You may chisel a boy into shape, as you would a rock, or hammer him into it, if he be of a better kind, as you would a piece of bronze. But you cannot hammer a girl into anything. She grows as a flower does.

Life is a magic vase filled to the brim, so made that you cannot dip from it nor draw from it; but it overflows into the hand that drops treasures into it. Drop in malice and it overflows hate; drop in charity and it overflows love.

Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books.

No architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.

The first duty of a state is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed and educated till it attains years of discretion.

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

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