It is not pride when the beech-tree refuses to copy the oak. He knows his limitations. The only chance of any healthy life for him is to be as full a beech-tree as he can.

Bear with the faults of others as you would have them bear with yours.

It is while you are patiently toiling at the little tasks of life that the meaning and shape of the great whole of life dawn on you.

Wherever souls are being tried and ripened, in whatever commonplace and homely way, there God is hewing out the pillars for His temple.

The place where two friends first met is sacred to them all through their friendship, all the more sacred as their friendship deepens and grows old.

Devotion is like the candle which Michael Angelo used to take in his pasteboard cap, so as not to throw his shadow upon the work in which he was engaged.

There are two ways of defending a castle; one by shutting yourself up in it, and guarding every loop-hole; the other by making it an open centre of operations from which all the surrounding country may be subdued. Is not the last the truest safety?