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.

Whenever I did anything wrong, stupid or hard-hearted, and I have done many things that were all three, my mother always said "it is because you were too much indulged."

Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts - the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art.

It is far more difficult to be simple than to be complicated; far more difficult to sacrifice skill and easy execution in the proper place, than to expand both indiscriminately.

The plea of ignorance will never take away our responsibilities.

There is material enough in a single flower for the ornament of a score of cathedrals.

A forest of all manner of trees is poor, if not disagreeable, in effect; a mass of one species of tree is sublime.