We have to do with God, to whom no one can look without the need of being good waking up in his heart; to think about God is to begin to be good.

There is no slave but the creature that wills against its Creator.

I find the doing of the will of God leaves me no time for disputing about his plans — I do not say for thinking about them.

God left the world unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity still in the cloud, the oil still in the earth. How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to Him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven.

Why are all reflections lovelier than what we call reality? -- not so grand or so strong, it may be, but always lovelier? Fair as is the gliding sloop on the shining sea, the wavering, trembling, unresting sail below is fairer still...All mirrors are magic mirrors. The commonest room is a room in a poem when I turn to the glass...There must be a truth involved in it, though we may but in part lay hold of the meaning.

Many a thief is a better man than many a clergyman, and miles nearer to the gate of the kingdom.

I do not myself believe there is any misfortune. What men call such is merely the shadowside of a good.