Growth is the only evidence of life.
To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.
Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather that it shall never have a beginning.
Virtue is its own reward, and brings with it the truest and highest pleasure; but if we cultivate it only for pleasure's sake, we are selfish, not religious, and will never gain the pleasure, because we can never have the virtue.
A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.
Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.
Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.
The love of our private friends is the only preparatory exercise for the love of all men.
A great memory does not make a mind, any more than a dictionary is a piece of literature.
It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who never inflicts pain.
Calculation never made a hero.
We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.
Let us act on what we have, since we have not what we wish.
To holy people the very name of Jesus is a name to feed upon, a name to transport. His name can raise the dead and transfigure and beautify the living.
It is often said that second thoughts are best. So they are in matters of judgment but not in matters of conscience.
Evil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect, excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has substance.
If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable... we must be content to creep along the ground, and never soar.
It is as absurd to argue men, as to torture them, into believing.
In this world no one rules by love; if you are but amiable, you are no hero; to be powerful, you must be strong, and to have dominion you must have a genius for organizing.
Men will die upon dogma but will not fall victim to a conclusion.
