Be assured that every man's success is in proportion to his average ability. The meadow flowers spring and bloom where the watersannually deposit their slime, not where they reach in some freshet only. A man is not his hope, nor his despair, nor yet his past deed. We know not yet what we have done, still less what we are doing. Wait till evening, and other parts of our day's work will shine than we had thought at noon, and we shall discover the real purport of our toil. As when the farmer has reached the end of the furrow and looks back, he can tell best where the pressed earth shines most.

It is impossible to give a soldier a good education without making him a deserter. His natural foe is the government that drills him.

Nature is not made after such a fashion as we would have her. We piously exaggerate her wonders, as the scenery around our home.

It is an unfortunate discovery certainly, that of a law which binds us where we did not know before that we were bound.

The coward wants resolution, which the brave man can do without. He recognizes no faith above a creed, thinking this straw by which he is moored does him good service, because his sheet anchor does not drag.

I am not afraid of praise, for I have practiced it on myself.

Is the babe young? When I behold it, it seems more venerable than the oldest man.