A man without mirth is like wagon without springs, in which one is caused disagreeably to jolt by every pebble over which it turns.

The beginnings of moral enterprises in this world are never to be measured by any apparent growth. ... At length comes the sudden ripeness and the full success, and he who is called in at the final moment deems this success his own. He is but the reaper and not the labourer. Other men sowed and tilled and he but enters into their labours.

A man who cannot get angry is like a stream that cannot overflow, that is always turbid. Sometimes indignation is as good as a thunderstorm in summer, clearing and cooling the air.

Death is the dropping of the flower, that the fruit may swell.

Only have enough of little virtues and common fidelities, and you need not mourn because you are neither a hero nor a saint.

Affliction comes to the believer not to make him sad, but sober; not to make him sorry, but wise. Even as the plow enriches the field so that the seed is multiplied a thousandfold, so affliction should magnify our joy and increase our spiritual harvest.

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.