the secret striving of a generous nature; whilst, on the other hand, the ill-natured get credit for all the evil they refrain from.

Honore de Balzac

Quote Topics

Apt Credit Down Easy Evil Generous Get Hand Ill Kindness Nature Other People Put Recognize Refrain Rocks Secret Seldom Striving Temper Whilst Without

Quote Author

Honore de Balzac
French - Novelist
May 20, 1799 - August 18, 1850

Kindness steers no easy course. Attributing it to character, we seldom recognize the secret efforts of a noble heart, whereas we reward really wicked people for the evil they refrain from committing.

Honore de Balzac

When you see anyone complaining of such and such a person's ill-nature and bad temper, know that the complainant is bad-tempered, forasmuch as he speaks ill of that bad-tempered person, because he alone is good-tempered who is quietly forbearing towards the bad-tempered and ill-natured.

Rumi

Satirical writers and speakers are not half so clever as they think themselves, nor as they are thought to be. They do winnow the corn, it is true, but it is to feed upon the chaff. I am sorry to add that they who are always speaking ill of others are also very apt to be doing ill to them. It requires some talent and some generosity to find out talent and generosity in others, though nothing but self-conceit and malice are needed to discover or to imagine faults. It is much easier for an ill-natured man than for a good-natured man to be smart and witty.

James Sharp

Idleness among children, as among men, is the root of all evil, and leads to no other evil more certain than ill temper.

Hannah More

Keep your own secret, and get out other people's. Keep your own temper, and artfully warm other people's. Counterwork your rivalswith diligence and dexterity, but at the same time with the utmost personal civility to them: and be firm without heat.

Lord Chesterfield

Tis a barbarous temper, and a sign of a very ill nature, to take delight in shocking any one: and, on the contrary, it is the mark of an amiable and a beneficent temper, to say all the kind things one can, without flattery or playing the hypocrite,--and what never fails of procuring the love and esteem of every one; which, next to doing good to a deserving object who wants it, is one of the greatest pleasures of this life.

Samuel Richardson

When the People contend for their Liberty, they seldom get anything by their Victory but new masters. Power is so apt to be insolent and Liberty to be saucy, that they are very seldom upon good Terms.

Sir George Savile, 8th Baronet

A little grain of the romance is no ill ingredient to preserve and exalt the dignity of human nature, without which it is apt to degenerate into everything that is sordid, vicious and low.

Jonathan Swift

It is only our bad temper that we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves.

C. S. Lewis

An indiscreet man is more hurtful than an ill-natured one; for as the latter will only attack his enemies, and those he wishes ill to, the other injures indifferently both friends and foes.

Joseph Addison

When will talkers refrain from evil speaking: when listeners refrain from evil-hearing.

Augustus William Hare

All the feeling which my father could not put into words was in his hand-any dog, child or horse would recognize the kindness of it.

Freya Stark

You've got to involve yourself in doing something for other people all the time. I know that sounds sentimental, but you see, ordinary people are the most generous people on Earth without question. And what I think we should do is constantly try to give as much of ourselves as we can to each other - that's the secret of happiness for all of us.

Peter Cundall

When will talkers refrain from evil speaking? When listeners refrain from evil hearing. At present there are many so credulous of evil, they will receive suspicions and impressions against persons whom they don't know, from a person whom they do know--an authority good for nothing.

Augustus William Hare

The best thing is to go from nature's God dawn to nature; and if you once get to nature's God, and believe Him, and love Him, it is surprising how easy it is to hear music in the waves, and songs in the wild whisperings of the winds; to see God everywhere in the stones, in the rocks, in the rippling brooks, and hear Him everywhere, in the lowing of cattle, in the rolling of thunder, and in the fury of tempests. Get Christ first, put Him in the right place, and you will find Him to be the wisdom of God in your own experience.