As a general rule, Providence seldom vouchsafes to mortals any more than just that degree of encouragement which suffices to keep them at a reasonably full exertion of their powers.

Shall we never never get rid of this Past? ... It lies upon the Present like a giant's dead body.

Strength is incomprehensible by weakness, and, therefore, the more terrible.

What is called poetic insight is the gift of discerning, in this sphere of strangely-mingled elements, the beauty and the majesty which are compelled to assume a garb so sordid.

Angels do not toil, but let their good works grow out of them.

he seemed to be in quest for mental food, not heart sustenance.

When he is cheerful--when the sun shines into his mind--then I venture to peep in, just as far as the light reaches, but no further. It is holy ground where the shadow falls!

... for when a man's spirit has been thoroughly crushed, he may be peevish at small offenses, but never resentful of great ones.

Jim Crow, moreover, was seen executing his world-renowned dance, in gingerbread.

Might and wrong combined, like iron magnetized, are endowed with irresistible attraction.

It is very queer, but not the less true, that people are generally quite as vain, or even more so, of their deficiencies than of their available gifts.

The only way anyone can hope to live after death is if he leaves something that posterity can remember him for.

People who work on soaps all the time understand the formula of how to do it.

When you struggle, you're going to be a little discouraged. But I never felt like I was overmatched.

Contentment comes not so much from great wealth as from few wants.

I liked women as a shape to dress.

To every problem there is already a solution whether you know it or not.

A free man is he who does not fear to go to the end of his thought.

Women want certain things in marriage--the right to a title and a front seat in the lap of luxury.

I think there is no place in the world where I feel closer to the Lord than in one of His holy temples.