There are joys which long to be ours. God sends ten thousands truths, which come about us like birds seeking inlet; but we are shut up to them, and so they bring us nothing, but sit and sing awhile upon the roof, and then fly away.

Love is the river of life in this world. Think not that ye know it who stand at the little tinkling rill, the first small fountain. Not until you have gone through the rocky gorges, and not lost the stream; not until you nave gone through the meadow, and the stream has widened and deepened until fleets could ride on its bosom; not until beyond the meadow you have come to the unfathomable ocean, and poured your treasures into its depths--not until then can you know what love is.

A man's true estate of power and riches is to be in himself; not in his dwelling or position or external relations, but in his own essential character.

Many a man has been dined out of his religion, and his politics, and his manhood, almost.

Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation.

The meanest, most contemptible kind of praise is that which first speaks well of a man, and then qualifies it with a But.

As warmth makes even glaciers trickle, and opens streams in the ribs of frozen mountains, so the heart knows the full flow and life of its grief only when it begins to melt and pass away.