Never was there a more injurous mistake than to say it was thebusiness only of the clergy to care for souls.

We must do the thing we must Before the thing we may; We are unfit for any trust Till we can and do obey.

Where did you get your eyes so blue? Out of the sky as I came through.

The best preparation for the future is the present well seen to, and the last duty done.

A man may sink by such slow degrees that, long after he is a devil, he may go on being a good churchman or a good dissenter and thinking himself a good Christian.

To give truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation.

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.