HAP HAZARD QUOTATIONS COLLECTED DURING AN IDLE SUMMER MONTH BY L. E. B. HAP HAZARD QUOTATIONS COLLECTED DURING AN IDLE SUMMER MONTH h L. E. B. D. P. ELDER AND MORGAN SHEPARD SAN FRANCISCO I9OO COPYRIGHT, SEPT., 1900 h L. E. BOGGS All rights reserved Press of The Stanley-Taylor Company San Francisco HAP HAZARD QUOTATIONS WHEN all that is worldly burns to dross around us, books only retain their steady value. When friends grow cold, and the conversation of in- timates languishes into vapid civility and common- place, these only continue the unaltered countenance of better days, and cheer us with that true friendship which never deceived hope or deserted sorrow. There is no time in life when books do not influ- ence a man. To divert at any time a troublesome fancy run to thy books ; they always receive thee with the same kindness. You must write a book or two to find out how much and how little you know and have to say. Men of one idea are always extremists, and ex- tremists are always nuisances. One does not care to talk of the traitor he once called friend. WHEN a young man can enjoy an hour's quiet talk with a woman neither young, beautiful, nor fascinating in any way, there's sure to be something good and genuine in him. Politeness appears to have been invented to enable people who would naturally fall out, to live together in peace. We have that sort of courtesy about us, we would not flatly call a fool, a fool. Affections can withstand very severe storms, but not a long polar frost of downright indifference. The best lessons a man ever has are his mistakes. We should judge men by their treatment of others, rather than by their treatment of us. Men marry the very last women, and women the very last men, whom their friends would think it pos- sible they would care about. Passionate love in a man is not to be doubted for a time. But constancy under difficulties ah! that's another thing. Pardon does not heal the wound. The wisdom which, if a man is ever to be wise, comes to him after he has crossed the line of thirty years. A man is clever when he marries for money and no one finds it out You will not anger a man so much by showing him that you hate him, as by expressing a contempt for him. Never strike one unnecessary blow. Love all sorts of love can excuse anything but meanness. Meanness kills love, cripples natural affection, and forfeits friendship. Without esteem true love or friendship cannot exist. There are no two persons who can walk together in this world without having much to bear with each other, so full are we of imperfections. IT IS nice to have an adoring creature always keep- ing watch over one's incomings and outgoings, and believing one to be what he knows he is not a man of mighty intellect and Herculean strength; in short, the authority of the world. Single people certainly have more peace and quietness, but now and then they find themselves rather too severely left alone. Married people rejoice in the joys of companionship but there may be too much of a good thing oh, so much, too much of it. On the whole, there are those who have been married who would have been much happier had they remained single, and there are those who would have been more blessed had they been married lottery. It is a deep mystery the way the heart of a man turns to one woman out of all the rest he has seen in the world. Beware of hating men for their opinions; or of adopting their doctrines because you love and venerate their virtues. Thou can'st not shape another's mind to suit thine own body ; think not, then, to be furnishing his brains with thy special notions. Ambition often plays the wrestler's trick of raising a man up merely to fling him down again. A man's own heart must be ever given to gain that of another. We can never quite understand why another dis- likes what we like. There is no character more contemptible than a man or woman that is a fortune-hunter. It is wonderful how readily people believe anything they would like to be true. fT"VHERE are some who know us only as our ideal JL selves, to whom we are always perfect, the real- ization of their dreams so far as we go and for what we are worth people who round us off, so to speak, and absolutely refuse to look at either excres- cence or flaw, to recognize the fault too much or the grace too little. And perhaps we are always at our best with them ; for it is quite true that certain friends have the power of bringing out all that is good and beautiful in us, and certain others all that is ugly and bad; just as some notes make harmonies and others discords, though it is the same instrument that gives both, only struck differently. No one can account for it, how the presence of certain people seems to set our teeth on edge, to make us captious, imperious, angry, contradictory, whatever may be the besetting sin of our temperament. This person is to our worst self what the red rag is to the bull, and rouses into activity every latent fault; neither side to blame, only by this unlucky magnetic discord, all that is worst in us comes to the front. And sometimes, Heaven help us! we marry this person. To be in love, and at the same time act wisely, is scarcely within the power of a god. Men often like the romance and excitement of a secret courtship, women, never, unless there is some- thing in them not quite