Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.

By perseverance the snail reached the ark.

Must is a hard nut to crack, but it has a sweet kernel.

No one knows who is listening, say nothing you would not wish put in the newspapers.

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.

It has been said that our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but only empties today of its strength.

Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite.

A sinner can no more repent and believe without the Holy Spirit's aid than he can create a world.

A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

Saving faith is an immediate relation to Christ, accepting, receiving, resting upon Him alone, for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of God's grace.

None are more unjust in their judgments of others than those who have a high opinion of themselves.

I do not think I should care to go on worshipping a Madonna even if she did wink. One cannot make much out of a wink. We want something more than that from the object of our adoration.

Giving is true having.

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.

No one is so miserable as the poor person who maintains the appearance of wealth.

Free will carried many a soul to hell, but never a soul to heaven.

Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.

The goose that lays the golden eggs likes to lay where there are eggs already.

It is not well to make great changes in old age.

I would go to the deeps a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit. It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary.

The greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit which makes men look to themselves for salvation.

If I were a Roman Catholic, I should turn a heretic, in sheer desperation, because I would rather go to heaven than go to purgatory.

We are all at times unconscious prophets.

Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.

Of two evils, choose neither.

You might not always get what you want, but you always get what you expect.

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.

A vigorous temper is not altogether an evil. Men who are easy as an old shoe are generally of little worth.

Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties.

It's not the having, it's the getting.

I believe that nothing happens apart from divine determination and decree. We shall never be able to escape from the doctrine of divine predestination - the doctrine that God has foreordained certain people unto eternal life.

If any of you should ask me for an epitome of the Christian religion, I should say that it is in one word - prayer. Live and die without prayer, and you will pray long enough when you get to hell.

Humility is to make a right estimate of one's self.

Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.

We have come to a turning point in the road. If we turn to the right mayhap our children and our children's children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word.

You cannot make a sinner into a saint by killing him. He who does not live as a saint here will never live as a saint hereafter.

The Lord gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.

'You are no saint,' says the devil. Well, if I am not, I am a sinner, and Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Sink or swim, I go to Him; other hope, I have none.

A daily portion is really all we need. We do not need tomorrow's supply, for that day has not yet dawned, and its needs are still unborn.

A dark cloud is no sign that the sun has lost his light; and dark black convictions are no arguments that God has laid aside His mercy.

A man will speedily sit down and sympathize with a friend's griefs, but if he sees him honored and esteemed, he is apt to regard him as a rival and does not so readily rejoice with him. This ought not to be; without effort, we ought to be happy in our brother's happiness.

After many years of great mercy, after tasting of the powers of the world to come, we still are so weak, so foolish; but, oh! when we get away from self to God, there all is truth and purity and holiness, and our heart finds peace, wisdom, completeness, delight, joy, victory.

Alas! You complain that your soul is out of tune. Then ask the Master to tune the heart-strings.

All our actions, as well as our thoughts and words, should praise Him who always blesses us.

All the goodness I have within me is totally from the Lord alone. When I sin, it is from me and is done on my own, but when I act righteously, it is wholly and completely of God.

As a child, when asked what I would be, I usually said I was going to be a huntsman. A fine profession, truly!

As for our great King, when we venture into His presence, let us have a purpose there. Let us beware of playing at praying; it is insolence toward God.

Behold, at this hour our moral history is being preserved for eternity. Processes are at work which will perpetuate our every act and word and thought.

Cast away your sloth, your lethargy, your coldness, or whatever interferes with your chaste and pure love for Christ, your soul's husband. Make Him the source, the center, and the circumference of all your soul's range of delight.