Rich as we are in biography, a well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one; and there are certainly many more men whose history deserves to be recorded than persons willing and able to record it.

Thought, true labor of any kind, highest virtue itself, is it not the daughter of Pain?

Have a purpose in life, and having it, throw into your work such strength of mind and muscle as God has given you.

There are good and bad times, but our mood changes more often than our fortune.

I don't like to talk much with people who always agree with me. It is amusing to coquette with an echo for a little while, but one soon tires of it.

Even in the meanest sorts of labor, the whole soul of a man is composed into a kind of real harmony the instant he sets himself to work.

Laughter is the cipher key wherewith we decipher the whole man