Judicious praise is to children what the sun is to flowers.

The most brilliant flashes of wit come from a clouded mind, as lightning leaps only from an obscure firmament.

No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.

Earnestness is the devotion of all the faculties.

Galileo called doubt the father of invention; it is certainly the pioneer.

The extent of poverty in the world is much exaggerated. Our sensitiveness makes half our poverty; our fears--anxieties for ills that never happen--a greater part of the other half.

Dignity of position adds to dignity of character, as well as to dignity of carriage. Give us a proud position, and we are impelled to act up to it.