“Of all your troubles, great and small, the greatest are the ones that don’t happen at all.”

Secrecy is the element of all goodness; even virtue, even beauty is mysterious.

Do nothing, only keep agitating, debating; and things will destroy themselves.

If you do not wish a man to do a thing, you had better get him to talk about it; for the more men talk, the more likely they are to do nothing else.

What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.

Music is well said to be the speech of angels.

Our grand business undoubtedly is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.

Experience is the best of school masters, only the school fees are heavy.

A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men.

You can make even a parrot into a learned political economist – all he must learn are the two words “supply” and “demand.”

Foolish men imagine that because judgment for an evil thing is delayed, there is no justice; but only accident here below. Judgment for an evil thing is many times delayed some day or two, some century or two, but it is sure as life, it is sure as death.

Of all God’s creatures, Man alone is poor.

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do that with all thy might and leave the issues calmly to God.

No iron chain, or outward force of any kind, could ever compel the soul of man to believe or to disbelieve: it is his own indefeasible light, that judgment of his; he will reign and believe there by the grace of God alone!

Every noble work is at first impossible.

No man lives without jostling and being jostled; in all ways he has to elbow himself through the world, giving and receiving offence.

A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge.

When you have a sorrow that is too great it leaves no room for any other.

Concessions to adversaries only end in self reproach, and the more strictly they are avoided the greater will be the chance of security.

Every great mind seeks to labor for eternity. All men are captivated by immediate advantages; great minds alone are excited by the prospect of distant good.

They whose minds are least sensitive to calamity, and whose hands are most quick to meet it, are the greatest men and the greatest communities.

Healing opportunities can be disguised as people who really piss you off. Pay attention because they could be your greatest teachers.

It would be great to be able to pass on to someone all of the successes, the failures, and the knowledge that one has had. To help someone, avoid all the fire, pain and anxiety would be wonderful.

Great love affairs start with Champagne and end with tisane.

It is from the greatest dangers that the greatest glory is to be won.