Prayer is often an argument of laziness: "Lord, my temper gives me a vast deal of inconvenience, and it would be a great task for me to correct it; and wilt thou be pleased to correct it for me, that I may get along easier?" If prayer was answered under such circumstances, independent of action of natural laws, it would be paying a premium on indolence.

The strength of a man consists in finding out the way God is going, and going that way.

Some people are so dry that you might soak them in a joke for a month and it would not get through their skins.

Do not be afraid because the, community teems with excitement. Silence and death are dreadful. The rush of life, the vigor of earnest men, the conflict of realities, invigorate, cleanse, and establish the truth.

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

The commerce of the world is conducted by the strong, and usually it operates against the weak.

A man should fear when he only enjoys what good he does publicly. Is it not the publicity rather than the charity he loves? Is it not vanity, rather than benevolence, that gives such charities?