The cheapest of all things is kindness, its exercise requiring the least possible trouble and self-sacrifice. Win hearts, said Burleigh to Queen Elizabeth, and you have all men's hearts and purses.

Work is one of the best educators of practical character.

Like men, nations are purified and strengthened by trials.

This extraordinary metal, the soul of every manufacture, and the mainspring perhaps of civilised society. Of iron.

No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.

The crown and glory of life is character. It is the noblest possession of a man, constituting a rank in itself, and an estate in the general good-will; dignifying every station, and exalting every position in society. It exercises a greater power than wealth, and secures all the honor without the jealousies of fame. It carries with it an influence which always tell; for it is the result of proved honor, rectitude, and consistency-qualities which, perhaps more than any other, command the general confidence and respect of mankind.

Self-control is only courage under another form. It may also be regarded as the primary essence of character.