All earthly delights are sweeter in expectation than in enjoyment; but all spiritual pleasures more in fruition than in expectation.

There is a set of religious, or rather moral, writings which teach that virtue is the certain road to happiness, and vice to misery in this world. A very wholesome and comfortable doctrine, and to which we have but one objection, namely, that it is not true.

Do not make best friends with a melancholy sad soul. They always are heavily loaded, and you must bear half.

Children are excellent observers, and will often perceive your slightest defects. In general, those who govern children, forgive nothing in them, but everything in themselves.

Had we not faults of our own, we should take less pleasure in complaining of others.

Exactness and neatness in moderation is a virtue, but carried to extremes narrows the mind.

A good historian is timeless; although he is a patriot, he will never flatter his country in any respect.

All earthly delights are sweeter in expectation than in enjoyment; but all spiritual pleasures more in fruition than in expectation.

If we were faultless we should not be so much annoyed by the defects of those with whom we associate.

Little opportunities should be improved.

Nothing is more despicable than a professional talker who uses his words as a quack uses his remedies.

All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.

Genuine good taste consists in saying much in few words, in choosing among our thoughts, in having order and arrangement in what we say, and in speaking with composure.

The more you say the less people remember.

All wars are civil wars because all men are brothers... Each one owes infinitely more to the human race than to the particular country in which he was born.

Had we not faults of our own we should take less pleasure in complaining of others.

Discouragement is simply the despair of wounded self love.

The greater our dread of crosses the more necessary they are for us.

Faith is letting down our nets into the transparent deeps at the Divine command not knowing what we shall draw.

How different the peace of God from that of the world! It calms the passions, preserves the purity of the conscience, is inseparable from righteousness, unites us to God and strengthens us against temptations. The peace of the soul consists in an absolute resignation to the will of God.

There are two principal points of attention necessary for the preservation of this constant spirit of prayer which unites us with God; we must continually seek to cherish it, and we must avoid everything that tends to make us lose it.

Pure love is in the will alone; it is no sentimental love, for the imagination has no part in it; it loves, if we may so express it, without feeling, as faith believes without seeing.

How rare it is to find a soul quiet enough to hear God speak.

Simplicity is that grace which frees the soul from all unnecessary reflections upon itself.

Good taste rejects excessive nicety.

Temptations are a file which rub off much of the rust of our self-confidence.

It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were no use to pray when we have no spirit of prayer.

The lesson adults can learn here is that the world is filled with things for our enjoyment.

A slight daily unconscious luxury is hardly ever wanting to the dwellers in civilization; like the gentle air of a genial climate, it is a perpetual minute enjoyment.

Maybe it's because I'm getting older, I'm finding enjoyment in things that stop time. Just the simple act of tasting a glass of wine is its own event. You're not downing a glass of wine in the midst of doing something else.

My family is a part of my life and everything is all a mixture of enjoyment.

I didn't want to stay until I had used up all the enjoyment because that's too long to stay anywhere.

The day is past when schools could afford to give sufficient time and attention to the teaching of the ancient languages to enable the student to get that enjoyment out of classical literature that made the lives of our grandfathers so rich.

For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.

I am just learning to notice the different colors of the stars, and already begin to have a new enjoyment.

I mean, I haven't been completely lacking in some enjoyment of Chuck Berry or Buddy Holly. But I just didn't pay attention to that period of music, obviously.

Then I came in twice a week - for my own enjoyment as well as to be a guide. And then we started to apply some of the splinters of the ideas back into the piece.

The enjoyment of life would be instantly gone if you removed the possibility of doing something.

I do not let a bad score ruin my enjoyment for golf.

Black music has increased my enjoyment of what I do. It has increased my range, my ability to reach into myself and accept myself.

Well, my wife always says to me, and I think it's true, it's very difficult for us to understand the Elizabethan understanding and enjoyment and perception of form as it is to say... it would be for them to understand computers or going to the moon or something.

Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment.

Happiness or satisfaction consists only in the enjoyment of those objects which are by nature suited to our several particular appetites, passions, and affections.

Fastidious taste makes enjoyment a struggle.

Enjoyment is not a goal, it is a feeling that accompanies important ongoing activity.

The friends whom I have are invaluable, and although not numerous they are sufficient for my enjoyment; and the texture of my own mind renders me very indifferent to the rest of the world.

A youthful mind is seldom totally free from ambition; to curb that, is the first step to contentment, since to diminish expectation is to increase enjoyment.

And I used to assemble the family to hear because I thought that they were so good that even from the point of view of enjoyment people shouldn't miss them, and I got every word of his that I could, and I could see by hard argument there was only the one way for it.

There are, as is known, insects that die in the moment of fertilization. So it is with all joy: life's highest, most splendid moment of enjoyment is accompanied by death.