A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself, and a mean man, by one lower than himself.

There are many troubles which you cannot cure by the Bible and the hymn-book, but which you can cure by a good perspiration and a breath of fresh air.

Death? Translated into the heavenly tongue, that word means life!

It is not when the cable lies coiled up on the deck that you know how strong or how weak it is; it is when it is put to the test.

The aster has not wasted spring and summer because it has not blossomed. It has been all the time preparing for what is to follow, and in autumn it is the glory of the field, and only the frost lays it low. So there are many people who must live forty or fifty years, and have the crude sap of their natural dispositions changed and sweetened before the blossoming time can come; but their lives have not been wasted.

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road.

It usually takes a hundred years to make a law, and then, after it has done its work; it usually takes a hundred years to get rid of it.