British author & Freemason (1726-1779)
Life, how sweet soever it seems, is a draught mingled with bitter ingredients; some drink deeper than others before they come at them: But, if they do not swim at the top for youth to taste them, it is ten to one but old age will find them thick at the bottom. And it is the employment of faith and patience, and the work of wisdom and virtue, to teach us to drink the sweet part down with pleasure and thankfulness, and to swallow the bitter without reluctance.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Since misfortunes cannot be avoided, let them be generously borne; it is not for any sort of men to expect an exemption from the common lot of mankind; and no person is truly great, but he that keeps up the same dignity of mind in all conditions.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Could we draw back the covering of the tomb; could we see, what those are now, who once were mortals, oh! how would it surprise and grieve us! Surprise us, to behold the prodigious transformation that has taken place on every individual; grieve us, to observe the dishonor done to our nature in general, within these subterraneous lodgments!
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Meditation is the life of virtue, as virtue is the life of the soul. It is the conduit by which a happy and delightful communication is maintained between God and the soul; through which the graces and blessings of God descend to the soul, and through which the ardour, the praises, and adoration of the soul, ascend to God.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
One advantage gained by calamities, is to know how to sympathize with others in the like troubles.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
We generally fancy ourselves more miserable than we are, for want of taking a true estimate of things; wherefore we fly into transports without reason, and judge of the happiness or calamity of human life, by false lights.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Many people marry first, and have to learn afterwards the duty of a married state, and the comforts and inconveniences that attend it; and it is not uncommon to meet with persons whose depraved judgments encourage them to think it immaterial, whether or not love proceeds tying the matrimonial knot, looking upon it as a matter of future expectation.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Music is a science that teaches how sound, under certain measures of time and tune, may be produced, and so ordered and disposed, as, either in consonance, or succession, or both, they may raise various sensations from the height of rapture even to melancholy or distraction.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
There is nothing in the female sex more graceful or becoming than Modesty. It adds charm to their beauty, and gives a new softness to their sex. Without it simplicity and innocence appear rude; reading and good sense, masculine; wit and humour, lascivious. This is so necessary a quality for pleasing, that the loose part of the sex, whose study it is to ensnare men's hearts, never fail to support the appearance of what they know is essential to that end.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
It is time enough to bear a misfortune when it comes, without anticipating it; for why should we torment ourselves with what may fall out, perhaps, twenty years hence, or never.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Riches naturally gain a man a favourable reception in the world, and give merit a double lustre, when a person is endowed with it; and supply its place, in great measure, when it is absent. Tis wonderful to observe what airs of superiority fools and knaves, with large possessions, give themselves above men of the greatest merit in poverty.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
There is no accident so exquisitely unfortunate, but wise men will make some advantage of it.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Various are men's dispositions and abilities, and by their different characters, they discover different degrees of perfection.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
It matters not from what stock we are descended so long as we have virtue; for that alone is true Nobility.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
The duty of Parents to their Children does not terminate in giving them existence.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
It is a comfort to the miserable to have companions in their sad state. This may seem to be a kind of malicious satisfaction, that one man derives from the Misfortunes of another, but the philosophy of this reflection stands upon another foundation; for our comfort does not arise from others being miserable, but from this inference upon the balance, that we suffer only the lot of human nature, and as we are happy or miserable compared with others, so others are miserable or happy compared with us.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Among all the characters of mankind, that of the Philosopher is the most perfect. Distinguished from those of the inferior kind, by clearer and more distinct perceptions; by more comprehensive views of both nature and art; by a more ardent love and higher admiration of what is excellent; by a firmer attachment to virtue, and the general good of the world; by a lower regard for all inferior beauties compared with the supreme, consisting in rectitude of conduct and dignitude of behaviour; by a greater moderation in prosperity, and greater patience and courage under the evils of life; the real Philosopher, though not absolutely perfect, sets the grandeur of human genius in the fairest light.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
If we consider Music merely as an entertainment, doubtless, the author of all good designed the pleasing harmony and melody of sounds (among other purposes) to heighten the innocent pleasures of human life, and to alleviate and dispel its cares. When we are oppressed with sorrow and grief, it can enliven and exhilarate our drooping spirits. When we are elated, and as it were intoxicated with excessive joy, (for joy may be excessive and even dangerous) it can moderate the violence of the passions, bring us down from the giddy height, and reduce us to a state of tranquility: If inflamed with anger, or boiling with rage, it can soften us into pity, or melt us into compassion. In a word, hatred, malice, envy, and all the hideous group of infernal passions, which are at once the torment and disgrace of humanity, flee before this powerful charmer.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
In the choice of a wife, we ought to make use of our ears, and not our eyes.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
If we would trace our descents, we should find all slaves to come from princes and all princes from slaves: But fortune has turned all things topsy-turvy, in a long story of revolutions.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine