I trust, and I recognize the beneficence of the power which we all worship as supreme- Order, Fate, the Great Spirit, Nature, God. I recognize this power in the sun that makes all things grow...

We bereaved are not alone. We belong to the largest company in all the world–the company of those who have known suffering.

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.

Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.

Believe. No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted island, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.

Once I knew the depth where no hope was, and darkness lay on the face of all things… But a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness,...

Indeed, everything that could hum, or buzz, or sing, or bloom had a part in my education–noisy-throated frogs, katydids and crickets held in my hand until, forgetting their embarrassment, they trilled their reedy note, little...

I realized that the wonder is not that conditions are so bad, but that humanity has advanced so far in spite of them. & now I am in the fight to change things. I may...

The one I felt and still feel most is lack of time. I used to have time to think, to reflect, my mind and I. We would sit together of an evening and listen to...

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.

If there were no life beyond this earth-life, some people I have known would gain immortality by the nobility of our memory of them. With every friend I love who has been taken into the...

We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world

I do not mean to object to a thorough knowledge of the famous works we read. I object only to the interminable comments and bewildering criticisms that teach but one thing: there are as many...

Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.

Trying to write is very much like trying to put a Chinese puzzle together. We have a pattern in mind which we wish to work out in words; but the words will not fit the...

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.

La vie est une aventure audacieuse ou alors elle n’est rien.

The bulk of the world’s knowledge is an imaginary construction.

Never bend your head. Hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.

In a word, literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my book-friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or...

What does this beauty or than music mean to you? You cannot see the waves rolling up the beach or hear their roar. What do they mean to you?’ In the most evident sense they...

Great poetry needs no interpreter other than a responsive heart.

I have an unshakable belief that mankind’s higher nature is on the whole still dormant. The greatest souls reveal excellencies of mind and heart which their lesser fellows possess-hidden, it is true, but there all...

A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much

I look upon the whole world as my fatherland, & every war has to me the horror od a family feud. I look upon the true patriotism as the brotherhood of man & the service...

I who am blind can give one hint to those who see: Use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind. And the same method can be applied to the other senses. Hear...

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

More than at any other time, when I hold a beloved book in my hand my limitations fall from me, my spirit is free.

Be of good cheer. Do not think of today’s failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will...

I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.

One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.

i also dislike people who try to talk down to my understanding. they are like people who when walking with you try to shorten their steps to suit yours, hypocrisy in both cases is equally...

People don’t like to think, if one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.

I am only one, but still I am one.I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.

Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invicible host against difficulties.

For, after all, every one who wishes to gain true knowledge must climb the Hill Difficulty alone, and since there is no royal road to the summit, I must zigzag it in my own way....

For one wild, glad moment we snapped the chain that binds us to earth, and joining hands with the winds we felt ourselves divine.

We are fragments of the universe,Chips of the rock whereon God laid the foundation of the world:

I began my studies with eagerness. Before me I saw a new world opening in beauty and light, and I felt within me the capacity to know all things. In the wonderland of Mind I...

There is joy in self-forgetfulness. So I try to make the light in others’ eyes my sun, the music in others’ ears my symphony, the smile on others’ lips my happiness.

Our favourite amusement during that winter was tobogganing. In places the shore of the lake rises abruptly from the water’s edge. Down these steep slopes we used to coast. We would get on our toboggan,...