If you are lazy, and accept your lot, you may live in it. If you are willing to work, you can write your name anywhere you choose.

It really seems as if failure and hardship make more of a human being of folks than success.

we know by the odour that occasionally we are visited by skunks, which are not poetic but very beautiful.

The wages of sin are the hardest debts on earth to pay, and they are always collected at inconvenient times and unexpected places.

There was an exquisitely beautiful conception in my brain when I did this piece of work all alone from midnight until morning after the experience of a wonderful day. But I was not able to make the consummation anywhere nearly as beautiful as the inspiration. That, I suppose, is the cry of every heart struggling for self-expression.

Tears were a blessing; they were a relief; they did wash the ache from the heart, ease brain strain, and encourage the soul.

We never know the timber of a man's soul until something cuts into him deeply and brings the grain out strong. You've the making of a mighty fine piece of furniture.