Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.

Religion must always be a crab fruit; it cannot be grafted, and keep its wild beauty.

In the sublimest flights of the soul, rectitude is never surmounted, love is never outgrown.

But whoso is heroic must find crises to try his edge. Human virtue demands her champions and martyrs, and the trial of persecution always proceeds.

Use makes a better soldier than the most urgent considerations of duty,--familiarity with danger enabling him to estimate the danger. He sees how much is the risk, and is not afflicted with imagination; knows practically Marshal Saxe's rule, that every soldier killed costs the enemy his weight in lead.

Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.

Improve your spare moments and they will become the brightest gems in your life.