Next to victory, there is nothing so sweet as defeat, if only the right adversary overcomes you.

Books are not men and yet they stay alive.

As the imagination is set to look into the invisible and immaterial, it seems to attract something of their vitality; and though it can give nothing to the body to redeem it from years, it can give to the soul that freshness of youth in old age which is even more beautiful than youth in the young.

A man who does not know how to be angry, does not know how to be good. Now and then a man should be shaken to the core with indignation over things evil.

Many of our troubles are God dragging us, and they would end if we would stand upon our feet and go whither He would have us go.

I know it is more agreeable to walk upon carpets than to lie upon dungeon floors, I know it is pleasant to have all the comforts and luxuries of civilization; but he who cares only for these things is worth no more than a butterfly, contented and thoughtless, upon a morning flower; and who ever thought of rearing a tombstone to a last summer's butterfly?

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.