“A mother is the best friend God ever gave.”

Like the withered roses of a once gay garland, the feelings of youth command in age a melancholy interest.

Partial culture runs to the ornate, extreme culture to simplicity.

To be without sympathy is to be alone in the world–without friends or country, home or kindred.

Excessive sensibility is only another name for morbid self-consciousness.

Enthusiasm is the inspiration of everything great. Without it no man is to be feared, and with it none despised.

The nearest approximation to an understanding of life is to feel it–to realize it to the full–to be a profound and inscrutable mystery.

Good men have the fewest fears. He has but one great fear who fears to do wrong; he has a thousand who has overcome it.

There will always be romance in the world so long as there are young hearts in it.

Fame – a few words upon a tombstone, and the truth of those not to be depended on.

Weakness ineffectually seeks to disguise itself,–like a drunken man trying to show how sober he is.

A great destiny needs a generous diet. What can be expected of a people that live on macaroni!

Dreamers are half-way men of thought, and men of thought are half-way men of action.

Too much society makes a man frivolous; too little, a savage.

An eager pursuit of fortune is inconsistent with a severe devotion to truth. The heart must grow tranquil before the thought can become searching.

Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.

The reveries of the dreamer advance his hopes, but not their realization. One good hour of earnest work is worth them all.

Sometimes I live in fear. But when I have to take chances about people I love, relationships, my daughter and immediate family, those decisions are easy.

I love dogs. I grew up with dogs in my family from the time that I was a little boy; we always had German Shepherds and Labradors. I get on very well with dogs, they trust me.

Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends.

One of the problems with being relatively wealthy if you are a parent is that you cannot provide your children with necessity.

The kindest words my father said to me- women like you drown oceans.

Freedom will destroy itself if it is not exercised within some sort of moral framework, somebody of shared beliefs, some spiritual heritage transmitted through the Church, the family, and the school.

It’s the holidays that mean to spread love and cheer to all who are near.

I guess I was the son you didn’t want but I grew into a man every mother would love. In your rejection, I was forced to find acceptance I filled your absence with the strength to be better.