Zeal

Zeal is fervor or tireless devotion for a person, cause, or ideal and determination in its furtherance.

• Zealous, yet modest; innocent, though free;
  Patient of toil; serene amidst alarms;
  Inflexible in faith; invincible in arms.
  • James Beattie, The Minstrel (1771), Book I, Stanza 11.

• ZEAL, n. A certain nervous disorder afflicting the young and inexperienced. A passion that goeth before a sprawl.
  • Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911).

• For zeal's a dreadful termagant,
  That teaches saints to tear and cant.
  • Samuel Butler, Hudibras, Part III (1678), Canto II, line 673.

• It is only through a burning zeal for the salvation of the lost — a zeal glowing in the heart, and flashing out in the look and action and utterance — that the confidence of unbelief can be overcome, and the heedless travelers of the broad way won to the path of life and happiness. Love is the most potent logic; interest and sympathy are the most subduing eloquence.
  • The Christian at Work, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 625.

• I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing.
  • Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield (1766).

• Zeal and indignation are fervent passions.
  • Sir Henry Hobart, 1st Baronet, C.J., Sheffield v. Ratcliffe (1614), Lord Hobart's Rep. 335.

• I remember a passage in Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield," which he was afterwards fool enough to expunge: "I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing."
  • Samuel Johnson, quoted in Life of Johnson (1791) by James Boswell.

• Zealotry is when the letter of religion is mistaken for its spirit.
  • Immanuel Kant, Lectures on Ethics as transcribed by Georg Ludwig Collins (Cambridge University Press: 1997), p. 111.

• A zealous soul without meekness is like a ship in a storm, in danger of wrecks. A meek soul without zeal, is like a ship in a calm, that moves not so fast as it ought.
  • John M. Mason, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 625.

• A Spirit, zealous, as he seemed, to know
  More of the Almighty's works, and chiefly Man,
  God's latest image.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book IV, line 565.

• But his zeal
  None seconded, as out of season judged,
  Or singular and rash.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book V, line 849.

• But zeal moved thee;
  To please thy gods thou didst it!
  • John Milton, Samson Agonistes (1671), line 895.

• Zeal is that pure and heavenly flame,
  The fire of love supplies ;
  While that which often bears the name,
  Is self in a disguise

  True zeal is merciful and mild,
  Can pity and forbear ;
  The false is headstrong, fierce and wild,
  And breathes revenge and war.

  • John Newton, Olney Hymns, Hymn 70 : True and False Zeal

• It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.
  • Paul of Tarsus, in Galatians 5:18.

• I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
  • Paul of Tarsus, in Romans 10:1-3.

• It is a coal from God's altar must kindle our fire; and without fire, true fire, no acceptable sacrifice.
  • William Penn, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 625.

• Zeal then, not charity, became the guide.
  • Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man (1733-34), Epigram III, line 261.

• I have more zeal than wit.
  • Alexander Pope, Imitations of Horace (1733 to 1738), Book II. Satire VI, line 56.

• Poets heap virtues, painters gems, at will,
  And show their zeal, and hide their want of skill.
  • Alexander Pope, Moral Essays (1731-35), Epigram II, line 185.

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 925.

• There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country.
  • Joseph Addison in Freeholder No. 5.

• Awake, my soul! stretch every nerve,
  And press with vigour on;
  A heavenly race demands thy zeal,
  And an immortal crown.
  • Philip Doddridge, in the hymn "Zeal and Vigour in the Christian Race".

• Blinder Eifer schadet nur.
  • Blind zeal can only do harm.
    • Magnus Gottfried Lichtwer in Die Katzen under der Hausherr.

• Zeal is very blind, or badly regulated, when it encroaches upon the rights of others.
  • Pasquier Quesnel

• My hat is in the ring.
  • Theodore Roosevelt. Said in Cleveland, when on his way to Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 21, 1912.

• Der Freunde Eifer ist's, der mich
  Zu Grunde richtet, nicht der Hass der Feinde.
  • The zeal of friends it is that razes me,
    And not the hate of enemies.
  • Friedrich von Schiller, Wallenstein's Tod III:18, last lines.

• We do that in our zeal our calmer moment would be afraid to answer.
  • Sir Walter Scott, Woodstock, heading of Chapter XVII.

• If I had obeyed God, as I have obeyed him,
  He would not have punished me.
  • Swamwra to the Governor of Basra when deposed by the Caliph (675). See Ibnu'l Athir, Volume III, p. 412. (Ed. Tomberg).

• Terms ill defined, and forms misunderstood,
  And customs, when their reasons are unknown,
  Have stirred up many zealous souls
  To fight against imaginary giants.
  • Martin Farquhar Tupper, Proverbial Philosophy, Of Tolerance.

• Press bravely onward!—not in vain
  Your generous trust in human kind;
  The good which bloodshed could not gain
  Your peaceful zeal shall find.
  • John Greenleaf Whittier, To the Reformers of England.

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