APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 7 



Of all the senseless babble I have ever had 

 occasion to read, the demonstrations of these phi- 

 losophers who undertake to tell us all about the 

 nature of God would be the worst, if they were not 

 surpassed by the still greater absurdities of the 

 philosophers who try to prove that there is no 

 God. 



That which is to be lamented, I fancy, is not that 

 society should do its utmost to help capacity to 

 ascend from the lower strata to the higher, but that 

 it has no machinery by which to facilitate the 

 descent of incapacity from the higher strata to the 

 lower. 



Time, whose tooth gnaws away everything else, 

 is powerless against truth. 



XXXIII 



Misery is a match that never goes out. 



Genius as an explosive power beats gunpowder 

 hollow ; and if knowledge, which should give that 

 power guidance, is wanting, the chances are not 

 small that the rocket will simply run amuck among 

 friends and foes. 



Thoughtfulness for others, generosity, modesty, 

 and self-respect, are the qualities which make a 



