We are always on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things.

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.

Expedients are for the hour, but principles are for the ages.

Good men are not those who now and then do a good act, but men who join one good act to another.

You can imagine thistle-down so light that when you run after it your running motion would drive it away from you, and that the more you tried to catch it the faster it would fly from your grasp. And it should be with every man, that, when he is chased by troubles, they, chasing, shall raise him higher and higher.

Trouble teaches men how much there is in manhood.

Public sentiment is to public officers what water is to the wheel of the mill.