“Instruction does much, but encouragement everything.”

Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing.

The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.

The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers & cities; but to know someone who thinks & feels with us, & who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.

Love does not dominate; it cultivates.

Everybody wants to be somebody, but nobody wants to grow.

For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him, he must regard himself as greater than he is.

He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.

To be loved for what one is, that is the greatest exception. The great majority love in others only what they lend him; their own selves, their version of him.

Night is the other half of life, and the better half.

Behaviour is a mirror in which every one displays his own image.

Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.

What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.

Misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than malice and wickedness.

To be pleased with one’s limits is a wretched state.

The highest goal that man can achieve is amazement.

I have possessed that heart, that noble soul, in whose presence I seemed to be more than I really was, because I was all that I could be.

Pay attention to where you are going because without meaning you might get nowhere.

If one hasn’t a horse, one is one’s own horse.

Perseverance, secret of all triumphs.

I find I am constantly being encouraged to pluck out some one aspect of myself and present this as the meaningful whole, eclipsing or denying the other parts of self.

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.

When I see the leadership roles black women are taking today I am very encouraged.

We must constantly encourage ourselves and each other to attempt the heretical actions that our dreams imply and so many of our old ideas disparage.

There are billions of people in the world, and every one of them is special. No one else in the world is like you.