He saw a lawyer killing a viper on a dunghill hard by his own stable; And the Devil smiled, for it put him in mind of Cain and his brother Abel.

Religion is the most gentlemanly thing in the world. It alone will gentilize, if unmixed with cant.

If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his hand when he awake - Aye, what then?

Fear gives sudden instincts of skill.

How inimitably graceful children are in general-before they learn to dance.

In the deepest night of trouble and sorrow God gives us so much to be thankful for that we need never cease our singing. With all our wisdom and foresight we can take a lesson in gladness and gratitude from the happy bird that sings all night, as if the day were not long enough to tell its joy.

Not one man in a thousand has either strength of mind or goodness of heart to be an atheist.