Few spirits are made better by the pain and languor of sickness; as few great pilgrims become eminent saints.

He has great tranquillity of heart who cares neither for the praises nor the fault-finding of men. He will easily be content and pacified, whose conscience is pure. You are not holier if you are praised, nor the more worthless if you are found fault with. What you are, that you are; neither by word can you be made greater than what you are in the sight of God.

Now is the time to be doing, now is the time to be stirring, now is the time to amend myself.

Love feels no burden, regards not labors, strives toward more than it attains, argues not of impossibility, since it believes that it may and can do all things.

Do not let your peace depend on the hearts of men; whatever they say about you, good or bad, you are not because of it another man, for as you are, you are.

Scruples, temptations, and fears, and cutting perplexities of the heart, are often the lot of the most excellent persons.

Is a man one whit the better because he is grown great in other men's esteem?