There is in all this cold and hollow world no fount of deep, strong, deathless love, save that within a mother's heart.—Hemans.
Motive.—The morality of an action depends upon the motive from which we act. If I fling half-a-crown to a beggar with intention to break his head, and he picks it up and buys victuals with it, the physical effect is good; but with respect to me, the action is very wrong.—Johnson.
Whatever touches the nerves of motive, whatever shifts man's moral position, is mightier than steam, or caloric, or lightning.—Chapin.
Let the motive be in the deed and not in the event. Be not one whose motive for action is the hope of reward.—Kreeshna.
We must not inquire too curiously into motives. They are apt to become feeble in the utterance: the aroma is mixed with the grosser air. We must keep the germinating grain away from the light.—George Eliot.
Every activity proposes to itself a passivity, every labor enjoyment.—Jacobi.
Mourning.—Oh, for the touch of a vanished hand, and the sound of a voice that is still!—Tennyson.
The meek-ey'd morn appears, mother of dews.—Thomson.
Music.—Sentimentally I am disposed to harmony, but organically I am incapable of a tune.—Lamb.
All musical people seem to be happy; it is the engrossing pursuit; almost the only innocent and unpunished passion.—Sydney Smith.