Prayer is of no avail. The lightning falls on the just and the unjust in accordance with natural laws.

Justice, poised and balanced in eternal calm, will shake from the golden scales in which are weighed the acts of men, the very dust of prejudice and caste: No race, no color, no previous condition, can change the rights of men.

Eternal punishment must be eternal cruelty, and I do not see how any man, unless he has the brain of an idiot, or the heart of a wild beast, can believe in eternal punishment.

The man who does not do his own thinking is a slave, and is a traitor to himself and to his fellow-men.

Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows.

Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never abused it, except upon the side of mercy.

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.