To be truly happy is a question of how we begin, and not how we end, of what we want and not what we have.
All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer.
It is one of the worst things of sentiment that the voice grows to be more important than the words, and the speaker than that what is spoken.
There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world.
The saints are the sinners who keep on trying.
This profusion of eccentricities, this dream in masonry and living rock is not a drop scene in a theatre, but a city in the world of reality.
Do not measure success by today’s harvest. Measure success by the seeds you plant today.
Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.
I have resolved that from this day on, I will do all the business I can honestly, have all the fun I can reasonably, do all the good I can willingly, and save my digestion by thinking pleasantly.
Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.
The most beautiful adventures are not those we go to seek.
A bottle of good wine, like a good act, shines ever in the retrospect.
Seaward ho! Hang the treasure! It’s the glory of the sea that has turned my head.
When I suffer in mind, stories are my refuge; I take them like opium; and consider one who writes them as a sort of doctor of the mind.
When Christ came into my life, I came about like a well-handled ship.
When your toil has been a pleasure, you have not earned money merely, but money, health, delight, and moral profit, all in one.
Old and young, we are all on our last cruise.
There are two things that men should never weary of, goodness and humility; we get none too much of them in this rough world among cold, proud people.
We got together in a few days a company of the toughest old salts imaginable – not pretty to look at, but fellows, by their faces, of the most indomitable spirit.
A friend is somebody who loves us with understanding, as well as emotion.