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.

You never know till you try to reach them how accessible men are; but you must approach each man by the right door.

Laws are not masters but servants, and he rules them who obey them.

A boy is a piece of existence quite separate from all things else, and deserves separate chapters in the natural history of men.

God puts the excess of hope in one man, in order that it may be a medicine to the man who is despondent.

There is no liberty to men who know not how to govern themselves.

We only see in a lifetime a dozen faces marked with the peace of a contented spirit.