I held it truth, with him who sings To one clear harp in divers tones, That men may rise on stepping stones Or their dead selves to higher things.

Methought little space 'tween those hills intervened, But nearer,--more lofty,--more shaggy they seemed. The clouds o'er their summits they calmly did rest, And hung on the ether's invisible breast; Than the vapours of earth they seemed purer, more bright,-- Oh! could they be clouds? 'Twas the necklace of night.

Falling in love consists merely in uncorking the imagination and bottling the common-sense.

a Christmas tree .. the perfect gift for a guy... the plant is already dead .

Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.

I have found (to my regret) that the degrees of shame and disgust which I actually feel at my own sins do not at all correspond to what my reason tells me about their comparative gravity. Just as the degree to which, in daily life, I feel the emotion of fear has very little to do with my rational judgment of the danger. I'd sooner have really nasty seas when I'm in an open boat than look down in perfect (actual) safety from the edge of a cliff. Similarly, I have confessed ghastly uncharities with less reluctance than small unmentionables -- or those sins which happen to be ungentlemanly as well as unchristian. Our emotional reactions to our own behaviour are of limited ethical significance.

I think we now come to the park expecting to win instead of playing not to lose.

A fire-mist and a planet, A crystal and a cell, A jellyfish and a saurian, And caves where the cavemen dwell; Then a sense of law and beauty, And a face turned from the clod-- Some call it Evolution, And others call it God.

Nor ease nor peace that heart can know, That like the needle true, Turns at the touch of joy or woe; But turning, trembles too.

Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my King, He would not in mine age Have left me naked to mine enemies.

Earth is but the frozen echo of the silent voice of God.

Illustrious Predecessor.

No one has ever had an idea in a dress suit.

If you lend someone $20, and never see that person again; it was probably worth it.

Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.

The coward only threatens when he is safe.

Feast of Thomas the Apostle Long did I toil and knew no earthly rest, Far did I rove and found no certain home; At last I sought them in His sheltering breast, Who opes His arms and bids the weary come: With Him I found a home, a rest divine, And I, since then, am His, and He is mine. The good I have is from His stores supplied, The ill is only what He deems the best; He for my friend, I'm rich with naught beside, And poor without Him, though of all possessed; Changes may come, I take or I resign Content, while I am His, and He is mine. Whate'er may change, in Him no change is seen, A glorious Sun that wanes not nor declines; Above the storms and clouds He walks serene, And on His people's inward darkness shines; All may depart: I fret not, nor repine, While I my Saviours am, while He is mine. While here, alas! I know but half His love, But half discern Him, and but half adore; But when I meet Him in the realms above I hope to love him better, praise Him more, And feel, and tell, amid the choir divine, How fully I am His, and He is mine.

. . . solitude is such a potential thing. We hear voices in solitude, we never hear in the hurry and turmoil of life; we receive counsels and comforts, we get under no other condition . . .

I recover my property wherever I find it.

If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the military, nothing is safe.