"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

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

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

"Now comes the mystery."

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation."

"The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things."

"There are three schoolmasters for everybody that will employ them - the senses, intelligent companions, and books."

"Expedients are for the hour, but principles are for the ages."

"The head learns new things, but the heart forever practices old experiences."

"Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures."

"God made man to go by motives, and he will not go without them, any more than a boat without steam or a balloon without gas."

"The humblest individual exerts some influence, either for good or evil, upon others."

"Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith."

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

"The babe at first feeds upon the mother's bosom, but it is always on her heart."

"He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has."

"What we call wisdom is the result of all the wisdom of past ages. Our best institutions are like young trees growing upon the roots of the old trunks that have crumbled away."

"Pride slays thanksgiving, but an humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves."

"A church debt is the devil's salary."

"The moment an ill can be patiently handled, it is disarmed of its poison, though not of its pain."

"It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has."

"Of all escape mechanisms, death is the most efficient."

"The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!"

"Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven."