A man vows, and yet will not east away the means of breaking his vow. Is it that he distinctly means to break it? Not at all; but the desires which tend to break it are at work in him dimly, and make their way into his imagination, and relax his muscles in the very moments when he is telling himself over again the reasons for his vow.

If the past is not to bind us, where can duty lie? We should have no law but the inclination of the moment.

... it is seldom a medical man has true religious views--there is too much pride of intellect.

It so often happens that others are measuring us by our past self while we are looking back on that self with a mixture of disgust and sorrow.

My own experience and development deepen every day my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy.

Human experience is usually paradoxical.

A man falling into dark waters seeks a momentary footing even on sliding stones.