Penetrate deeply in the secret existence of anyone about you, even of the man or woman whom you count happiest, and you will come upon things they spend all their efforts to hide. Fair as the exterior may be, if you go in, you will find bare places, heaps of rubbish that can never be taken away, cold hearths, desolate altars, and windows veiled with cobwebs.

Youth asks no greater privilege than to fight its own battles. It is mistaken kindness to shield - it weakens one in the years to come.

Of all the things that make for happiness, the love of books comes first. No matter how the world may have used us, sure solace lies there.

Nothing is bad which does not harm either you or someone else.

Death is the advertisement, at the end of an autobiography, wherein people discover its virtues.

The heart's seasons seldom coincide with the calendar. Who among us has not been made desolate beyond all words upon some golden day when the little creatures of the air and meadow were life incarnate, from sheer joy of living? Who among us has not come home, singing, when the streets were almost impassable with snow, or met a friend with a happy, smiling face, in the midst of a pouring rain?

Legislation may at times be disobeyed, but never law, for the breaking brings swift punishment of its own.