Class of '53 (click a picture to see a larger image)
Joe Medina provided this collection of quotations that Fr Ermin Schneider
(English teacher and Shakespearean scholar) had students record in a notebook...
ST FRANCIS PREP SCHOOL
NOTEBOOK OF QUOTATIONS
Put not your trust in money but put your money in trust.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, AUTOCRAT OF BREAKFAST TABLE, II,
1809-1894
The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it.
Emerson
Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to
deceive--Sir Walter Scott, 1771-1832, Canto vi, stanza 17
To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die. Thomas
Campbell, 1777-1844, Hollowed Ground, stanza 6
Tis with our judgments as our watches, none go just alike,
yet each believes his own. Alex Pope, ESSAY ON CRITICISM,
1711, part I, line 9
True wit is nature to advantage dressed. What oft was
thought but ne're so well expressed. Alexander Pope 1688-
1744, ibid. part II, line 53.
Brevity is the soul of wit. Shakespeare HAMLET, act II, sc
2, line 90
When 'er a noble deed is wrought; when 'er is spoken a noble
thought our hearts in glad surprise to higher levels rise.
Longfellow
In the lexicon of youth which fate reserves for a bright
manhood there is no such word as fail. Edward Bulwer Lytton
Richelieu, act ii, sc 2, 1803-1873
The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you
can do well and doing well whatever you do without a thought
of fame. Longfellow
True nobility is exempt from fear. Shakespeare, HENRY VI,
act iv, sc 1, line 129
Man is the glory jest and riddle of the world. Pope
One touch of nature make the whole world kin. Shakespeare,
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, ACT III, sc 3, line 171
How blessings brighten as they take their flight!, Edward
Young, 1683-1765, NIGHT THOUGHTS, Night, II, line 602
Calamity is man's true touchstone. Beaumont 1584-1616 and
Fletcher, 1579-1625, FOUR PLAYS IN ONE, TRIUMPH OF HONOR,
sc.2
They also serve who only stand and wait. Milton, Sonnet xv,
on his blindness
Virtue though in rags will keep me warm. John Dryden,
IMITATION OF HORACE, bk III, Ode 29, line 87. 1685
Music has charm to soothe the savage breast. Wm Condreve,
1670-1729 THE MOURNING BRIDE, 1697, act 1, sc 2
How sour is sweet music when time is broke and no proportion
kept. Shakespeare KING RICHARD II, act iv, sc v, line 42
He who climbs high endangers many a fall. Chaucer
He's armed without that's innocent within. Pope, Epistle I,
bk. 1, line 94
To read without reflecting is like eating without digestion.
Burke
Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind. HENRY VI, ACT V,
sc 6, line 11, Shakespeare
How poor are they that have no patience! OTHELLO, ACT II,
sc 3, line 379, Shakespeare
Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal. Moore
Procrastination is the thief of time. Edward Young NIGHT
THOUGHTS, NIGHT I, line 393
Tis late before the brave despair. Thompson
Science may be learned by rote, wisdom not. Sterne
Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war,
in trade, in short, in all management of human affairs.
Emerson
What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How
infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and
admirable! In action, how like an angel! In apprehension
how like a god! The beauty of the world, the paragon of
animals and yet what is this quintessence of dust.
Shakespeare HAMLET, ACT II, sc 2, line 317
Sweet are the uses of adversity, which like the toad, ugly
and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head; and
this our life exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in
trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones and
good in everything. Shakespeare, AS YOU LIKE IT, ACT II, sc
1, line 12.
There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the
floods leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their
life is bound in shallows and in misery. JULIUS CAESAR, ACT
IV, sc 3, line 217, Shakespeare
The fault dear Brutus is not in our stars but in ourselves
that we are underlings. J. CAESAR, ACT 1, sc 2, line 134,
Shakespeare
A preposition is a poor word to end a sentence with. Rule
This is a nonsense up with which I will not put. Churchill
One of the illusions is that the present hour is not the
critical decisive. Write it in your heart that everyday is
the best day in the year. Emerson
The spacious firmament on high with all the blue ethereal
sky, and spangled heavens, a shining frame their great
Originator proclaim; The unwearied sun, from day to day
Doth his Creators power display, and publishes in every land
the work of an Almighty hand. Addison, 1672-1719
Good name in man and woman is the immediate jewel of their
souls, who steals my purse steals trash; tis something,
nothing; twas mine, tis his, and has been slaved to
thousandths; but he that filches from me my good name robs
me of that which not enriches him and makes me poor indeed.
