A man's religion consists, not of the many things he is in doubt of and tries to believe, but of the few he is assured of and has no need of effort for believing.

Man makes circumstances, and spiritually as well as economically, is the artificer of his own fortune.

Speech is too often not the art of concealing thought, but of quite stifling and suspending thought, so that there is none to conceal.

A man cannot make a pair of shoes rightly unless he do it in a devout manner.

The past is all holy to us; the dead are all holy; even they that were wicked when alive.

Who is it that loves me and will love me forever with an affection which no chance, no misery, no crime of mine can do away? It is you, my mother.

Fame, we may understand, is no sure test of merit, but only a probability of such: it is an accident, not a property, of a man; like light, it can give little or nothing, but at most may show what is given.