Necessity is always the first stimulus to industry, and those who conduct it with prudence, perseverance and energy will rarely fail. Viewed in this light, the necessity of labor is not a chastisement, but a blessing,--the very root and spring of all that we call progress in individuals and civilization in nations.

Purposes, like eggs, unless they be hatched into action, will run into rottenness.

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

If we opened our minds to enjoyment, we might find tranquil pleasures spread about us on every side. We might live with the angels that visit us on every sunbeam, and sit with the fairies who wait on every flower.

An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing.

Good sense, disciplined by experience and inspired by goodness, issues in practical wisdom.

It is not eminent talent that is required to ensure success in any pursuit, so much as purpose-not merely the power to achieve, but the will to labour energetically and perseveringly. Hence energy of will may be defined to be the very central power of character in a man-in a word, it is the Man himself.