“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 highest culture is not obtained from the teacher when at school or college, so much as by our ever diligent self-education when we become men.

This extraordinary metal, the soul of every manufacture, and the mainspring perhaps of civilised society. Of iron.

Men must necessarily be the active agents of their own well-being and well-doing they themselves must in the very nature of things be their own best helpers.

The Romans rightly employed the same word (virtus) to designate courage, which is, in a physical sense, what the other is in a moral; the highest virtue of all being victory over ourselves.

Men who are resolved to find a way for themselves will always find opportunities enough; and if they do not find them, they will make them.

The most influential of all the virtues are those which are the most in request for daily use. They wear the best, and last the longest.

Labour may be a burden and a chastisement, but it is also an honour and a glory. Without it, nothing can be accomplished.

The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.

No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.

Great men are always exceptional men; and greatness itself is but comparative. Indeed, the range of most men in life is so limited that very few have the opportunity of being great.

Those who have most to do, and are willing to work, will find the most time.

Progress however, of the best kind, is comparatively slow. Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step.

Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates.

Good sense, disciplined by experience and inspired by goodness, issues in practical wisdom.

Great men stamp their mind upon their age and nation.

Woman, above all other educators, educates humanly. Man is the brain, but woman is the heart, of humanity.

You don’t want a million answers as much as you want a few forever questions.

Where were you born? Where is your home? Where are you going? What are you doing? Think about these once in a while and watch your answers change.

I answer only to God.

If a man urge me to tell wherefore I loved him, I feel it cannot be expressed but by answering: Because it was he, because it was myself.

I answered the voice that I was a poor girl who knew nothing of riding and warfare.

Live your questions now, and perhaps even without knowing it, you will live along some distant day into your answers.

You talk to me in riddles, I will answer you in rhyme. I loved you for a little- I will love you for all time.

The only thing I really worry about is my live stand-up show because I have to answer to the fans.