Trust no future howe'er pleasant;
Let the dead past bury its dead;
Act,—act in the living present,
Heart within and God o'erhead!
—Longfellow.
The state of that man's mind who feels too intense an interest as to future events, must be most deplorable.—Seneca.
God will not suffer man to have the knowledge of things to come; for if he had prescience of his prosperity, he would be careless; and, understanding of his adversity, he would be senseless.—St. Augustine.
Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.—Proverbs 27:1.
The golden age is not in the past, but in the future; not in the origin of human experience, but in its consummate flower; not opening in Eden, but out from Gethsemane.—Chapin.
Why will any man be so impertinently officious as to tell me all prospect of a future state is only fancy and delusion? Is there any merit in being the messenger of ill news. If it is a dream, let me enjoy it, since it makes me both the happier and better man.—Addison.
How narrow our souls become when absorbed in any present good or ill! it is only the thought of the future that makes them great.—Richter.
If there was no future life, our souls would not thirst for it.—Richter.
Gambling.—There is nothing that wears out a fine face like the vigils of the card-table, and those cutting passions which naturally attend them. Hollow eyes, haggard looks and pale complexions are the natural indications.—Steele.
Games of chance are traps to catch school boy novices and gaping country squires, who begin with a guinea and end with a mortgage.—Cumberland.