OTHELLO ACT III, sc 3, line 155, Shakespeare
The one serviceable, safe, certain, remunerative, attainable
quality in every study and every pursuit is the quality of
attention. My own invention, or imagination, such as it is,
I can most truthfully assure you, would never have served me
as it has but for the habit of common place, humble,
patient, daily toiling, drudging, attention. Dickens, 1812-
1870
A cheerful temper, joined with innocence will make beauty
attractive, knowledge delightful and wit good natured. It
will lighten sickness, poverty, and affliction, convert
ignorance into an amiable simplicity, and render deformity
itself agreeable. Addison
Mother! whose virgin bosom was uncrossed with the least
shade of thought to sin allied; Woman! above all woman
glorified, our tainted nature's solitary boast! Wordsworth,
1770-1750
THE DONKEY The tattered outlaw of the earth, of ancient
crooked will; Starve, scourge, deride me--I am dumb, I keep
my secrets still. Fools! For I also had my hour; one far
fierce hour and sweet; there was a shout about my ears; and
palms before my feet. G. K. Chesterson, 1874-1922
I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree;
Poems are made by fools like me; but only God can make a
tree. Joyce Kilmer
The soul secured in her existence, smiles at the drawn
dagger--defies it's point. The stars shall fade away, the
sun himself grow dim with age, and nature sink in years; but
thou shall flourish in immortal youth, unhurt amidst the war
of elements, the wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.
Addison
Pleasures are like poppies spread, you seize the flower, its
bloom is shed; or like the snowfall in the river, a moment
white--then melts forever. R. Burns 1759-1796, TAM
O'SHANTER, stanza 7
What's in a name, that which we call a rose, by any other
name would smell as sweet. ROMEO AND JULIET, Shakespeare
The quality of mercy is not strained; it dropth as the
gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath; it is twice
blessed. It blesses him that gives and him that takes. Tis
mightiest in the mightest; it becomes the throned monarch
better than his crown; His specter shows the force of
temporal power. The attribute to awe and majesty, wherein
doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above
this sceptred sway--It is enthroned in the hearts of kings.
It is an attribute to God himself; and earthly power doth
then show likest God's when mercy seasons justice.
(Therefore Jew) Though justice be they plea, consider this
that in the course of justice none of us should see
salvation. We do pray for mercy and that same prayer doth
teach us all to render the deeds of mercy. MERCHANT OF
VENICE, ACT IV, sc 1, line 184, Shakespeare
DANGERS OF DELAY Shun delays, they breed remorse; use thy
time while time is lent thee; creeping snails make little
course, fly their fault lest thou repent thee; good is best
when soonest wrought, lingering labors come to naught.
Hoist up sail while gale doth last, tide and wind stay no
man's pleasure; seek not time when time is past; sober speed
is wisdom's leisure. After-wit is dearly bought, let thy
fore-wit guide thy thought. Time wears all his locks
before. Take thy hold or else beware, when he flies he
turns no more, and behind his scalp is bear. Works
adjourned have many stays, long demures breed new delays.
Seek the salve while sore is green, Festered wounds ask
deeper lancing; after-cures are seldom seen, often sought,
but rarely chancing; time and place give best advice, out of
season, out of price. Drops will pierce the stubborn
flint, not by force but often falling; custom kills by
feeble dint; more by use than strengthen; Single sands have
little weight, many make a drowning freight. Robert
Southwell, 1560-1595.
