Charles Mackay Quotes

27 Sourced Quotes

He who has mingled in the fray of duty that the brave endure, must have made foes. If you have none, small is the work that you have done.

Charles Mackay
There's a fount about to stream, There's a light about to beam, There's a warmth about to glow, There's a flower about to blow; There's a midnight blackness changing Into gray; Men of thought and men of action, Clear the way.

Charles Mackay
Nations, like individuals, cannot become desperate gamblers with impunity. Punishment is sure to overtake them sooner or later.

Charles Mackay
Truth... and if mine eyes Can bear its blaze, and trace its symmetries, Measure its distance, and its advent wait, I am no prophet — I but calculate.

Charles Mackay
Old King Coal was a merry old soul: Quoth he, "We travel slow; I should like to roam the wide world round, As fast as the wild winds blow." And he call'd for his skilful engineers; And soon through hills and vales, O'er rivers wide, through tunnels vast, The flying trains like lightning pass'd, On the ribs of the mighty Rails.

Charles Mackay
Upon thy lofty tower, O lonely Sage, Reading at midnight hour Heaven's awful page!

Charles Mackay
The study of the errors into which great minds have fallen in the pursuit of truth can never be uninstructive... No man is so wise but that he may learn some wisdom from his past errors, either of thought or action, and no society has made such advances as to be capable of no improvement from the retrospect of its past folly and credulity.

Charles Mackay
Water is the mother of the vine, the nurse and fountain of fecundity, the adorner and refresher of the world.

Charles Mackay
Of all the offspring of Time, Error is the most ancient, and is so old and familiar an acquaintance, that Truth, when discovered, comes upon most of us like an intruder, and meets the intruder's welcome.

Charles Mackay
Much as the sage may affect to despise the opinion of the world, there are few who would not rather expose their lives a hundred times than be condemned to live on, in society, but not of it - a by-word of reproach to all who know their history, and a mark for scorn to point his finger at.

Charles Mackay
Money, again, has often been a cause of the delusion of the multitudes. Sober nations have all at once become desperate gamblers, and risked almost their existence upon the turn of a piece of paper.

Charles Mackay
There is scarcely an occurrence in nature which, happening at a certain time, is not looked upon by some persons as a prognosticator either of good or evil. The latter are in the greatest number, so much more ingenious are we in tormenting ourselves than in discovering reasons for enjoyment in the things that surround us.

Charles Mackay
Blessings on Science! When the earth seem'd old, When Faith grew doting, and the Reason cold, 'T was she discover'd that the world was young, And taught a language to its lisping tongue: 'T was she disclosed a future to its view, And made old knowledge pale before the new.

Charles Mackay
Three causes especially have excited the discontent of mankind; and, by impelling us to seek remedies for the irremediable, have bewildered us in a maze of madness and error. These are death, toil, and the ignorance of the future..

Charles Mackay
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.

Charles Mackay
The smallest effort is not lost,
Each wavelet on the ocean tost
Aids in the ebb-tide or the flow;
Each rain-drop makes some floweret blow;
Each struggle lessens human woe.

Charles Mackay
Aid the dawning, tongue and pen;
Aid it, hopes of honest men!

Charles Mackay
Some love to roam o'er the dark sea's foam,
Where the shrill winds whistle free.

Charles Mackay
Cleon hath a million acres,— ne'er a one have I;
Cleon dwelleth in a palace, — in a cottage I.

Charles Mackay
He who walks through a great city to find subjects for weeping, may, God knows, find plenty at every corner to wring his heart; but let such a man walk on his course, and enjoy his grief alone — we are not of those who would accompany him. The miseries of us poor earthdwellers gain no alleviation from the sympathy of those who merely hunt them out to be pathetic over them. The weeping philosopher too often impairs his eyesight by his woe, and becomes unable from his tears to see the remedies for the evils which he deplores. Thus it will often be found that the man of no tears is the truest philanthropist, as he is the best physician who wears a cheerful face, even in the worst of cases.

Charles Mackay
There's a good time coming, boys!
A good time coming.
We may not live to see the day,
But earth shall glisten in the ray
Of the good time coming.
Cannon-balls may aid the truth
But thought's a weapon stronger;
We'll win our battles by its aid,
Wait a little longer.

Charles Mackay
Every age has its peculiar folly: Some scheme, project, or fantasy into which it plunges, spurred on by the love of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the force of imitation.

Charles Mackay
They may veil their eyes, but they cannot hide
The sun's meridian glow;
The heel of a priest may tread thee down,
And a tyrant work thee woe:
But never a truth has been destroyed;
They may curse it, and call it crime;
Pervert and betray, or slander and slay
Its teachers for a time.
But the sunshine aye shall light the sky,
As round and round we run;
And the truth shall ever come uppermost,
And justice shall be done.

Charles Mackay
The king can drink the best of wine —
So can I;
And has enough when he would dine —
So have I;
And can not order rain or shine —
Nor can I.
Then where's the difference — let me see —
Betwixt my lord the king and me?

Charles Mackay
"What dost thou see, lone watcher on the tower
Is the day breaking? comes the wish'd-for hour?
Tell us the signs, and stretch abroad thy hand
If the bright morning dawns upon the land." "The stars are clear above me, scarcely one
Has dimm'd its rays in reverence to the sun;
But yet I see, on the horizon's verge,
Some fair, faint streaks, as if the light would surge."

Charles Mackay