“And better had they ne’er been born, Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.”

Heap on more wood! – the wind is chill; But let it whistle as it will, We’ll keep our Christmas merry still.

Real valor consists not in being insensible to danger; but in being prompt to confront and disarm it.

Sleep in peace, and wake in joy.

If you once turn on your side after the hour at which you ought to rise, it is all over. Bolt up at once.

Without courage there cannot be truth, and without truth there can be no other virtue.

The will to do, the soul to dare.

The paths of virtue, though seldom those of worldly greatness, are always those of pleasantness and peace.

A good deal of philanthropy arises in general from mere vanity and love of distinction gilded over to others and to themselves with some show of benevolent sentiment.

Hope is brightest when it dawns from fears.

Of all vices, drinking is the most incompatible with greatness.

A sound head, an honest heart, and an humble spirit are the three best guides through time and to eternity.

Nothing is more completely the child of art than a garden.

We are like the herb which flourisheth most when it is most trampled on.

Those who are too idle to read, save for the purpose of amusement, may in these works acquire some acquaintance with history, which, however inaccurate, is better than none.

Is death the last sleep? No, it is the last and final awakening.

Credit is like a looking-glass, which when once sullied by a breath, may be wiped clear again; but if once cracked can never be repaired.

I’m not a natural born performer.

Perfect behaviour is born of complete indifference.

History is a pact between the dead, the living, and the yet unborn.

Life is the coexistence of all opposite values. Joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, up and down, hot and cold, here and there, light and darkness, birth and death. All experience is by contrast, and one would be meaningless without the other.

Effective leaders are made, not born. They learn from trial and error, and from experience.

Because every day of your life was written on God’s calendar before you were born, everything that happens to you has spiritual significance.

Islam, at the moment, is the motherlode of bad ideas.

It’s pointless to cry. One is born and dies alone.