I know it is more agreeable to walk upon carpets than to lie upon dungeon floors, I know it is pleasant to have all the comforts and luxuries of civilization; but he who cares only for these things is worth no more than a butterfly, contented and thoughtless, upon a morning flower; and who ever thought of rearing a tombstone to a last summer's butterfly?

God made the human body, and it is the most exquisite and wonderful organization which has come to us from the divine hand.

The one great poem of New England is her Sunday.

What a pity flowers can utter no sound!-A singing rose, a whispering violet, a murmuring honeysuckle ... oh, what a rare and exquisite miracle would these be!

Laughter is day, and sobriety is night; a smile is the twilight that hovers gently between both, more bewitching than either.

Refinement is the lifting of one's self upwards from the merely sensual; the effort of the soul to etherealize the common wants and uses of life.

Flowers are sent to do God's work in unrevealed paths, and to diffuse influence by channels that we hardly suspect.