To my way of thinking and working, the greatest service a piece of fiction can do any reader is to leave him with a higher ideal of life than he had when he began. If in one small degree it shows him where he can be...gentler, saner, cleaner, kindlier...it is a wonder-working book. If it opens his eyes to one beauty in nature he never saw for himself and leads him one step toward the God of the Universe, it is a beneficial book.

The world is full of happy people but no one ever hears of them. You have to fight and make a scandal to get in the papers. No one knows about all the happy people.

a trouble shared is a trouble half endured.

it takes the very wisest person there is to know when to talk, and when to keep still.

there was nothing in the whole world so dreadful as the power of riches wrongly used.

Money was their God; work their religion.

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.