Truth is the root, but human sympathy is the flower of practical life.

Nature satisfies my thirst; it feeds my hunger; it finds me clothing; it affords me shelter; it wraps me around when I sleep with beneficent and watchful care; and it takes me at last to its great bosom, where my ashes mingle with their kindred dust.

There is no doubt of the essential nobility of that man who pours into life the honest vigor of his toil, over those who compose the feathery foam of fashion that sweeps along Broadway; who consider the insignia of honor to consist in wealth and indolence; and who, ignoring the family history, paint coats of arms to cover up the leather aprons of their grandfathers.

Not in achievement, but in endurance, of the human soul, does it show its divine grandeur and its alliance with the infinite.

Tribulation will not hurt you, unless as it too often does; it hardens you and makes you sour, narrow and skeptical

No more duty can be urged upon those who are entering the great theater of life than simple loyalty to their best convictions.

Death makes a beautiful appeal to charity. When we look upon the dead form, so composed and still, the kindness and the love that are in us all come forth.