What matter though the scorn of fools be given If the path follow'd lead us on to heaven!

No influence is so powerful as that of the mother.

The temple of our purest thoughts is silence.

It requires but a few threads of hope, for the heart that is skilled in the secret, to weave a web of happiness.

Rugged strength and radiant beauty-- These were one in Nature's plan; Humble toil and heavenward duty-- These will form the perfect man.

There is no impossibility to him who stands prepared to conquer every hazard. The fearful are the failing.

There is small danger of being starved in our land of plenty; but the danger of being stuffed is imminent.

... rights are liable to be perverted to wrongs when we are incapable of rightly exercising them.

The most welcome guest in society will ever be the one to whose mind everything is a suggestion, and whose words suggest something to everybody.

There can be no education without leisure; and without leisure, education is worthless.

Water is the grand epic of creation; and there is not a human soul but feels the influence of its majesty, its power, or its beauty.

A writer draws a road map where readers walks with their love, joy, anger, tears, and dismay. Every story, every poem, has different meanings for every reader.

The practice mirror is to be used for the correction of faults, not for a love affair, and the figure you watch should not become your dearest friend.

In particular, it is absurd to hope to banish envy of other people's possessions or fortunes, if only because the spirit of envy can lead to emulation and ambition and have positive consequences.

If we cry more tears we will ruin the land with salt; instead let's praise that which would distract us with despair. Make a song for death, a song for yellow teeth and bad breath

That which has no limitations, has no form.

All human rules are more or less idiotic.

A girl who bonnets a policeman with an ashcan full of bottles is obviously good wife-and-mother timber.

Art in the Church fundamentally exists for evangelization

I don't want to speak too disparagingly of my generation (actually I do, we had a chance to change the world but opted for the Home Shopping Network Instead).

I'm a bit of a perfectionist, but you have to know you're going to make mistakes. It's how you respond to those mistakes that counts.