No man knows what he will do till the right temptation comes.

The little troubles and worries of life may be as stumbling blocks in our way, or we may make them stepping-stones to a nobler character and to Heaven. Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things.

It gives one a sudden start in going down a barren, stoney street, to see upon a narrow strip of grass, just within the iron fence, the radiant dandelion, shining in the grass, like a spark dropped from the sun.

Refinement that carries us away from our fellow-men is not God's refinement.

God has made sleep to be a sponge by which to rub out fatigue. A man's roots are planted in night as in a soil.

Difficulties are God's errands; and when we are sent upon them, we should esteem it a proof of God's confidence.

The best stock a man can invest in, is the stock of a farm; the best shares are plow shares; and the best banks are the fertile banks of a rural stream; the more these are broken the better dividends they pay.