The greatest reward is not what we receive for our labor, but what we become by it.

When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.

That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings.

It is a strange thing how little in general people know about the sky. It is the part of creation in which nature has done more for the sake of pleasing man.

Production does not consist in things laboriously made, but in things serviceably consumable; and the question for the nation is not how much labour it employs, but how much life it produces.

God intends no man to live in this world without working, but it seems to me no less evident that He intends every man to be happy in his work.

You must get into the habit of looking intensely at words, and assuring yourself of their meaning, syllable by syllable-nay, letter by letter... you might read all the books in the British Museum (if you could live long enough) and remain an utterly "illiterate," undeducated person; but if you read ten pages of a good book, letter by letter, - that is to say, with real accuracy- you are for evermore in some measure an educated person.