God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not the choice. You must take it. The only choice is how.

I never know how to worship until I know how to love; and to love I must have something that I can put my arms around, — something that, touching my heart, shall leave not the chill of ice, but the warmth of summer.

A man in the right, with God on his side, is in the majority, though he be alone, for God is multitudinous above all populations of the earth.

The first merit of pictures is the effect which they can produce upon the mind; — and the first step of a sensible man should be to receive involuntary effects from them. Pleasure and inspiration first, analysis afterward.

The beginnings of moral enterprises in this world are never to be measured by any apparent growth. ... At length comes the sudden ripeness and the full success, and he who is called in at the final moment deems this success his own. He is but the reaper and not the labourer. Other men sowed and tilled and he but enters into their labours.

The more sincere we are in our belief, as a rule, the less demonstrative we are.

The indolent mind is not empty, but full of vermin.