It is the property of the religious spirit to be the most refining of all influences. No external advantages, no culture of the tastes, no habit of command, no association with the elegant, or even depth of affection, can bestow that delicacy and that grandeur of bearing which belong only to the mind accustomed to celestial conversation,--all else is but gilt and cosmetics, beside this, as expressed in every look and gesture.

The last change in our point of view gives the whole world a pictorial air.

Wherever there is failure, there is some giddiness, some superstition about luck, some step omitted, which, Nature never pardons.

The secrets of life are not shown except to sympathy and likeness.

No matter what your work, let it be your own. No matter what your occupation, let what you are doing be organic. Let it be in your bones. In this way, you will open the door by which the affluence of heaven and earth shall stream into you.

Do not you see that every misfortune is misconduct; that every honour is desert; that every effort is an insolence of your own?...You carry your fortune in your own hand.

Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.