“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.”

One might almost fear,” writes a thoughtful woman, “seeing how the women of to-day are lightly stirred up to run after some new fashion or faith, that heaven is not so near to them as it was to their mothers and grandmothers.

Self-control is only courage under another form.

Riches are oftener an impediment than a stimulus to action; and in many cases they are quite as much a misfortune as a blessing.

The tiniest bits of opinion sown in the minds of children in private life afterwards issue forth to the world, and become its public opinion; for nations are gathered out of nurseries.

A fig-tree looking on a fig-tree becometh fruitful,” says the Arabian proverb. And so it is with children; their first great instructor is example.

The greatest slave is not he who is ruled by a despot, great though that evil be, but he who is in the thrall of his own moral ignorance, selfishness, and vice.

Hope… is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for who so hopes has within him the gift of miracles.

Character is undergoing constant change, for better or for worse–either being elevated on the one hand, or degraded on the other.

Those who aren’t making mistakes probably aren’t making anything.

Necessity, oftener than facility, has been the mother of invention; and the most prolific school of all has been the school of difficulty.

The principal industrial excellence of the English people lay in their capacity of present exertion for a distant object.

Men often discover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book.

The great high-road of human welfare lies along the old highway of steadfast, well-doing; and they who are the most persistent, and work in the truest spirit, will invariably be the most successful; success treads on the heels of every right effort.

Self-control is only courage under another form. It may also be regarded as the primary essence of character.

For want of self-restraint many men are engaged all their lives in fighting with difficulties of their own making.

Work is one of the best educators of practical character.