Agnes Sligh Turnbull

[On religion:] Wasn’t it invented by man for a kind of solace? It’s as though he had said, ‘I’ll make me a nice comfortable garment to shut out the heat and the cold,’ and then it ends by becoming a strait-jacket.

Burning logs can carry on quite a conversation! … Have you ever heard apple wood talking? It’s the most loquacious of all. You really can’t get a word in edgeways.

Dogs’ lives are too short. Their only fault, really.

There is still vitality under the winter snow, even though to the casual eye it seems to be dead.

Defeat in itself was part and parcel of the great gambling game of politics. A man who could not accept it and try again was not of the stuff of which leaders are made.

You must learn to drink the cup of life as it comes … without stirring it up from the bottom. That’s where the bitter dregs are!

Thinking will not overcome fear but action will.

Don’t be a hard rock when you really are a gem!

It requires nothing less than a chivalric feeling to sustain a conversation with a lady.

Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.

A healthy body is a guest chamber for the soul: a sick body is a prison.

Of all the anti-social vested interests the worst is the vested interest in ill-health.

From a worldly point of view, there is no mistake so great as that of being always right.

Without passion, you don’t have energy. Without energy, you have nothing.

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.

What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?

The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

It’s much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it.

A man’s library is a sort of harem.

No matter how much or how little I knew technically, I was able to get the best out of people I worked with.

Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.