Page:Three Thousand Selected Quotations from Brilliant Writers.djvu/489

Rh If the truth were known, many sermons are prepared and preached with more regard for the sermon than the souls of the hearers. —.

His admired discourses remind me of the colored shavings with which we fill empty grates in the summer time. —.

Elegance of language must give way before simplicity in preaching sound doctrine. —.

Embellish truth only with a view to gain it the more full and free admission into your hearer's minds; and your ornaments will, in that case, be simple, masculine, natural. —.

Style should be like window-glass, perfectly transparent, and with very little sash. —.

Style is the gossamer on which the seeds of truth float through the world. —.

The greatest thoughts are wronged, if not linked to beauty; and they win their way most surely and deeply into the soul when arranged in this their natural and fit attire. —.

You don't want a diction gathered from the newspapers, caught from the air, common and unsuggestive; but you want one whose every word is full-freighted with suggestion and association, with beauty and power. —.