right, not entirely womanly. HE THAT considers how little he dwells upon the condition of others will learn how little the attention of others is attracted by himself. The utmost which he can reasonably hope or fear is to fill a vacant hour with prattle and be forgotten. Such is the contrast to be found in human character, in some a benevolence that consoles and bestows a relief; in others a destructive persecution of their fellow men. Write your name with kindness, love and mercy on the hearts of the people you come in contact with year by year, and you will never be forgotten. If there is any person for whom you fdel a dislike, that is the person of whom you ought seldom to think and never to speak. Quotation* Sooner or later we pardon our friends the injuries we have done them. Half the ills we hoard in our hearts are ills because we hoard them. He was clad in an armor of indifference through which nothing could penetrate. Many arrows were cast upon him, but they glanced from off his back he never faced them. Not always actions show the man : we find Who does a kindness is not therefore kind, Perhaps prosperity becalmed his breast, Perhaps the wind just shifted from the East ; Not therefore humble, he who seeks retreat, Pride guides his steps, and bids him shun the great : Who combats bravely, is not therefore brave, He dreads a death-bed like the meanest slave : Who reasons wisely, is not therefore wise, His pride in reasoning, not in acting, lies. Disproportioned friendships ever terminate in failure. It is a solemn fact in this world that whenever a girl says she will never, never do a thing, she is pretty sure to go and do it the first chance she gets. IO All women marry gods, but sadly consent afterward to live with men. Oh, woman, I love you for what you are not! What woman should be? Sir, consult the taste of marriageable men. A woman's advice is no great thing, but he's a fool that doesn't take it. SHE was a metallic woman, a woman whose appear- ance builds you up. She could reflect all the shine in the world; she could be rained on by all the rain in the world; remaining inside of her armor unmoved by either. I never see such an one without crying : u Thanks, you can't be easily hurt. Sorrow and reverses drown you not. Love will not kill you. You are self-sufficient. A happy woman but I don't want to be you ! " From what bitter anguish of heart does a woman's seeming ill-humor sometimes spring ? I have seen fifty-year-old faces on which the impress of mind and heart made a light like the glow of an autumn sunset, not to be quenched; even a morning light over features that could not look old. The heart that is truly happy never grows old. Some people are very correct ; you can never dis- cover any fault in them, but they don't amount to much. She would never go out of her way for you, but oh, so delightful, when she met you ! She provides employment and gives to those of whom she personally knows nothing and avoided always, notoriety. She would do nothing except for public praise. " Why did you pass yesterday without looking at me?" inquired a beautiful woman of Talleyrand. "Because, madam/' replied the great diplomatist, "if I had looked, I could not have passed." A wife older than her husband is always at a dis- advantage. Of all disagreeable things in this world, the most disagreeable is not to have your own way. It is astonishing, when we have conceived a preju- dice, how rapidly it grows, and how plentifully it finds nutriment. 12 I can picture her treading her lonely way Thro' a land whence summer has flown, Bearing life's crosses from day to day, And dying at last alone ; With never a friend or a kindred face To follow her dust to its resting-place. She is not fair to outward view, As many maidens be; Her loveliness I never knew Until she smiled on me : O, then I saw her eye was bright, A well of joy, a spring of light. What you are prepared for rarely happens. The precise thing you had expected comes not once in a thousand times. It is always the unexpected that happens. EVERY heart has its secret sorrows, which the world knows not ; and oftentimes we call a man cold when he is only sad. If we throw too much on our friends make too many demands on their sympathy, their patience, their good nature, their allowance we shall end in using up the friendship. Nothing will be left not a crumb. Disappoint not thy friends. Quotations 13 The extreme pleasure we take in talking of our- selves should make us fear that we give very little to those who listen to us. It is a mistake to think your interlocutor is listen- ing to what you say. He is thinking of what he is going to say. It is a mistake to suppose that your friend is con- sumedly interested in your eloquent description of your liver troubles. On the contrary, he is excessively anxious to tell you of his catarrh. To business that we love we rise betime, And go to it with delight. All things come round to him who will but wait but oh, how long one has to wait ! Deal in a manly way with the trials of the present, and the future will not fail to be generous to you. God never forsook one who was making an honest effort, and He is not going to begin on you. Strug- gle on, and all shall be well. No man is more cheated than the selfish man, and selfishness at the expense of other's happiness is demonism. 4}uof