We look for some reward of our endeavors and are disappointed that not success, not happiness, not even peace of conscience, crowns our ineffectual efforts to do well. Our frailties are invincible, our virtues barren; the battle goes sore against us to the going down of the sun.

When your toil has been a pleasure, you have not earned money merely, but money, health, delight, and moral profit, all in one.

Keep busy at something: a busy person never has time to be unhappy.

I incline to Cain's heresy," he used to say quaintly: "I let my brother go to the devil in his own way.

Anyone can carry his burden, however heavy, until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, until the sun goes down. And this is all that life really means.

Death is given in a kiss; the dearest kindnesses are fatal; and into this life, where one thing preys upon another, the child too often makes its entrance from the mother's corpse.

It is perhaps a more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collecting shells than to be born a millionaire.