“Though God alone never tastes woe, Yet that man is happy, and poets sing of him, Who conquers with hand or swift foot And wins the greatest of prizes By steadfastness and strength.”

To be envied is a nobler fate than to be pitied.

Wrapt up in error is the human mind, And human bliss is ever insecure; Know we what fortune yet remains behind? Know we how long the present shall endure?

Every gift which is given, even though is be small, is in reality great, if it is given with affection.

I will not steep my speech in lies; the test of any man lies in action.

If one but tell a thing well, it moves on with undying voice, and over the fruitful earth and across the sea goes the bright gleam of noble deeds ever unquenchable.

We are things of a day. What are we? What are we not? The shadow of a dream is man, no more.

There are many roads to happiness, if the gods assent.

The race of gods and men is one, and from one mother we both draw our breath. Yet all the difference in our power holds us apart, so that man is nothing, but the brazen floor of heaven is eternally unshakable.

Time is the best preserver of righteous men.

Even success softens not the heart of the envious.

The forehead of every work must shine from afar.

To each thing belongs it’s measure. Occasion is best to know.

Water is best, but gold shines like fire blazing in the night, supreme of lordly wealth.

Of the good things given between man and man, I say that a neighbor, true and loving in heart, to neighbor is a joy beyond all things else.

If any man thinks to swindle God, he is wrong.

Success abides longer among men when it is planted by the hand of God.

He gains wisdom in a happy way, who gains it by another’s experience.

There are games in which it is better to lose than win.

Why should he who is scared be careful?

For, in the vernacular, we Americans are suckers for good news.

The dreadful fear of hell is to be driven out, which disturbs the life of man and renders it miserable, overcasting all things with the blackness of darkness, and leaving no pure, unalloyed pleasure.

There is no avoiding the fact that we live at the mercy of our ideas This is never more true than with our ideas about God.

I am myself my own commander.

So, whatever initial trepidation or fear I may have had was alleviated by those factors.