As plants take hold, not for the sake of staying, but only that they may climb higher, so it is with men. By every part of our nature we clasp things above us, one after another, not for the sake of remaining where we take hold, but that we may go higher.

The meanest thing in the world is the devil.

Men think God is destroying them because he is tuning them. The violinist screws up the key till the tense cord sounds the concert pitch; but it is not to break it, but to use it tunefully, that he stretches the string upon the musical rack.

If men had wings and bore black feathers, Few of them would be clever enough to be crows.

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?

Precise knowledge is the only true knowledge, and he who does not teach exactly, does not teach at all.

No man can tell another his faults so as to benefit him, unless he loves him.