A cunning mind emphatically delights in its own cunning, and is the ready prey of cunning.

In morals, what begins in fear usually ends in wickedness; in religion, what begins in fear usually ends in fanaticism. Fear, either as a principle or a motive, is the beginning of all evil.

Extreme vanity sometimes hides under the garb of ultra modesty.

Childhood sometimes does pay a second visit to man; youth never.

What we truly and earnestly aspire to be, that in some sense we are. The mere aspiration, by changing the frame of mind, for the moment realizes itself.

All my experience of the world teaches me that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the safe side and the just side of a question is the generous side and the merciful side.

As the presence of those we love is as a double life, so absence, in its anxious longing and sense of vacancy, is as a foretaste of death.

All government, all exercise of power, no matter in what form, which is not based in love and directed by knowledge, is a tyranny.

Nature and truth are one, and immutable, and inseparable as beauty and love.

To reason from analogy is often dangerous, but to illustrate by a fanciful analogy is sometimes a means by which we light an idea, as it were, into the understanding of another.

What we truly and earnestly aspire to be, that in some sense we are.

I’m aware of my actions and responsible for them, so I don’t owe any explanation to anyone.

Letting go takes a lot of courage sometimes. But once you let go, happiness comes very quickly. You won't have to go around search for it.

If you need a handbook for praise and worship, read Psalms.

I just do the best I can and write something interesting, to tell stories in an interesting way and move forward from there.

Churchgoers are like coals in a fire. When they cling together, they keep the flame aglow; when they separate, they die out.

Although every novel is derived directly from another novel, there is really only one novel, the Quixote.

Anyone can lose a few pounds, but not everyone has the tools to stick with it.

Caution, not exuberance, should be our fiscal motto.

Fears are a complete waste of your time. Nine times out of ten, whatever you're afraid of is not dangerous or life threatening. In fact, it's probably not even real.

Try to live with a generous heart. Doing anything else is too hard.