Life, an age to the miserable, and a moment to the happy.
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.
Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
Begin, be bold and venture to be wise.
Stay with me,’ he said, until the sun goes out, the seas are parched, and the wind draws its last breath.
Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature – if the prospect of an early morning walk does not banish sleep, if the warble of the first bluebird does not thrill you – know that the morning and spring of your life are past. Thus may you feel your pulse.
No thought, no reflection, no analysis, no cultivation, no intention; let it settle itself.
God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.
Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit.
We must not inquire too curiously into motives… They are apt to become feeble in the utterance: the aroma is mixed with the grosser air. We must keep the germinating grain away from the light.
Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it.
If I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior.
Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects and please or displease only in the memory.
We are born believing. A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples.
I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized.
Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
Life too near paralyses art.
We falsely attribute to men a determined character, putting together all their yesterdays and averaging them, we presume we know them. Pity the man who has character to support, it is worse than a large family, he is the silent poor indeed.
