But indefinite visions of ambition are weak against the ease of doing what is habitual or beguilingly agreeable; and we all know the difficulty of carrying out a resolve when we secretly long that it may turn out to be unnecessary. In such states of mind the most incredulous person has a private leaning towards miracle: impossible to conceive how our wish could be fulfilled, still - very wonderful things have happened!

The strength of the donkey mind lies in adopting a course inversely as the arguments urged, which, well considered, requires as great a mental force as the direct sequence.

When death, the great reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity.

There are new eras in one's life that are equivalent to youth-are something better than youth.

I would not creep along the coast but steer Out in mid-sea, by guidance of the stars.

I think any hardship is better than pretending to do what one is paid for, and never really doing it.

Impatient people, according to Bacon, are like the bees, and kill themselves in stinging others.