May 11

“However she appears before me in these, the bright working years of her life, it is always with the same gentle manners and movements, never too hurried or too important to attend to other peoples’ affairs, however tedious or trivial, or to give a helping hand when it was wanted.”

From Life of Annie Keary

“What struck me then, and often afterwards, was the way in which he took apparently a special interest in whatever he was at the time attending to. . . . He would come in from the parish, and sit down in the study, and talk with his whole mind given to the subject; and then, when called out, as he constantly was, to see some poor or rich persons, he would immediately give them his entire attention, and return to resume the conversation as if he had never been interrupted. I think that it was this, and his sweet serenity of temper, that made the children so fond of him.”

From Life of C. Lowder

May 10

“Justice and Mercy, and that rigid self-control which kept him from speaking a hasty word or harbouring a mean suspicion, combined with a divine tenderness, were his governing principles in all his home relationships.”

From Life of C. Kingsley

“No fatigue was too great to make him forget the courtesy of less wearied moments; no business too engrossing to deprive him of his readiness to show kindness and sympathy. To school himself to this code of unfaltering high and noble living, was truly one of the great works of his life, for the fulfilment of which he subjected himself to a vigorous self-discipline.”

From Life of C. Kingsley

“The readiness which he showed to acknowledge a fault when once convinced of it, as well as to persevere in kindness even when he thought himself injured, succeeded in healing breaches which with a less forgiving or less honest temper would have been irreparable.”

From Life of Dr. Arnold

“Gather some profit to thy soul wheresoever thou art; so that if thou seest or hearest of any good examples, thou stir up thyself to the imitation thereof.”

THOMAS à KEMPIS

May 9

“Small kindnesses, small courtesies, small considerations, habitually practised in our social intercourse, give a greater charm to the character than the display of great talents and accomplishments.”

M. A. KELTY

“Another interesting point in the social life of Jesus is His courtesy. There is, perhaps, no part of our life that is so unreal and unsatisfactory, none of which we find it so hard to give an account of ourselves, as the courtesy which we pay to one another. And there is none which, in the life of Jesus, is more thoroughly satisfactory and perfect. I find the secret of it in the clear perception and value of the personal life behind the class condition of which we have just been speaking. True courtesy gets its essence from honour of the individual, while it gets its special form from consideration of the class condition.”

PHILLIPS BROOKS

“That best portion of a good man’s life,
His little, nameless, unremembered, acts,
Of kindness and of love.”

WORDSWORTH