“Contentment is not happiness. An oyster may be contented. Happiness is compounded of richer elements.”

The grandest of all laws is the law of progressive development. Under it, in the wide sweep of things, men grow wiser as they grow older, and societies better.

We should round every day of stirring action with an evening of thought. We learn nothing of our experience except we muse upon it.

In politics, merit is rewarded by the possessor being raised, like a target, to a position to be fired at.

Men, like musical instruments, seem made to be played upon.

A mother is the best friend God ever gave.

It is only an error of judgment to make a mistake, but it argues an infirmity of character to adhere to it when discovered.

Words of praise, indeed, are almost as necessary to warm a child into a genial life as acts of kindness and affection. Judicious praise is to children what the sun is to flowers.

It is our relation to circumstances that determines their influence upon us.

All men are alike in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ.

It is ever the invisible that is the object of our profoundest worship. With the lover it is not the seen but the unseen that he muses upon.

It is with a company as it is with a punch, everything depends upon the ingredients of which it in composed.

Enthusiasm is the inspiration of everything great.

There are some kinds of men who cannot pass their time alone; they are the flails of occupied people.There are few wild beasts more to be dreaded than a communicative man having nothing to communicate.

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.

Learning to say no is a critical element to access greatness in your life.

Don’t worry about the elements around you and what’s going on. You gotta get out there and get it.

Death is nothing to us, because a body that has been dispersed into elements experiences no sensations, and the absence of sensation is nothing to us.

Radium is not to enrich any one. It is an element; it is for all people.

True religion has, at its core: Love, Peace, Mercy, Justice and Freedom. If any of these elements is not fully present in a religion, the religion has been compromised.

Education is an important element in the struggle for human rights.

Education is an important element in the struggle for human rights.

How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature!