More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us.
— George Eliot
I desire no future that will break the ties with the past.
The only failure one should fear, is not hugging to the purpose they see as best.
Is it not rather what we expect in men, that they should have numerous strands of experience lying side by side and never compare them with each other?
Whether happiness may come or not, one should try and prepare one's self to do without it.
What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?
Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.
Adventure is not outside man; it is within.
Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles.
Anger and jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of their objects than love.
The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.
Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking.
Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.
No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty.
Ignorant kindness may have the effect of cruelty; but to be angry with it as if it were direct cruelty would be an ignorant unkindness.
Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.
There are many victories worse than a defeat.
We must not sit still and look for miracles; up and doing, and the Lord will be with thee. Prayer and pains, through faith in Christ Jesus, will do anything.
We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults. Heaven has accorded this to us in the uncritical canine attachment.
It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees.
Jealousy is never satisfied with anything short of an omniscience that would detect the subtlest fold of the heart.
There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows.
No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters.
The beginning of an acquaintance whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline of our ignorance.
One must be poor to know the luxury of giving!
Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.
Acting is nothing more or less than playing. The idea is to humanize life.
Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them.
The world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome, dubious eggs, called possibilities.
