Page:Three Thousand Selected Quotations from Brilliant Writers.djvu/304

296 Infinite toil would not enable you to sweep away a mist, but by ascending a little you may often look over it altogether. So it is with our moral improvement; we wrestle fiercely with a vicious habit, which could have no hold upon us if we ascended to a higher atmosphere. —.

Habit if not resisted soon becomes necessity. —.

Every sinful act is another cord woven into that mighty cable of habit, which binds the spirit to the throne of darkness. —.

The diminutive chains of habit are seldom heavy enough to be felt, till they are too strong to be broken. —.

Brethren, happiness is not our being's end and aim. The Christian's aim is perfection, not happiness; and every one of the sons of God must have something of that spirit which marked his Master. —.

There is something better for us in the world than happiness. We will take happiness as the incident of this, gladly and gratefully. We will add a thousand fold to the happiness of the present in the fearlessness of the future which it brings; but we will not place happiness first, and thus cloud our heads with doubts, and fill our hearts with discontent. In the blackest soils grow the richest flowers, and the loftiest and strongest trees spring heavenward among the rocks. —.