An unfinished coffin on black tressels, which stood in the middle of the shop, looked so gloomy and death-like that a cold tremble came over him, every time his eyes wandered in the direction of the dismal object: from which he almost expected to see some frightful form slowly rear its head, to drive him mad with terror.

There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.

A word in earnest is as good as a speech.

... as lonesome as a kitten in a wash-house copper with the lid on.

Such is the influence which the condition of our own thoughts, exercises, even over the appearance of external objects. Men who look on nature, and their fellow-men, and cry that all is dark and gloomy, are in the right; but the sombre colours are reflections from their own jaundiced eyes and hearts. The real hues are delicate, and need a clearer vision.

if the world go wrong, it was, in some off-hand manner, never meant to go right.

Nothing of what is nobly done is ever lost.