It is one of the beautiful compensations in this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

We have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken. (Despite) all the selfishness that chills like east winds the world, the whole human family is bathed with an element of love like a fine ether... The effect of the indulgence of this human affection is a certain cordial exhilaration.

A friend is Janus-faced: he looks to the past and the future. He is the child of all my foregoing hours, the prophet of those to come, and the harbinger of a greater friend.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

All sensible people are selfish, and nature is tugging at every contract to make the terms of it fair.

If a man knew anything, he would sit in a corner and be modest; but he is such an ignorant peacock, that he goes bustling up and down, and hits on extraordinary discoveries.

The chief value of the new fact is to enhance the great and constant fact of life.