“When typhus or cholera breaks out, they tell us that Nobody is to blame. That terrible Nobody! How much he has to answer for. More mischief is done by Nobody than by all the world besides.”

The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual.

Practical wisdom is only to be learned in the school of experience. Precepts and instruction are useful so far as they go, but, without the discipline of real life, they remain of the nature of theory only.

Although genius always commands admiration, character most secures respect. The former is more the product of the brain, the latter of heart-power; and in the long run it is the heart that rules in life.

With will one can do anything.

It is observed at sea that men are never so much disposed to grumble and mutiny as when least employed. Hence an old captain, when there was nothing else to do, would issue the order to “scour the anchor.

The noble people will be nobly ruled, and the ignorant and corrupt ignobly.

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.

It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures. Precept, study, advice, and example could never have taught them so well as failure has done.

The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve.

The possession of a library, or the free use of it, no more constitutes learning, than the possession of wealth constitutes generosity.

Cecil’s dispatch of business was extraordinary, his maxim being, “The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.”

Alexander the Great valued learning so highly, that he used to say he was more indebted to Aristotle for giving him knowledge than to his father Philip for life.

The women of the poorer classes make sacrifices, and run risks, and bear privations, and exercise patience and kindness to a degree that the world never knows of, and would scarcely believe even if it did know.

Purposes, like eggs, unless they be hatched into action, will run into rottenness.

The truest politeness comes of sincerity.

Luck whines; labor whistles.

No matter how old you are, if a little kid hands you a toy phone, you answer it.

My words are written like prayers begging to be answered by you.

You were made for answered prayers.

I’m very outspoken. I will ask a silly question, but I really am deadly serious. I’m like, ‘I want to know the answer.’

When you come calling I’ll answer. But I know I have to keep a piece of my heart just for me.

Gentlemen, I am ready for the questions to my answers.

All those questions that I was too afraid to ask? In the end I lay down cold welcoming the answers to tear me in half.

Who is God? Who are we? What is our purpose? All these questions remain unanswered. I want to reach the genuine seeker of spiritual well-being. My goal is to satisfy the hunger and longing for those who are seeking the truth.