“It is generally understood that men don’t aspire after the absolute right, but only to do about as well as the rest of the world.”

In the gates of eternity the black hand and the white hand hold each other with equal clasp.

I make no manner of doubt that you threw a very diamond of truth at me, though you see it hit me so directly in the face that it wasn’t exactly appreciated, at first.

The heart has no tears to give,–it drops only blood, bleeding itself away in silence.

Treat ’em like dogs, and you’ll have dogs’ works and dogs’ actions. Treat ’em like men, and you’ll have men’s works.

My vocation to preach on paper.

By what strange law of mind is it that an idea long overlooked, and trodden under foot as a useless stone, suddenly sparkles out in new light, as a discovered diamond?

It’s a matter of taking the side of the weak against the strong, something the best people have always done.

Sweet souls around us watch us still, press nearer to our side; Into our thoughts, into our prayers, with gentle helpings glide.

Dogs can bear more cold than human beings, but they do not like cold any better than we do; and when a dog has his choice, he will very gladly stretch himself on a rug before the fire for his afternoon nap.

A woman’s health is her capital.

Any mind that is capable of real sorrow is capable of good.

I never thought my book would turn so many people against slavery.

I did not write it. God wrote it. I merely did his dictation.

Fanaticism is governed by imagination rather than judgment.

The longest way must have its close – the gloomiest night will wear on to a morning.

The past, the present and the future are really one: they are today.

Is it possible for a man to move the earth? Yes; but he must first find out another earth to stand upon.

Concerning the first, there is a saying much usurped of late, That Wisedome is acquired, not by reading of Books, but of Men.

Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.

whatsoever a man does against his conscience, is sin.

A man that is young in years may be old in hours if he have lost no time.

I always knew you loved the ocean from the way you dived in and out of me.

The science of man is the only solid foundation for the other sciences.

But the greatest part of mankind float between vice and virtue.