"A little diamond is worth a mountain of glass."
Quality is the thing that counts.
All flimsy, shallow, and superficial work is a lie, of which a man ought to be ashamed.—John Stuart Blackie. The desire and disposition to do a thing well, coupled with a firm determination, are pretty sure to bring the ability necessary for achieving the wished-for end. The will is lacking more often than is the way.
When we cease to learn, we cease to be interesting.—John Lancaster Spalding. It is a matter of frequent comment that we usually expect too much of the average young and attractive girl in the way of accomplishments. Because she is pleasing in her general appearance we are apt to feel a sense of disappointment if we find that her qualities of mind do not equal her outward charms.
The workless people are the worthless people.—Wm. C. Gannett. Charles Lamb says: "I know that sweet children are the sweetest things in nature," and adds, "but the prettier the kind of a thing is, the more desirable it is that it should be pretty of its kind." And so it is with girls who are bright and blithe and beautiful; the world would give them every charming quality of mind and heart to match the grace of face and figure.
Hence we find that the girl who is most fondly wanted, by the members of her own family, by her schoolmates, and by all with whom she shall form an acquaintance, is the one who is as pleasing in her manners as she is beautiful in her physical features.
Our ideals are our better selves.—Bronson Alcott. Of all the accomplishments it is possible for a girl to possess, that of being pleasant and gracious to those about her is the greatest and most desirable. "There is no beautifier of the complexion,
All literature, art, and science are vain, and worse, if they do not enable you to be glad, and glad, justly.—Ruskin. or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us," says Emerson.
It is possible for persons to acquire a great deal of information and to become skillful in many things and still be unloved by those with whom they are associated.