George Schorb

"the Chinese proverb says: "The pleasure of doing good is the only one that never wears out.""

"Lincoln belonged to "the poor white trash." Columbus once begged for bread. Yet their minds were as calm as they were great. Mozart and his wife were so poor, and yet so cheerful, that they sometimes danced to keep warm. As we have sat among silks and jewels in a grand concert hall, and listened to the symphonies of Beethoven or the voice of Jennie Lind, how strange it was to reflect that they came from the deepest poverty! When you are borne on wings of lightning in a palace-car, and when you contemplate our marvelous railroad system, think of "the bare-legged laddie," George Stephenson, who gave us the railroad. Ah! poor father and mother, in your humble home, you may have a George Stephenson or a Jenny Lind in your little flock. Remember that He who is now called Lord of all was once a carpenter. If He had been born rich we might never have heard of Him. "He had not where to lay His head." He did not leave money enough for His burial; but He has made the whole world rich."

"And the object of culture will not be success in business or society, but character; not simply self-gratification, but usefulness to the world."

"Famine will be banished by the free transportation and distribution of food, by irrigating deserts, by making rain, and by fertilizing exhausted lands. Not only will all waste be put back into the soil, but there are in rocks and mines inexhaustible supplies of potash, phosphorus, ammonia, and nitric acid, which are the richest fertilizers."

"Roderick Dhu, when he declares to his Saxon lord the Highlander's vow: "To spoil the spoiler as we may, And from the robber rend the prey; The Gael, of plain and river heir, Shall, with strong hand, redeem his share.""

"A professor in one of our largest universities told me that he went one Sunday to hear Parsons, and while the anarchist was speaking, his baby boy toddled up to him; the father took the child in his arms, and held him for a long time while he was addressing the mob. The professor said: "I never saw anything more beautiful." Parsons was driven out of the South because he was a friend of the Negro when he came to Chicago, and befriended the slaves of capital, he was hanged. Yet let us remember that, though he attacked the abuses of the Government, still he had so much faith in the justice of the Government, and was so faithful to his friends, that he voluntarily gave himself up to the law, and asked to be tried with his comrades. He was martyr; and no martyr ever died more calmly, or had more faith in the final triumph of his cause."

"The world will turn a brighter page, And enter on her Golden Age, When wasting wars forever cease, And all her arts are arts of peace."

"I said at the outset that men, apart from business, are disposed to be kindly; indeed, the word kindness means nature."