“Next to victory, there is nothing so sweet as defeat, if only the right adversary overcomes you.”

When a man sells eleven ounces for twelve, he makes a compact with the devil, and sells himself for the value of an ounce.

No matter what looms ahead, if you can eat today, enjoy the sunlight today, mix good cheer with friends today, enjoy it and bless God for it. Do not look back on happiness — or dream of it in the future. You are only sure of today; do not let yourself be cheated out of it.

We go to the grave of a friend saying, “A man is dead,” but angels throng about him saying, “A man is born.”

Men go shopping just as men go out fishing or hunting, to see how large a fish may be caught with the smallest hook.

It is not what we read, but what we remember, that makes us learned. It is not what we intend, but what we do that makes us useful. It is not a few faint wishes, but a life long struggle, that makes us valiant.

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.

Walking humbly, you are more of a man than you were when you walked proudly.

I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love.

You are not called to be a canary in a cage. You are called to be an eagle, and to fly sun to sun, over continents.

In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.

Laws and institutions, like clocks, must occasionally be cleaned, wound up, and set to true time.

Every young man would do well to remember that all successful business stands on the foundation of morality.

Young love is a flame; very pretty, often very hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. The love of the older and disciplined heart is as coals, deep-burning, unquenchable.

No emotion, any more than a wave, can long retain its own individual form.

Death is the Christian’s vacation morning. School is out. It is time to go home.

It will not do to be saints at meeting and sinners everywhere else.