"Success is full of promise till one gets it, and then it seems like a nest from which the bird has flown."

"Gambling with cards or dice or stocks is all one thing. It's getting money without giving an equivalent for it."

"Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul."

"There are more quarrels smothered by just shutting your mouth, and holding it shut, than by all the wisdom in the world."

"Suffering is part of the divine idea."

"Tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven."

"There are joys which long to be ours. God sends ten thousands truths, which come about us like birds seeking inlet; but we are shut up to them, and so they bring us nothing, but sit and sing awhile upon the roof, and then fly away."

"No man is more cheated than the selfish man."

"Law represents the effort of man to organize society; governments, the efforts of selfishness to overthrow liberty."

"Books are not men and yet they stay alive."

"Good-humor makes all things tolerable."

"The advertisements in a newspaper are more full knowledge in respect to what is going on in a state or community than the editorial columns are."

"No matter what looms ahead, if you can eat today, enjoy today, mix good cheer with friends today enjoy it and bless God for it."

"You never know till you try to reach them how accessible men are but you must approach each man by the right door."

"Selfishness is that detestable vice which no one will forgive in others, and no one is without himself."

"All ambitions are lawful except those that climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind."

"The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't."

"Happiness is not the end of life character is."

"Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house."

"A Christian is nothing but a sinful man who has put himself to school for Christ for the honest purpose of becoming better."

"Men's best successes come after their disappointments."

"In this world, full often, our joys are only the tender shadows which our sorrows cast."

"Well married, a man is winged-ill-matched, he is shackled."

"The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government."

"The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret of outward success."

"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother."

""I can forgive but I cannot forget" is only another way of saying "I will not forgive." Forgiveness ought to be like a canceled note-torn in two and burned up so that it never can be shown against one."

"Now comes the mystery."

"Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into."

"A little library, growing larger every year, is an honourable part of a man's history. It is a man's duty to have books. A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessaries of life."

"What a mother sings to the cradle goes all the way down to the coffin."

"Do not be afraid of defeat. You are never so near to victory as when defeated in a good cause."

"The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy."

"Children are unpredictable. You never know what inconsistency they are going to catch you in next."

"Victories that are cheap are cheap. Those only are worth having which come as the result of hard fighting."

"Flowers may beckon towards us but they speak toward heaven and God."

"Mirthfulness is in the mind and you cannot get it out. It is just as good in its place as conscience or veneration."

"A book is good company. It is full of conversation without loquacity. It comes to your longing with full instruction, but pursues you never."

"Faith is spiritualized imagination."

"Fear is the soul's signal for rallying."

"Failure is a school in which the truth always grows strong."

"Our days are a kaleidoscope. Every instant a change takes place. ... New harmonies new contrasts new combinations of every sort. ... The most familiar people stand each moment in some new relation to each other to their work to surrounding objects."

"Man is at the bottom an animal midway a citizen and at the top divine. But the climate of this world is such that few ripen at the top."

"Death is the dropping of the flower, that the fruit may, swell."

"The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom."

"It is defeat that turns bone to flint it is defeat that turns gristle to muscle it is defeat that makes men invincible. Do not then be afraid of defeat. You are never so near to victory as when defeated in a good cause."

"There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child."

"Every young man would do well to remember that all successful business stands on the foundation of morality."

"No man is sane who does not know how to be insane on proper occasions."

"Good nature is worth more than knowledge, more than money, more than honor, to the persons who possess it."