No man is such a conqueror, as the one that has defeated himself.
A tool is but the extension of a man’s hand, and a machine is but a complex tool. And he that invents a machine augments the power of a man and the well-being of mankind.
There is nothing that makes more cowards and feeble men than public opinion.
The reason that men are so slow to confess their vices is because they have not yet abandoned them.
A babe is a mother’s anchor.
We not only live among men, but there are airy hosts, blessed spectators, sympathetic lookers-on, that see and know and appreciate our thoughts and feelings and acts.
It is not merely cruelty that leads men to love war, it is excitement.
Sharp men, like sharp needles, break easy, though they pierce quick.
None love to speak so much, when the mood of speaking comes, as they who are naturally taciturn.
In the ordinary business of life, industry can do anything which genius can do, and very many things which it cannot.
The strong are God’s natural protectors of the weak.
It is not when the cable lies coiled up on the deck that you know how strong or how weak it is; it is when it is put to the test.
Where all of the man is what property he owns, it does not take long to annihilate him.
Some sorrows are but footprints in the snow, which the genial sun effaces, or, if it does not wholly efface, changes into dimples.
Sorrows are gardeners: they plant flowers along waste places, and teach vines to cover barren heaps.
Next to victory, there is nothing so sweet as defeat, if only the right adversary overcomes you.
Someone calls biography the home aspect of history.
He who is false to present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and will find the flaw when he may have forgotten its cause.
God has made sleep to be a sponge by which to rub out fatigue. A man’s roots are planted in night as in a soil.
Men will let you abuse them if only you will make them laugh.