William Gilmore Simms

William Gilmore Simms
William Gilmore Simmswas a poet, novelist and historian from the American South. His writings achieved great prominence during the 19th century, with Edgar Allan Poe pronouncing him the best novelist America had ever produced. He is still known among literary scholars as a major force in antebellum Southern literature. He is also remembered for his strong support of slavery and for his opposition to Uncle Tom's Cabin, in response to which he wrote reviews and a pro-slavery novel...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
CountryUnited States of America
William Gilmore Simms quotes about
The only true source of politeness is consideration.
It should console us for the fact that sin has not totally disappeared from the world, that the saints are not wholly deprived of employment.
The only true source of politeness is consideration,--that vigilant moral sense which never loses sight of the rights, the claims, and the sensibilities of others. This is the one quality, over all others, necessary to make a gentleman.
The dread of criticism is the death of genius.
The birth of a child is the imprisonment of a soul. The soul must work its way out of prison, and, in doing so, provide itself with wings for a future journey. It is for each of us to determine whether our wings shall be those of an angel or a grub!
Our possessions are wholly in our performances. He owns nothing to whom the world owes nothing.
We must calculate not on the weather, nor on fortune, but upon God and ourselves. He may fail us in the gratification of our wishes, but never in the encounter with our exigencies.
Better that we should err in action than wholly refuse to perform. The storm is so much better than the calm, as it declares the presence of a living principle. Stagnation is something worse than death. It is corruption also.
But for that blindness which is inseparable from malice, what terrible powers of evil would it possess! Fortunately for the world, its venom, like that of the rattlesnake, when most poisonous, clouds the eye of the reptile, and defeats its aim.
Philosophy has its bugbears, as well as superstition.
Ambition is frequently the only refuge which life has left to the denied or mortified affections. We chide at the grasping eye, the daring wing, the soul that seems to thirst for sovereignty only, and know not that the flight of this ambitious bird has been from a bosom or home that is filled with ashes.
Distinction is an eminence that is attained but too frequently at the expense of a fireside.
The birth of a child is the imprisonment of a soul.
There is no doubt such a thing as chance, but I see no reason why Providence should not make use of it.