It is more true to say that our opinions depend upon our lives and habits, than to say that our lives and habits depend on our opinions.

As the tree is fertilized by its own broken branches and fallen leaves, and grows out of its own decay, so men and nations are bettered and improved by trial, and refined out of broken hopes and blighted expectations.

We win by tenderness. We conquer by forgiveness.

To turn water into wine, and what is common into what is holy, is indeed the glory of Christianity.

Truth is given, not to be contemplated, but to be done. Life is an action, not a thought.

For when man comes to front the everlasting God, and look the splendor of His judgments in the face, personal integrity, the dream of spotlessness and innocence, vanishes into thin air: your decencies and your church-goings and your regularities and your attachment to a correct school and party, your gospel formulas of sound doctrine--what is all that, in front of the blaze of the wrath to come?

Marriage is not a union merely between two creatures - it is a union between two spirits; and the intention of that bond is to perfect the nature of both.