Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.

The beginning is the promise of the end.

Many men build as cathedrals are built-the part nearest the ground finished, but that part which soars toward heaven, the turrets and the spires, forever incomplete.

Living is death; dying is life. We are not what we appear to be. On this side of the grave we are exiles, on that citizens; on this side orphans, on that children.

The imagination is the secret and marrow of civilization. It is the very eye of faith.

He is the happiest man who is engaged in a business which tasks the most faculties of his mind.

Affliction comes to us all ...not to impoverish, but to enrich us, as the plough enriches the field; to multiply our joy, as the seed, by planting, is multiplied a thousand-fold.