Best quotes by Isaac Watts

PassionBut, children, you should never let Such angry passions rise; Your little hands were never made To tear each other's eyes.

MindPassionIt would be of great use to us to form our deliberate judgments of persons and things in the calmest and serenest hours of life, when the passions of nature are all silent, and the mind enjoys its most perfect composure.

PassionThe passions are the gales of life; and it is religion only that can prevent them from rising into a tempest.

HappinessDo not be deceived; happiness and enjoyment do not lie in wicked ways.

MindStudy detains the mind by the perpetual occurrence of something new, which may gratefully strike the imagination.

MindWhen two or three sciences are pursued at the same time if one of them be dry, as logic, let another be more entertaining, to secure the mind from weariness.

MindTalking over the things which you have read with your companions fixes them on the mind.

MindAcademical disputation gives vigor and briskness to the mind thus exercised, and relieves the languor of private study and meditation.

MindIf I could reach from pole to pole or grasp the ocean with a span, I would be measured by the soul The mind's the standard of the Man.

MenAmong all the accomplishments of youth there is none preferable to a decent and agreeable behavior among men, a modest freedom of speech, a soft and elegant manner of address, a graceful and lovely deportment, a cheerful gravity and good-humor, with a mind appearing ever serene under the ruffling accidents of human life.

MindNothing tends so much to enlarge the mind as traveling.

MindDisputation carries away the mind from that calm and sedate temper which is so necessary to contemplate truth.

FearWhen I can read my title clear To mansions in the skies, I'll bid farewell to every fear, And wipe my weeping eyes.

FearSalvation, O the joyful sound! 'Tis pleasure to our ears; A sov'reign balm for ev'ry wound, A cordial for our fears.

FearSpeak softly. It is far better to rule by love than fear.Speak softly. Let no harsh words mar the good we may do here.

Every one of his opinions appears to himself to be written with sunbeams.

thanks to my friends for their care in my breeding, Who taught me betimes to love working and reading.

Instructors should not only be skilful in those sciences which they teach, but have skill in the method of teaching, and patience in the practice.

Earth, thou great footstool of our God, who reigns on high; thou fruitful source of all our raiment, life, and food; our house, our parent, and our nurse.

Thoughts, like old vultures, prey upon their heart-strings

Fancy and humour, early and constantly indulged in, may expect an old age overrun with follies.

Two sentiments alone suffice for man, were he to live the age of the rocks - love, and the contemplation of the Deity.

I would not change my native landFor rich Peru with all her gold

Satirists do expose their own ill nature.

In books, or work, or healthful play.

The tall, the wise, the reverend head Must lie as low as ours.

How glad the heathens would have been, That worship idols, wood and stone, If they the book God had seen.

Flies, worms, and flowers exceed me still.

As a man may be eating all day, and for want of digestion is never nourished, so these endless readers may cram themselves in vain with intellectual food.

I write not for your farthing, but to try. How I your farthing writers, may outvie.

The very substance which last week was grazing in the field, waving in the milk pail, or growing in the garden, is now become part of the man.

Do not hover always on the surface of things, nor take up suddenly with mere appearances; but penetrate into the depth of matters, as far as your time and circumstances allow, especially in those things which relate to your profession.

A hermit who has been shut up in his cell in a college has contracted a sort of mould and rust upon his soul.

The Fondness we have for Self, and the Relation which other Persons and Things have to ourselves, furnish us with another long Rank of Prejudices.

Death, like an overflowing stream, Sweeps us away: our life's a dream.

Learn good-humor, never to oppose without just reason; abate some degree of pride and moroseness.

What's amiss I'll strive to mend,And endure what can't be mended.

Some have a violent and turgid manner of talking and thinking; they are always in extremes, and pronounce concerning everything in the superlative.

When general observations are drawn from so many particulars as to become certain and indisputable, these are jewels of knowledge.

For sov'reign pow'r reign not alone, Grace is the partner of the throne; Thy grace and justice mighty Lord, Shall well divide our last reward.

A thousand ages in Thy sight Are like an evening gone; Short as the watch that ends the night Before the rising sun.

At books, or work, or healthy play, Let all my years be passed; That I may give for every day A good account at last.

No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found.

Tis the voice of the sluggard I heard him complain,You have wak'd me too soon, I must slumber again.

So, when a raging fever burns, We shift from side to side by turns; And 't is a poor relief we gain To change the place, but keep the pain.

For one drop calls another down, till we are drowned in seas of grief.

I have been there, and still would go; 'T is like a little heaven below.

No, I'll repine at death no more, But with a cheerful gasp resign To the cold dungeon of the ground These dying, withering limbs of mine. Let worms devour my wasting flesh, And crumble all my bones to dust:-- My God shall raise my frame anew, At the revival of the just.

The child taught to believe any occurrence a good or evil omen, or any day of the week lucky, hath a wide inroad made upon the soundness of his understanding.

Affect not little shifts and subterfuges to avoid the force of an argument.

Lord, I ascribe it to thy grace,And not to chance as others do,That I was born of Christian race,And not a Heathen, or a Jew.

I love the soul that dares tread the temptations of his years beneath his youthful feet.

In common discourse we denominate persons and things according to the major part of their character; he is to be called a wise man who has but few follies.

Reason is the glory of human nature, and one of the chief eminences whereby we are raised above our fellow-creatures, the brutes, in this lower world.

Sweet is the day of sacred rest; No mortal cares shall seize my breast; O may my heart in tune be found Like David's harp of solemn sound.

To see the dull indifference, the negligent and thoughtless air that sits upon the faces of a whole assembly, while the psalm is upon their lips, might even tempt a charitable observer to suspect the fervency of their inward religion.

Whatever brawls disturb the street, There should be peace at home.

Whene'er I take my walks abroad,How many poor I see!What shall I render to my GodFor all his gifts to me?

Hush! my dear, lie still and slumber, Holy angels guard thy bed! Heavenly blessing without number Gently falling on thy head.

He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove, the glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love.

Lord, what a thoughtless wretch was I, To mourn, and murmur and repine, To see the wicked placed on high, In pride and robes of honor shine. But oh, their end, their dreadful end, Thy sanctuary taught me so, On slipp'ry rocks I see them stand, And fiery billows roll below.

Poesy and oratory omit things not essential, and insert little beautiful digressions, in order to place everything in the most effective light.

What bliss will fill the ransomed souls, when they in glory dwell, to see the sinner as he rolls, in quenchless flames of hell.

A flower, when offered in the bud, is no vain sacrifice.

No science is speedily learned by the noblest genius without tuition.

Logic helps us to strip off the outward disguise of things, and to behold and judge of them in their own nature.

When a false argument puts on the appearance of a true one, then it is properly called a sophism or fallacy.

Let dogs delight to bark and bite, for God hath made them so.

Our life contains a thousand springs, And dies if one be gone. Strange! that a harp of thousand strings Should keep in tune so long.

The tulip and the butterfly Appear in gayer coats than I: Let me be dressed fine as I will, Flies, worms, and flowers exceed me still.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come / Let earth receive her King / Let every heart, prepare him room / And heaven and nature sing.

Birds in their little nests agree; And 'tis a shameful sight When children of one family Fall out, and chide, and fight.

For Satan always finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.

In Job and the Psalms we shall find more sublime ideas, more elevated language, than in any of the heathen versifiers of Greece or Rome.

How doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour, And gather honey all the day From every opening flower!