“No man’s abilities are so remarkably shining as not to stand in need of a proper opportunity.”

The brain is the highest of the organs in position, and it is protected by the vault of the head; it has no flesh or blood or refuse. It is the citadel of sense-perception.

It is a maxim universally agreed upon in agriculture, that nothing must be done too late; and again, that everything must be done at its proper season; while there is a third precept which reminds us that opportunities lost can never be regained.

In the literary as well as military world, most powerful abilities will often be found concealed under a rustic garb.

When collapse is imminent, the little rodents flee.

Nothing is so unequal as equality.

The great business of man is to improve his mind, and govern his manners; all other projects and pursuits, whether in our power to compass or not, are only amusements.

The most valuable discoveries have found their origin in the most trivial accidents.

How many things… are looked upon as quite impossible until they have been actually effected?

The perverted ingenuity of man has given to water the power of intoxicating where wine is not procured. Western nations intoxicate themselves by moistened grain.

Nature makes us buy her presents at the price of so many sufferings that it is doubtful whether she deserves most the name of parent or stepmother.

Hope is the pillar that holds up the world. Hope is the dream of a waking man.

The enjoyments of this life are not equal to its evils.

In comparing various authors with one another, I have discovered that some of the gravest and latest writers have transcribed, word for word, from former works, without making acknowledgment.

Wine refreshes the stomach, sharpens the appetite, blunts care and sadness, and conduces to slumber.

Example is the softest and least invidious way of commanding.

This only is certain, that there is nothing certain.

Is a diamond less valuable because it is covered with mud? God sees the changeless beauty of our souls. He knows we are not our mistakes.

Golden bracelets, diamonds and rare blue pearls. New gadgets and sparkling shoes, Things I do not own left languishing in the wooden drawer I do not have. I am too busy walking in parks admiring the city from afar and mesmerising dancing trees.

God changes caterpillars into butterflies, sand into pearls and coal into diamonds using time and pressure. He’s working on you, too.

The sun shines equally on diamond and charcoal, but the former has developed qualities that enable it to reflect the sunlight brilliantly, while the latter is unable to reflect the sunlight. Emulate the diamond in your dealings with people. Brightly reflect the light of God’s love.

I’ve found you at last like a diamond glowing high in the endless sky.

You can’t cry on a diamond’s shoulder, and diamonds won’t keep you warm at night, but they’re sure fun when the sun shines.

I thought of the soul as resembling a castle, formed of a single diamond or a very transparent crystal, and containing many rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions.

By what strange law of mind is it that an idea long overlooked, and trodden under foot as a useless stone, suddenly sparkles out in new light, as a discovered diamond?