The strength and power of a country depends absolutely on the quantity of good men and women in it.

Death is not a journey into an unknown land; it is a voyage home. We are going, not to a strange country, but to our fathers house.

He who has once stood beside the grave, to look back upon the companionship which has been forever closed, feeling how impotent there are the wild love, or the keen sorrow, to give one instant's pleasure to the pulseless heart, or atone in the lowest measure to the departed spirit for the hour of unkindness, will scarcely for the future incur that debt to the heart which can only be discharged to the dust.

We require from buildings two kinds of goodness: first, the doing their practical duty well: then that they be graceful and pleasing in doing it.

No good work whatever can be perfect, and the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding of the ends of art.

I believe the right question to ask, respecting all ornament, is simply this; was it done with enjoyment, was the carver happy while he was about it?

Skill is the unified force of experience, intellect and passion in their operation.