Of all the music that reached farthest into heaven, it is the beating of a loving heart.

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.

A law is valuable not because it is law, but because there is right in it.

There are some men's souls that are so thin, so almost destitute of what is the true idea of soul, that were not the guardian angels so keen-sighted, they would altogether overlook them.

There is an ugly kind of forgiveness in this world,--a kind of hedgehog forgiveness, shot out like quills. Men take one who has offended, and set him down before the blowpipe of their indignation, and scorch him, and burn his fault into him; and when they have kneaded him sufficiently with their fiery fists, then--they forgive him.

Expedients are for an hour, but principles are for the ages. Just because the rains descend and winds blow, we cannot afford to build on shifting sands.

One should go to sleep as homesick passengers do, saying, "Perhaps in the morning we shall see the shore.