The sweet calm sunshine of October, now Warms the low spot; upon its grassy mould The purple oak-leaf falls; the birchen bough Drops its bright spoil like arrow-heads of gold.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel.

Sometimes a noble failure serves the world as faithfully as a distinguished success.

The monstrous evils of the twentieth century have shown us that the greediest money grubbers are gentle doves compared with money-hating wolves like Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler, who in less than three decades killed or maimed nearly a hundred million men, women, and children and brought untold suffering to a large portion of mankind.

I would sooner read a timetable or a catalog than nothing at all.

As in this body, there are for the embodied one childhood, youth, old age, even so is there the taking on of another body.

Close scrutiny will show that most "crisis situations" are opportunities to either advance, or stay where you are.

Why, universal plodding poisons up The nimble spirits in the arteries, As motion and long-during action tires The sinewy vigor of the traveller.

Master, if you do, expect spoon-meat, or bespeak a long spoon.

The Bat and the Weasels A BAT who fell upon the ground and was caught by a Weasel pleaded to be spared his life. The Weasel refused, saying that he was by nature the enemy of all birds. The Bat assured him that he was not a bird, but a mouse, and thus was set free. Shortly afterwards the Bat again fell to the ground and was caught by another Weasel, whom he likewise entreated not to eat him. The Weasel said that he had a special hostility to mice. The Bat assured him that he was not a mouse, but a bat, and thus a second time escaped. It is wise to turn circumstances to good account.

A fanatic is a man that does what he thinks the Lord would do if He knew the facts of the case.

Men fear death, as if unquestionably the greatest evil, and yet no man knows that it may not be the greatest good.

We have to go along a road covered with blood. We have no other alternative. For us it is a matter of life or death, a matter of living or existing. We have to be ready to face the challenges that await us.

A politician thinks of the next election -- a statesman, of the next generation.

How many saucy airs we meet, From Temple Bar to Aldgate street!

Dim eclipse, disastrous twilight.

God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

The Ass Carrying the Image AN ASS once carried through the streets of a city a famous wooden Image, to be placed in one of its Temples. As he passed along, the crowd made lowly prostration before the Image. The Ass, thinking that they bowed their heads in token of respect for himself, bristled up with pride, gave himself airs, and refused to move another step. The driver, seeing him thus stop, laid his whip lustily about his shoulders and said, O you perverse dull-head! it is not yet come to this, that men pay worship to an Ass. They are not wise who give to themselves the credit due to others.

Feast of Mary Magdalen, Apostle to the Apostles When our lives are focused on God, awe and wonder lead us to worship God, filling our inner being with a fullness we would never have thought possible. Awe prepares the way in us for the power of God to transform us and this transformation of our inner attitudes can only take place when awe leads us in turn to wonder, admiration, reverence, surrender, and obedience toward God.