“Mere political reform will not cure the manifold evils which now afflict society. There requires a social reform, a domestic reform, an individual reform.”

Necessity, oftener than facility, has been the mother of invention; and the most prolific school of all has been the school of difficulty.

The principal industrial excellence of the English people lay in their capacity of present exertion for a distant object.

Men often discover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book.

The great high-road of human welfare lies along the old highway of steadfast, well-doing; and they who are the most persistent, and work in the truest spirit, will invariably be the most successful; success treads on the heels of every right effort.

Self-control is only courage under another form. It may also be regarded as the primary essence of character.

For want of self-restraint many men are engaged all their lives in fighting with difficulties of their own making.

Work is one of the best educators of practical character.

The great leader attracts to himself men of kindred character, drawing them towards him as the loadstone draws iron.

Stothard learned the art of combining colors by closely studying butterflies wings; he would often say that no one knew what he owed to these tiny insects. A burnt stick and a barn door served Wilkie in lieu of pencil and canvas.

Men whose acts are at variance with their words command no respect, and what they say has but little weight.

Even happiness itself may become habitual. There is a habit of looking at the bright side of things, and also of looking at the dark side.

Enthusiasm, the sustaining power of all great action.

Make good thy standing place, and move the world.

Opportunities fall in the way of every man who is resolved to take advantage of them.

There are many persons of whom it may be said that they have no other possession in the world but their character, and yet they stand as firmly upon it as any crowned king.

The great lesson of biography is to show what man can be and do at his best. A noble life put fairly on record acts like an inspiration to others.

If there’s any illness for which people offer many remedies, you may be sure that particular illness is incurable, I think.

Nature alone cures. What nursing has to do is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.

Of all the calamities to which humanity is subject, none is so dreadful as insanity. … All experience shows that insanity seasonably treated is as certainly curable as a cold or a fever.

Every evil has its good, and every ill an antidote.

Every disease is a musical problem; every cure is a musical solution.

There is a naive belief that injustice only had to be pointed out in order to be cured.

All concerns of men go wrong when they wish to cure evil with evil.

You are both my illness and my remedy.