The clearest window that ever was fashioned if it is barred by spiders' webs, and hung over with carcasses of insects, so that the sunlight has forgotten to find its way through, of what use can it be? Now, the Church is God's window; and if it is so obscured by errors that its light is darkness, how great is that darkness!

Men will imitate and admire his unmoved firmness, his inflexible conscience for the right; and yet his gentleness, as tender as a woman's, his moderation of spirit, which not all the heat of party could inflame, nor all the jars and disturbances of this country shake out of its place: I swear you to an emulation of his justice, his moderation, and his mercy.

To the covetous man life is a nightmare, and God lets him wrestle with it as best he may.

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.

If you have only two or three things that you can enjoy and they are things which time and decay may remove from you, what are you going to do in old age?

Nothing can compare in beauty, and wonder, and admirableness, and divinity itself, to the silent work in obscure dwellings of faithful women bringing their children to honor and virtue and piety.

It is defeat that turns bone to flint, gristle to muscle, and makes men invincible.