God has lent us the earth for our life; it is a great entail. It belongs as much to those who are to come after us, and whose names are already written in the book of creation, as to us; and we have no right, by anything that we do or neglect, to involve them in unnecessary penalties, or deprive them of benefits which it was in our power to bequeath.

To cultivate sympathy you must be among living creatures, and thinking about them; and to cultivate admiration, you must be among beautiful things and looking at them.

Surely our clergy need not be surprised at the daily increasing distrust in the public mind of the efficacy of prayer.

It is far more difficult to be simple than to be complicated.

At every moment of our lives we should be trying to find out, not in what we differ with other people, but in what we agree with them.

Every hue throughout your work is altered by every touch you add in other places.

The common practice of keeping up appearances with society is a mere selfish struggle of the vain with the vain.