Humility is not a weak and timid quality; it must be carefully distinguished from a groveling spirit.

When I contrast the loving Jesus, comprehending all things in his ample and tender charity, with those who profess to bear his name, marking their zeal by what they do not love, it seems to me as though men, like the witches of old, had read the Bible backward, and had taken incantations out of it for evil, rather than inspiration for good.

Truth is poetry; it is the grandest poetry.

Seeking Heaven through righteousness is not seeking righteousness, but something else;--it is not loving goodness for goodness' sake, but for its rewards.

It is those who make the least display of their sorrow who mourn the deepest.

No great truth bursts upon man without having its hemisphere of darkness and sorrow.

No piled-up wealth, no social station, no throne, reaches as high as that spiritual plane upon which every human being stands by virtue of his humanity.