THIS WORLD IS ALL A FLEETING SHOW--This world is all a
fleeting show, for man's illusion given; the smiles of joy,
the tears of woe, deceitful shine, deceitful flow--there's
nothing true but heaven! And false the light on glory's
plume, as fading hues of even; and love and hope and
beauty's bloom, are blossoms gathered for the tomb; there's
nothing bright but heaven. Poor wonderers of a stormy day!
from wave to wave we're driven, and fancy's flash and
reason's ray serve but to light the troubled way--there's
nothing calm but heaven. Thomas Moore, 1779-1852
See thou character! Give thy thoughts no tongue, nor any
unproportionned thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by
no means vulgar. The friends thou hast and their adoption
tried, grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; but do
not dull they palm with entertainment of each new hatched,
unfledged comrade. beware of entrance to a quarrel, but,
being in, bear't that the opponent may beware of thee. Give
every man thine ear, but few they voice; take each man's
censure but reserve they judgment. Costly thy habit as they
purse can buy, but not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
for thy apparel oft proclaims the man. Neither a borrower
nor a lender be, for loan oft loses both itself and friend,
and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all
to thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night
the day, thou cans't not then be false to any man. HAMLET,
Shakespeare
Two men looked out from prison bars; the one saw mud, the
other, stars. Frederick Langbridge
Nor Bethlehem nor Nazareth apart from Mary's call, Nor
heaven itself a home for him, were not his mother there.
Fr. Tabb
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, the
line, too, labors and the words move slow. Pope
Patience gains more victories than ability. anon
Straws swim upon the surface, but pearls lie at the bottom.
anon
Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before
you let it fall. anon
Neither locks had they to their doors, nor bars to their
windows; but their dwellings were open as day and the hearts
of the owners; there the richest was poor and the poorest
lived in abundance. Anon from the belfry, Softly the
Angelus sounded, and over the roofs of the village columns
of pale blue smoke, like clouds of incense ascending, rose
from a hundred hearths the homes of peace and contentment.
Thus dwelt in love these simple Acadian farmers,--Dwelt in
the love of God and of man, Alike were they free from fear,
that reigns with the tyrant, and envy, the vice of
republics. Stalworth and stately in form was the man of
seventy winters; Fair was she to behold, that maiden of
seventeen summers. Thus at peace with God and the world,
the farmer of Grand Pre lived on his sunny farm, and
Evangeline governed her household. Under the open sky in
the odorous air of the orchard, stripped of its golden
fruit, was spread the feast of betrothal. There in the
shade of the porch were the priest and the notary seated;
there good Benedict sat, and sturdy Basil the blacksmith.
EVANGELINE, H. W. Longfellow, 1807-1882
Since you will not listen to reason, you must bow to force.
Anon
Silently one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven,
blossomed the lovely stars, the for-get-me-nots of the
angels. EVANGELINE, Longfellow
There disorder prevailed, an the tumult and stir of
embarking. Busily plied the freighted boats; and in the
confusion, Wives were torn from their husbands and mothers,
too late, saw their children left on the land, extending
their arms, with wildest entreaties. So unto separate ships
were Basil and Gabriel carried. While in despair on the
shore Evangeline stood with her father. Silence reigned
in the streets; from the church no Angelus sounded, Rose no
smoke form the roofs and gleamed no lights from the windows.
Then from a neighboring thicket the mocking-bird, wildest
of singers, swinging aloft on a willow spray that hung o'er
the water, shook from his little throat such floods of
delirious music that the whole air and the woods and the
waves seemed silent to listen. Plaintive at first were the
tones and sad; then soaring to madness seemed they to follow
or guide the revel of frenzied Bacchantes. Single notes
were then heard, in sorrowful, low, lamentation; till,
having gathered them all, he flung them abroad in derision,
as when, after a storm, a gust of wind through the tree-tops
shakes down the rattling rain in a crystal shower on the
branches. EVANGELINE, Longfellow
We trample grass and prize the flowers of May, but grass is
green when flowers do fade away. Robert Southwell
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for
one people to dissolve the political bonds which have
connected them with another, and to assume, among the
peoples of the earth, the separate and equal station to
which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a
decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causers which impel them to the
separation. Preamble to the U.S. Constitution