Here I am thirty-four years old, and yet my life is almost wholly unexpanded. How much time is in the germ! There is such an interval between my ideal and the actual in many circumstances that I may say I am unborn.

To live a better life,--this surely can be done.

Most men cry better than they speak. You get more nurture out of them by pinching than addressing them.

Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.

As a man thinks of himself, so he is.

Our manners have been corrupted by communication with the saints. Our hymn-books resound with a melodious cursing of God and enduring Him forever. One would say that even the prophets and redeemers had rather consoled the fears than confirmed the hopes of man. There is nowhere recorded a simple and irrepressible satisfaction with the gift of life, any memorable praise of God.