-
The worst prison is not of stone. It is of a throbbing heart, outraged by an infamous life.
-
A dull axe never loves grindstones, but a keen workman does; and he puts his tool on them in order that it may be sharp. And men do not like grinding; but they are dull for the purposes which God designs to work out with them, and therefore He is grinding them.
-
Today is a goblet day. The whole heavens have been mingled with exquisite skill to a delicious flavor, and the crystal cup put to every lip. Breathing is like ethereal drinking. It is a luxury simply to exist.
-
People of too much sentiment are like fountains, whose overflow keeps a disagreeable puddle about them.
-
If there's a job to be done, I always ask the busiest man in my parish to take it on and it gets done.
-
Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent.
-
No man knows what he will do till the right temptation comes.
-
The soul without imagination is what an observatory would be without a telescope.
-
We let our blessings get mouldy, and then call them curses.
-
A man who does not know how to be angry, does not know how to be good. Now and then a man should be shaken to the core with indignation over things evil.
-
No grace can save any man unless he helps himself.
-
Nothing dies so hard, or rallies so often as intolerance.
-
A week filled up with selfishness, and the Sabbath stuffed full of religious exercises, will make a good Pharisee, but a poor Christian. There are many persons who think Sunday is a sponge with which to wipe out the sins of the week. Now, God's altar stands from Sunday to Sunday, and the seventh day is no more for religion than any other. It is for rest. The whole seven are for religion, and one of them for rest.
-
A thoughtful mind, when it sees a Nation's flag, sees not the flag only, but the Nation itself; and whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag the Government, the principles, the truths, the history which belongs to the Nation that sets it forth.
-
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." I found the following quote by Goethe that can serve as a commentary on these words. "We are shaped and fashioned by what we love." "The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
-
The great lever by which to raise and save the world is the unbounded love and mercy of God.
-
No man is good for anything who has not some particle of obstinacy to use upon occasion.
-
Genius is a steed too fiery for the plow or the cart.
-
The power of hiding ourselves from one another is mercifully given, for men are wild beasts, and would devour one another but for this protection.
-
Hope is sweet-minded and sweet-eyed. It draws pictures; it weaves fancies; it fills the future with delight.
-
Most of the debts of Europe represent condensed drops of blood.
-
Intelligence increases mere physical ability one half. The use of the head abridges the labor of the hands.
-
Refinement is the lifting of one's self upwards from the merely sensual; the effort of the soul to etherealize the common wants and uses of life.
-
Wherever you have seen God pass, mark that spot, and go and sit in that window again.