Vince McConnell

The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that ain’t so.

I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude.

We do not learn by inference and deduction and the application of mathematics to philosophy, but by direct intercourse and sympathy.

Genial manners are good, and power of accommodation to any circumstance, but the high prize of life, the crowning fortune of a man is to be born with a bias to some pursuit, which finds him in employment and happiness, — whether it be to make baskets, or broadswords, or canals, or statutes, or songs. I doubt not this was the meaning of Socrates, when he pronounced artists the only truly wise, as being actually, not apparently so.

To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.

Possession isn’t nine-tenths of the law. It’s nine-tenths of the problem.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

Surrender is faith that the power of love can accomplish anything… even when you can not foresee the outcome.

Our necessities are few, but our wants are endless.

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.

This is the true joy in life: Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

People sleep, and when they die they wake.

A good scare is worth more than good advice.

This ain’t fun. But you watch me, I’ll get it done.

Ignorant kindness may have the effect of cruelty; but to be angry with it as if it were direct cruelty would be an ignorant unkindness.