One of the great lessons the fall of the leaf teaches, is this: do your work well and then be ready to depart when God shall call.

Never be so brief as to become obscure.

Most controversies would soon be ended, if those engaged in them would first accurately define their terms, and then adhere to their definitions.

Most of our censure of others is only oblique praise of self, uttered to show the wisdom and superiority of the speaker. It has all the invidiousness of self-praise, and all the ill-desert of falsehood.

The most we can get out of life is its discipline for ourselves, and its usefulness for others.

Always have a book at hand, in the parlor, on the table, for the family; a book of condensed thought and striking anecdote, of sound maxims and truthful apothegms. It will impress on your own mind a thousand valuable suggestions, and teach your children a thousand lessons of truth and duty. Such a book is a casket of jewels for your housebold.

Duty performed gives clearness and firmness to faith, and faith thus strengthened through duty becomes the more assured and satisfying to the soul.