There are sorrows that are not painful, but are of the nature of some acids, and give piquancy and flavor to life.

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.

Beauty is not who you are on the outside, it is the wisdom and time you gave away to save another struggling soul like you.

Our joy in life is inexorably determined by the degree to which we love.

Be a model for the world, never a critic.

Taking notes at a pub in Salisbury, I was mistaken for a health inspector!

But the sky was never quite the same shade of blue again.

My perspective has blossomed. There's always more to learn and more challenges.

What a man misses mostly in heaven is company.

If a man should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I find it could no otherwise be expressed, than by making answer: because it was he, because it was I.

In the same degree that we overrate ourselves, we shall underrate others.

Music was my friend when I was a teenager, and I would inhabit and take comfort in lyrics. That's how I want to write.