“If we opened our minds to enjoyment, we might find tranquil pleasures spread about us on every side. We might live with the angels that visit us on every sunbeam, and sit with the fairies who wait on every flower.”

Stothard learned the art of combining colors by closely studying butterflies wings; he would often say that no one knew what he owed to these tiny insects. A burnt stick and a barn door served Wilkie in lieu of pencil and canvas.

Men whose acts are at variance with their words command no respect, and what they say has but little weight.

Even happiness itself may become habitual. There is a habit of looking at the bright side of things, and also of looking at the dark side.

Enthusiasm, the sustaining power of all great action.

Make good thy standing place, and move the world.

Opportunities fall in the way of every man who is resolved to take advantage of them.

There are many persons of whom it may be said that they have no other possession in the world but their character, and yet they stand as firmly upon it as any crowned king.

The great lesson of biography is to show what man can be and do at his best. A noble life put fairly on record acts like an inspiration to others.

He who never made a mistake, never made a discovery.

Success treads on the heels of every right effort; and though it is possible to overestimate success to the extent of almost deifying it, as is sometimes done, still in any worthy pursuit it is meritorious.

The great and good do no die even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which one still listens.

Luck lies in bed, and wishes the postman would bring him news of a legacy; labor turns out at six, and with busy pen or ringing hammer lays the foundation of a competence.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. But all play and no work makes him something worse.

Biographies of great, but especially of good men are most instructive and useful as helps, guides, and incentives to others. Some of the best are almost equivalent to gospels,–teaching high living ,high thinking, and energetic action, for their own and, the world’s good.

It is energy – the central element of which is will – that produces the miracle that is enthusiasm in all ages. Everywhere it is what is called force of character and the sustaining power of all great action.

It is the close observation of little things which is the secret of success in business, in art, in science, and in every pursuit of life.

A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.

Fascism did not die with Mussolini, he warned. Hitler is finished, but the seeds spread by his disordered mind have firm root in too many fanatical brains.

The heart surrenders everything to the moment. The mind judges and holds back.

Abortion is black genocide, What happens to the mind of a person and the moral fabric of a nation that accepts the aborting of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience?

Our rational minds can never understand what has happened, but our hearts, if we can keep them open to God, will find their own intuitive way.

When the heart is open, it’s easier for the mind to be turned toward God.

If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it.

Poor is a state of mind you never grow out of, but being broke is just a temporary condition.