The real democratic American idea is, not that every man shall be on a level with every other man, but that every man shall have liberty to be what God made him, without hindrance.

In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.

No matter what looms ahead, if you can eat today, enjoy today, mix good cheer with friends today enjoy it and bless God for it.

There is no faculty of the human soul so persistent and universal as that of hatred.

The advertisements in a newspaper are more full knowledge in respect to what is going on in a state or community than the editorial columns are.

Laughter is not a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is the best ending for one.

You and I do not see things as they are. We see things as we are.

Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into.

Selfishness is that detestable vice which no one will forgive in others, and no one is without himself.

I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love.

There are joys which long to be ours. God sends ten thousands truths, which come about us like birds seeking inlet; but we are shut up to them, and so they bring us nothing, but sit and sing awhile upon the roof, and then fly away.

Of all the music that reached farthest into heaven, it is the beating of a loving heart.

God appoints our graces to be nurses to other men's weaknesses.

The moment an ill can be patiently handled, it is disarmed of its poison, though not of its pain.

In this world, full often, our joys are only the tender shadows which our sorrows cast.

To know that one has a secret is to know half the secret itself.

It's easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top.

All ambitions are lawful except those that climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.

God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not the choice. You must take it. The only choice is how.

The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret of outward success.

A man that does not know how to be angry does not know how to be good.

Faith is spiritualized imagination.

Laughter is day, and sobriety is night; a smile is the twilight that hovers gently between both, more bewitching than either.

Good nature is worth more than knowledge, more than money, more than honor, to the persons who possess it.

A Christian is nothing but a sinful man who has put himself to school for Christ for the honest purpose of becoming better.

A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.

The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy.

There are three schoolmasters for everybody that will employ them - the senses, intelligent companions, and books.

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.

Clothes and manners do not make the man; but, when he is made, they greatly improve his appearance.

No man is sane who does not know how to be insane on proper occasions.

The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next.

The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!

Children are unpredictable. You never know what inconsistency they are going to catch you in next.

Expedients are for the hour, but principles are for the ages.

Heaven will be inherited by every man who has heaven in his soul.

Riches are not an end of life, but an instrument of life.

Beware of him who hates the laugh of a child.

The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government.

Gambling with cards or dice or stocks is all one thing. It's getting money without giving an equivalent for it.

Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven.

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.

We steal if we touch tomorrow. It is God's.

To become an able and successful man in any profession, three things are necessary, nature, study and practice.

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.

Every man should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends.

A church debt is the devil's salary.

Every young man would do well to remember that all successful business stands on the foundation of morality.

It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.