John Lubbock Quotes

Here are the three great questions which in life we have over and over again to answer: Is it right or wrong? Is it true or false? Is it beautiful or ugly? Our education ought to help us to answer these questions.

To do something, however small, to make others happier and better, is the highest ambition, the most elevating hope, which can inspire a human being."- Biologist John Lubbock.

Art is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human happiness. It trains the mind through the eye, and the eye through the mind. As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life.

The veil is slowly rising, but as regards innumerable questions we must be content to remain in ignorance.

A wise system of education will at least teach us how little man yet knows, how much he has still to learn.

If we succeed in giving the love of learning, the learning itself is sure to follow.

In this world we do not see things as they are. We see them as we are, because what we see depends mainly on what we are looking for.

Fresh air is as good for the mind as for the body. Nature always seems trying to talk to us as if she had some great secret to tell. And so she has.

What we see depends mainly on what we look for.

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.

Savages have often been likened to children, and the comparison is not only correct but also highly instructive. Many naturalists consider that the early condition of the individual indicates that of the race,-that the best test of the affinities of a species are the stages through which it passes. So also it is in the case of man; the life of each individual is an epitome of the history of the race, and the gradual development of the child illustrates that of the species.

Our own happiness ought not to be our main objective in life.

In truth, people can generally make time for what they choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is wanting.

When we have done our best, we should wait the result in peace.

Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.

Cultivate all your faculties; you must either use them or lose them

The world would be better and brighter if people were taught the duty of being happy as well as the happiness of doing their duty.

Those who have not distinguished themselves at school need not on that account be discouraged. the greatest minds do not necessarily ripen the quickest.

How little our libraries cost us as compared with our liquor cellars.

A man who is not a good friend to himself cannot be so to any one else.

Happy indeed is the naturalist: to him the seasons come round like old friends; to him the birds sing: as he walks along, the flowers stretch out from the hedges, or look up from the ground, and as each year fades away, he looks back on a fresh store of happy memories.

Though it is a great mistake to make friends of the wicked and foolish, it is unwise to make enemies of them, for they are very numerous.

We may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters of the earth.

We profit little by books we do not enjoy.

Reading and writing, arithmetic and grammar do not constitute education, any more than a knife, fork and spoon constitute a dinner.

It would be a great thing if people could be brought to realize that they can never add to the sum of their happiness by doing wrong.

We are all great landed proprietors, if we only knew it. What we lack is not land, but the power to enjoy it. Moreover, this great inheritance has the additional advantage that it entails no labor, requires no management. The landlord has the trouble, but the landscape belongs to everyone who has eyes to see it.

Be cautious, but not too cautious; do not be too much afraid of making a mistake; a man who never makes a mistake will make nothing.

Rest is by no means a waste of time.

It is sad, indeed, to see how man wastes his opportunities. How many could be made happy, with the blessings which are recklessly wasted or thrown away.

Our duty is to believe that for which we have sufficient evidence, and to suspend our judgment when we have not.

The whole value of solitude depends upon oneself; it may be a sanctuary or a prison, a haven of repose or a place of punishment, a heaven or a hell, as we ourselves make it.

Don't be afraid of showing affection. Be warm and tender, thoughtful and affectionate. Men are more helped by sympathy than by service. Love is more than money, and a kind word will give more pleasure than a present.

If you have the least doubt about it, do not marry.

All those who love Nature she loves in return, and will richly reward, not perhaps with the good things, as they are commonly called, but with the best things of this world-not with money and titles, horses and carriages, but with bright and happy thoughts, contentment and peace of mind.

Before buying anything, it is well to ask if one could do without it.

I cannot, however, but think that the world would be better and brighter if our teachers would dwell on the Duty of Happiness as well as the Happiness of Duty; for we ought to be as cheerful as we can, if only because to be happy ourselves is a most effectual contribution to the happiness of others.

Love seems to beautify and inspire all nature. It raises the earthly caterpillar into the ethereal butterfly, it paints the feathers in spring, it lights the glowworm's lamp, it wakens the song of birds, and inspires the poet's lay. Even inanimate Nature seems to feel the spell, and flowers glow with the richest colours.

Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.

A Cheerful friend is like a sunny day, which sheds its brightness on all around.

Everyone must have felt that a cheerful friend is like a sunny day, which sheds its brightness on all around; and most of us can, as we choose, make of this world either a palace or a prison.

There are temptations which strong exercise best enables us to resist

Try to realize all the blessings you have, and you will find perhaps that they are more than you suppose.

Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.