Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.

Good is positive. Evil is merely privative, not absolute: it is like cold, which is the privation of heat. All evil is so much death or nonentity. Benevolence is absolute and real. So much benevolence as a man hath, so much life hath he.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

Pictures must not be too picturesque.

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.

Every artist was first an amateur.

We must be our own before we can be another's.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting.

Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.

Beauty without expression is boring.

A more secret, sweet, and overpowering beauty appears to man when his heart and mind open to the sentiment of virtue.

Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of prophets. He saw with open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it and had his being there. Alone in all history, he estimated the greatness of man.

We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body.

As we grow old, the beauty steals inward.

Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait.

Beauty is an outward gift, which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused.

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.

I think we must get rid of slavery, or we must get rid of freedom.

The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

Hitch your wagon to a star.

He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

Always do what you are afraid to do.

Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.

Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain.

The years teach much which the days never know.

Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art.

All mankind love a lover.

Death comes to all, but great achievements build a monument which shall endure until the sun grows cold.

Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.

Science does not know its debt to imagination.

Every known fact in natural science was divined by the presentiment of somebody, before it was actually verified.

Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science.

A man is a god in ruins. When men are innocent, life shall be longer, and shall pass into the immortal, as gently as we awake from dreams.

Judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams.

With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

A great man is always willing to be little.

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.

Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense.

The value of a dollar is social, as it is created by society.

In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise.

The first wealth is health.

The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.