Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. It undergoes continual changes: it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For every thing that is given, something else is taken. Society acquires new arts and loses old instincts.

To believe in luck ... is skepticism.

The household is a school of power. There, within the door, learn the tragi-comedy of human life.

That which dominates our imagination and our thoughts will determine our life and character.

People only see what they are prepared to see. If you look for what is good and what you can be grateful for you will find it everywhere.

Harmony of aim, not identity of conclusion, is the secret of sympathetic life.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety. Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.