False pleasures come from without and are imperfect: happiness is internal and our own.
Many savage nations worship trees, and I really think my first feeling would be one of delight and interest rather than of surprise, if some day when I am alone in the woods one of the trees were to speak to me.
We must not sit still and look for miracles; up and doing, and the Lord will be with thee.
A man who is not a good friend to himself cannot be so to any one else.
Men are more helped by sympathy than by service.
Endurance is a much better test of character than any single act of heroism, however noble.
Do not lay things too much to heart. No one is ever really beaten unless he is discouraged.
The veil is slowly rising, but as regards innumerable questions we must be content to remain in ignorance.
If you have the least doubt about it, do not marry.
There can be no merit in believing something which you can neither explain nor understand.
A kind word will give more pleasure than a present.
Try to realize all the blessings you have, and you will find perhaps that they are more than you suppose.
Do what you will, only do something.
It is sad, indeed, to see how man wastes his opportunities. How many could be made happy, with the blessings which are recklessly wasted or thrown away.
Though it is a great mistake to make friends of the wicked and foolish, it is unwise to make enemies of them, for they are very numerous.
Rest is by no means a waste of time.
To render ourselves insensible to pain we must forfeit also the possibilities of happiness.
A poor woman from Manchester, on being taken to the seaside, is said to have expressed her delight on seeing for the first time something of which there was enough for everybody.
Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.
Before buying anything, it is well to ask if one could do without it.