C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Zeal
The fool rageth and is confident.
Not too much zeal.
Blind zeal can only do harm.
Zealous, yet modest.
The worst of madmen is a saint run mad.
I have more zeal than wit.
Inwardly drunk with a certain belief.
Zeal, then, not charity, became the guide.
Zeal, the blind conductor of the will.
Nothing to build, and all things to destroy.
Tell zeal it lacks devotion.
The hopes of zeal are not wholly groundless.
Never let your zeal outrun your charity. The former is but human; the latter is divine.
In the ardor of pursuit men soon forget the goal from which they start.
We do that in our zeal our calmer moment would be afraid to answer.
Zeal is very blind, or badly regulated, when it encroaches upon the rights of others.
It is a coal from God’s altar must kindle our fire; and without fire, true fire, no acceptable sacrifice.
Zeal is fit for wise men, but flourishes chiefly among fools.
To be furious in religion is to be irreligiously religious.
The good which bloodshed could not gain your peaceful zeal shall find.
Zeal without humility is like a ship without a rudder, liable to be stranded at any moment.
True zeal is an ignis lambeus, a soft and gentle flame, that will not scorch one’s hand.
The frenzy of nations is the statesmanship of fate.
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
There is no zeal blinder than that which is inspired with a love of justice against offenders.
Zeal without knowledge is like expedition to a man in the dark.
A father or a brother may be hated zealously, and loved civilly or naturally.
There in nothing in which men more deceive themselves than in what they call zeal.
If our zeal were true and genuine we should be much more angry with a sinner than a heretic.
I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing.
Nothing can be fairer, or more noble, than the holy fervor of true zeal.
There are zealots for slavery as well as zealots for freedom.
Violent zeal for truth has a hundred to one odds to be either petulancy, ambition, or pride.
They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
True zeal is merciful and mild, can pity and forbear.
God approves the depth, but not the tumult, of the soul.
It were better to be of no church than to be bitter for any.
Nothing has wrought more prejudice to religion, or brought more disparagement upon truth, than boisterous and unseasonable zeal.
There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country.
A just cause and a zealous defender make an imperious resolution cut off the tediousness of cautious discussions.
The eloquent man is he who is no eloquent speaker, but who is inwardly drunk with a certain belief.
On such a theme it were impious to be calm; passion is reason, transport, temper, here!
Whether zeal or moderation be the point we aim at, let us keep fire out of the one and frost out of the other.
The zeal which begins with hypocrisy must conclude in treachery; at first it deceives, at last it betrays.
It is a zealot’s faith that blasts the shrines of the false god, but builds no temple to the true.
I have never known a trader in philanthropy who was not wrong in his head or heart somewhere or other.
Motives by excess reverse their very nature, and instead of exciting, stun and stupefy the mind.
Experience shows that success is due less to ability than to zeal. The winner is he who gives himself to his work, body and soul.
Not the zeal alone of those who seek Him proves God, but the blindness of those who seek Him not.
I would have every zealous man examine his heart thoroughly, and I believe he will often find that what he calls a zeal for his religion is either pride, interest, or ill-repute.
I remember a passage in Goldsmith’s “Vicar of Wakefield,” which he was afterwards fool enough to expunge: “I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing.”
Through zeal knowledge is gotten, through lack of zeal knowledge is lost; let a man who knows this double path of gain and loss thus place himself that knowledge may grow.
Some things will not bear much zeal; and the more earnest we are about them, the less we recommend ourselves to the approbation of sober and considerate men.
It is admirably remarked, by a most excellent writer, that zeal can no more hurry a man to act in direct opposition to itself than a rapid stream can carry a boat against its own current.
Do not too many believe no zeal to be spiritual but what is censorious or vindictive? Whereas no zeal is spiritual that is not also charitable.
What I object to Scotch philosophers in general is, that they reason upon man as they would upon a divinity; they pursue truth without caring if it be useful truth.