George Stillman Hillard

thumb| George Stillman Hillard (September 22, 1808 – January 21, 1879) was an American lawyer and author. Besides developing his Boston legal practice (with Charles Sumner as a partner), he served in the Massachusetts legislature, edited several Boston journals, and wrote on literature, politics and travel. Quotes A Dictionary of Quotations in Prose (1889) Quotes reported in Anna L. Ward (ed.) A Dictionary of Quotations in Prose from American and Foreign Authors, including Translations from Ancient Sources (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co, 1889) Ambition is not a weakness unless it be disproportioned to the capacity. To have more ambition than ability is to be at once weak and unhappy. Eulogy on the Life and Services of Daniel Webster. Faneuil Hall, Boston, November 30, 1852 104, Ambition Anger is a fierce and sudden flame, which may be kindled in the noblest breasts; but in these the slow droppings of an unforgiving temper never take the shape and consistency of enduring hatred. Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellan, Ch. 18 146, Anger No man can be a great officer who is not infinitely patient of details, for an army is an aggregation of details, a defect in any one of which may destroy or impair the whole. It is a chain of innumerable links, but the whole chain is no stronger than its weakest link. Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellan, Ch. 3 191, Army Men of genius are more apt to feel art than to understand it; and they sometimes mistake that emotion which a work of art calls forth for essential characteristics of the work itself. Six Months in Italy, Ch. 29 209, Art Sooner or later the world comes round to see the truth and do the right. Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellan, Ch. 8 937, Conviction One might feel indignant at the injustice which deals out what is called fame with so unequal a hand, were it not for the reflection that men who are competent to add to the in-tellectual wealth of the world, and enlarge the domain of knowledge, have learned to take popular applause at its true value, and to find in the faithful discharge of honorable duty a satisfaction which is its own reward. Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellan, Ch. 2 1,499, Fame A great man is a gift, in some measure a revelation of God. A great man, living for high ends, is the divinest thing that can be seen on earth. The value and interest of history are derived chiefly from the lives and services of the eminent men whom it commemorates. Indeed, without these, there would be no such thing as history, and the progress of a nation would be little worth recording, as the march of a trad-ing caravan across a desert. Eulogy, Faneuil Hall, Boston, Νοvember 30, 1852. On the Life and Services of Daniel Webster 2,241, Greatness Great men are among the best gifts which God bestows upon a people. Memorial Meeting to Daniel Webster in Faneuil Hall, Boston, October 25, 1852 2,242, Greatness The natural instincts of a generous heart shrink from an inveterate hater as the child shrinks from the snake in his path. Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellan, Ch. 13 2,379, Hatred There are no eyes so sharp as the eyes of hatred. Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellan, Ch. 13 2,380, Hatred Life is but another name for action; and he who is without opportunity exists, but does not live. Six Months in Italy, Ch. 31 3,220, Life The venom that chills and curdles the warm current of life in man is secreted only in creeping and cold-blooded creatures; and the inveterate malignity that never forgets or forgives is found only in base and ignoble natures, whose aims are selfish, whose means are indirect, cowardly, and treacherous. Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellan, Ch. 13 3,446, Malignity Misfortunes have their dignity and their redeeming power. Six Months in Italy, Ch. 8 3,589, Misfortune It may be too much to expect that nations should be governed in their relations towards each other by the precepts of Christian morality, but surely it is not too much to ask that they should conform to the code of courtesy and good breeding recognized among gentlemen in the intercourse of social life. Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellan, Ch. 3 3,734, Nations A statesman makes the occasion, but the occasion makes the politician. Eulogy, Faneuil Hall, Boston, November 30, 1852. The Life and Services of Daniel Webster 4,300, Politicians A sluggish, dawdling, and dilatory man may have spasms of activity, but he never acts continuously and consecutively with energetic quickness. Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellan, Ch. 13 5,089, Slothfulness Nothing is more binding than the friendship of companions-in-arms. Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellan, Ch. 12 5,119, Soldiers Strategy is the most important department of the art of war, and strategical skill is the highest and rarest function of military genius. Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellan, Ch. 18 5,729, War External links