“Every heart that has beat strongly and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in the world, and bettered the tradition of mankind.”

It is not likely that posterity will fall in love with us, but not impossible that it may respect or sympathize; so a man would rather leave behind him the portrait of his spirit than a portrait of his face.

If a man loves the labour of his trade, apart from any question of success or fame, the gods have called him.

It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable in retrospect.

A friend is a gift you give yourself.

To be idle requires a strong sense of personal identity.

Everyone lives by selling something.

The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish.

I shall be glad to lie down with my fathers in honor. It is human at least, if not divine.

Keep your eyes open to your mercies. The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.

Of what shall a man be proud, if he is not proud of his friends?

The habit of being happy enables one to be freed, or largely freed, from the domination of outward conditions.

You can read Kant by yourself, if you wanted to; but you must share a joke with someone else.

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me, And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

It costs nothing in money, it is all profit, it completes our education, founds and fosters our friendships, and can be enjoyed at any age and in almost any state of health.

You can kill the body but not the spirit.

Marriage is like life – it is a field of battle, not a bed of roses.