We are either progressing or retrograding all the while; there is no such thing as remaining stationary in this life.
Love is the spirit of life, and makes all things live.
Never hurry. Take plenty of exercise. Always be cheerful. Take all the sleep you need. You may expect to be well.
Submission to duty and God gives the highest energy. He, who has done the greatest work on earth, said that He came down from heaven, not to do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him, Whoever allies himself with God is armed with all the forces of the invisible world.
One of the best things in the gospel of Jesus is the stress it lays on small things. It ascribes more value to quality than to quantity; it teaches that God does not ask how much we do, but how we do it.
He who believes in goodness has the essence of all faith. He is a man of cheerful yesterdays and confident to-morrows.
It is no natural for a man to pray that no theory can prevent him from doing it.
This is the way to cultivate courage: First, by standing firm on some conscientious principle, some law of duty. Next, by being faithful to truth and right on small occasions and common events. Third, by trusting in God for help and power.
All the strength and force of man come from his faith in things unseen.
Unmixed praise is not due to any one. It leaves behind a sense of unreality. We can only do justice to a great man by a discriminating criticism. Hero-worship, which paints a faultless monster, whom the world never saw, is like those modern pictures which are a blaze of light without any shadow.
He who believes is strong. Strong convictions precede great actions.
The atheist has no hope.
Conscience is the root of all true courage.
Even where there is talent, culture, knowledge, if there is not earnestness, it does not go to the root of things.
Religion is life, philosophy is thought; religion looks up, friendship looks in. We need both thought and life, and we need that the two shall be in harmony.
He who never looks up to a living God, to a heavenly presence, loses the power of perceiving that presence, and the universe slowly turns into a dead machine, clashing and grinding on, without purpose or end. If the light within us be darkness, how great is that darkness!
Take thy self-denials gaily and cheerfully, and let the sunshine of thy gladness fall on dark things and bright alike, like the sunshine of the Almighty.
The bravest of individuals is the one who obeys his or her conscience.
When we trust our brother, whom we have seen, we are learning to trust God, whom we have not seen.
If we desire to do what will please God, and what will help men, we presently find ourselves taken out of our narrow habits of thought and action; we find new elements of our nature called into activity; we are no longer running along a narrow track of selfish habit.
When I consider what some books have done for the world, and what they are doing, how they keep up our hope, awaken new courage and faith, soothe pain, give an ideal life to those whose hours are cold and hard, bind together distant ages and foreign lands, create new worlds of beauty, bring down truth from heaven; I give eternal blessings for this gift, and thank God for books.