Quiet and sincere sympathy is often the most welcome and efficient consolation to the afflicted. Said a wise man to one in deep sorrow, I did not come to comfort you; God only can do that; but I did come to say how deeply and tenderly I feel for you in your affliction.

Never be so brief as to become obscure.

If rich men would remember that shrouds have no pockets, they would, while living, share their wealth with their children, and give for the good of others, and so know the highest pleasure wealth can give.

Anxiety is the poison of human life; the parent of many sins and of more miseries.

My books are my tools, and the greater their variety and perfection the greater the help to my literary work.

Some so speak in exaggerations and superlatives that we need to make a large discount from their statements before we can come at their real meaning.

Anxiety is the rust of life, destroying its brightness and weakening its power. A childlike and abiding trust in Providence is its best preventive and remedy.