He may delay because it would not be safe to give us at once what we ask: we are not ready for it. To give ere we could truly receive, would be to destroy the very heart and hope of prayer, to cease to be our Father. The delay itself may work to bring us nearer to our help, to increase the desire, perfect the prayer, and ripen the receptive condition.

I only know when I don't know a thing. My uncle has taught me that wisdom lies in that.

It may be infinitely worse to refuse to forgive than to murder, because

I am an emptiness for Thee to fill; my soul a cavern for Thy sea

But I begin to think the chief difficulty in writing a book must be to keep out what does not belong to it.

Man's rank is his power to uplift.

As in all sweetest music, a tinge of sadness was in every note. Nor do we know how much of the pleasures even of life we owe to the intermingled sorrows. Joy cannot unfold the deepest truths, although deepest truth must be deepest joy.