Whenever you see want or misery or degradation in this world about you, then be sure either industry has been wanting, or industry has been in error.

The art which we may call generally art of the wayside, as opposed to that which is the business of men's lives, is, in the best sense of the word, Grotesque.

Not without design does God write the music of our lives.

Education is the leading human souls to what is best, and making what is best out of them; and these two objects are always attainable together, and by the same means; the training which makes man happiest in themselves also makes them most serviceable to others.

All great song, from the first day when human lips contrived syllables, has been sincere song.

Let every dawn be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.

My entire delight was in observing without being myself noticed,- if I could have been invisible, all the better. . . to be in the midst of it, and rejoice and wonder at it, and help it if I could, - happier if it needed no help of mine, - this was the essential love of Nature in me, this the root of all that I have usefully become, and the light of all that I have rightly learned.