The water-lily, in the midst of waters, opens its leaves and expands its petals, at the first pattering of the shower, and rejoices in the rain-drops with a quicker sympathy than the packed shrubs in the sandy desert.

The act of praying is the very highest energy of which the human mind is capable; praying, that is, with the total concentration of the faculties. The great mass of worldly men and of learned men are absolutely incapable of prayer.

We must not be guilty of taking the law into our own hands, and converting it from what it really is to what we think it ought to be.

Sublimity is Hebrew by birth.

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

What comes from the heart goes to the heart

We have to administer the law whether we like it or no.