The elect, those who will; the non-elect, those who won't.

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.

We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.

The Church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones.

Some men are like pyramids, which are very broad where they touch the ground, but grow narrow as they reach the sky.

As for marigolds, poppies, hollyhocks, and valorous sunflowers, we shall never have a garden without them, both for their own sake, and for the sake of old-fashioned folks, who used to love them.

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road.

The thistle is a prince. Let any man that has an eye for beauty take a view of the whole plant, and where will he see a more expressive grace and symmetry; and where is there a more kingly flower?

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself.

He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.

As long as you call on God, He will answer you.

We seek the fire of the spark that is already within us.

But stupid things have a gravity and a momentum of their own

Does talking to yourself in the voice of your fictional character count as being social?

A reformer is one who sets forth cheerfully toward sure defeat.

My roommate got a pet elephant. Then it got lost. It's in the apartment somewhere.

Once we are truly for ourselves, it becomes possible to care far more profoundly about other people.

Government cannot be all things to all people.

If you're not creating, you're waiting.

Conscription is the vitality of a nation, the purification of its morality, and the real foundations of all its habits