“The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.”
“We must find our duties in what comes to us, not in what might have been.”
“The only failure one should fear, is not hugging to the purpose they see as best.”
“No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty.”
“Imagination is a licensed trespasser: it has no fear of dogs, but may climb over walls and peep in at windows with impunity.”
“There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows.”
“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”
“I desire no future that will break the ties with the past.”
“The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life.”
“Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them.”
“I’m proof against that word failure. I’ve seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.”
“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”
“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.”
“We are all apt to believe what the world believes about us.”
“All meanings, we know, depend on the key of interpretation.”
“The world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome, dubious eggs, called possibilities.”
“Whether happiness may come or not, one should try and prepare one’s self to do without it.”
“Our words have wings, but fly not where we would.”
“Jealousy is never satisfied with anything short of an omniscience that would detect the subtlest fold of the heart.”
“The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down.”
“The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.”
“Death is the king of this world: ‘Tis his park where he breeds life to feed him. Cries of pain are music for his banquet.”
“The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.”
“My own experience and development deepen everyday my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy.”
“Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles.”
“Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.”
“The beginning of an acquaintance whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline of our ignorance.”
“Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.”
“The darkest night that ever fell upon the earth never hid the light, never put out the stars. It only made the stars more keenly, kindly glancing, as if in protest against the darkness.”
“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.”
“More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us.”
“It’s them as take advantage that get advantage i’ this world.”
“The difficulty is, to decide how far resolution should set in the direction of activity rather than in the acceptance of a more negative state.”
“We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it.”
“Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.”
“Do we not all agree to call rapid thought and noble impulse by the name of inspiration?”
“Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking.”
“The best travel is that which one can take by one’s own fireside. In memory or imagination.”
“An ass may bray a good while before he shakes the stars down.”
“The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.”
“It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees.”
“The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.”
“We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults. Heaven has accorded this to us in the uncritical canine attachment.”
“One must be poor to know the luxury of giving!”
“What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?”
“There are many victories worse than a defeat.”
“Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.”
“Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.”
“What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.”
“It is a common sentence that knowledge is power; but who hath duly considered or set forth the power of ignorance? Knowledge slowly builds up what ignorance in an hour pulls down.”
“Ignorance gives one a large range of probabilities.”
“Anger and jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of their objects than love.”
“No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters.”
“Consequences are unpitying.”
“Acting is nothing more or less than playing. The idea is to humanize life.”
“It’s but little good you’ll do a-watering the last year’s crop.”
“We hand folks over to God’s mercy, and show none ourselves.”
“It is always good to know, if only in passing, charming human beings. It refreshes one like flowers and woods and clear brooks.”
“To manage men one ought to have a sharp mind in a velvet sheath.” “Truth has rough flavours if we bite it through.”
