Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart.

Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.

Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.

Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them.

Great minds have purposes; others have wishes.

After all, it is the divinity within that makes the divinity without; and I have been more fascinated by a woman of talent and intelligence, though deficient in personal charms, than I have been by the most regular beauty.

Marriage is the torment of one, the felicity of two, the strife and enmity of three.

A father may turn his back on his child, brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, wives their husbands. But a mother's love endures through all.

Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love.

An inexhaustible good nature is one of the most precious gifts of heaven, spreading itself like oil over the troubled sea of thought, and keeping the mind smooth and equable in the roughest weather.

One of the greatest and simplest tools for learning more and growing is doing more.

The natural effect of sorrow over the dead is to refine and elevate the mind.

Honest good humor is the oil and wine of a merry meeting, and there is no jovial companionship equal to that where the jokes are rather small and laughter abundant.

He is the true enchanter, whose spell operates, not upon the senses, but upon the imagination and the heart.

A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles.