What is the Bible in your house? It is not the Old Testament, it is not the New Testament, it is not the Gospel according to Matthew, or Mark, or Luke, or John; it is the Gospel according to William; it is the Gospel according to Mary; it is the Gospel according to Henry and James; it is the Gospel according to your name. You write your own Bible.

There is no such thing as white lies; a lie is as black as a coalpit, and twice as foul.

We should live and labor in our time that what came to us as a seed may go to the next generation as blossom, and what came to us as blossom, may go to them as fruit. This is what we mean by progress.

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.

Flowers may beckon todwards us, but they speak todward heaven and God.

In this world, full often, our joys are only the tender shadows which our sorrows cast.

As for marigolds, poppies, hollyhocks, and valorous sunflowers, we shall never have a garden without them, both for their own sake, and for the sake of old-fashioned folks, who used to love them.