Of all man's works of art, a cathedral is greatest. A vast and majestic tree is greater than that.

Victories that come cheap are cheap. Those only are worth having which come as the result of hard fighting.

I would much rather fight pride than vanity, because pride has a stand-up way of fighting. You know where it is. It throws its black shadow on you, and you are not at a loss where to strike. But vanity is that delusive, that insectiferous, that multiplied feeling, and men that fight vanities are like men that fight midges and butterflies. It is easier to chase them than to hit them.

Downright admonition, as a rule, is too blunt for the recipient.

The last person one wants to be is themselves. Sadly, that is the best person to be.

The Bible stands alone in human literature in its elevated conception of manhood, in character and conduct.

We know that the gifts which men have do not come from the schools. If a man is a plain, literal, factual man, you can make a great deal more of him in his own line by education than without education, just as you can make a great deal more of a potato if you cultivate it than if you do not; but no cultivation in this world will ever make an apple out of a potato.