The idea of duty--that recognition of something to be lived for beyond the mere satisfaction of self--is to the moral life what the addition of a great central ganglion is to animal life.

No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence.

What destroys us most effectively is not a malign fate but our own capacity for self-deception and for degrading our own best self.

... one's own faults are always a heavy chain to drag through life and one can't help groaning under the weight now and then.

Destiny stands by sarcastic with our dramatis personae folded in her hand.

The early months of marriage often are times of critical tumult,--whether that of a shrimp pool or of deeper water,--which afterwards subside into cheerful peace.

There is no hour that has not its births of gladness and despair, no morning brightness that does not bring new sickness to desolation as well as new forces to genius and love. There are so many of us, and our lots are so different, what wonder that Nature's mood is often in harsh contrast with the great crisis of our lives?