The grate had been removed from the wide overwhelming fireplace, to make way for a fire of wood, in the midst of which was an enormous log glowing and blazing, and sending forth a vast...

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

The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal – every other affliction to forget; but this wound we consider it...

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

I’ve had it with you and your emotional constipation!

The scholar only knows how dear these silent, yet eloquent, companions of pure thoughts and innocent hours become in the season of adversity. When all that is worldly turns to dross around us, these only...

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

No! no! My engagement is with no bride–the worms! the worms expect me! I am a dead man–I have been slain by robbers–my body lies at Wurtzburg–at midnight I am to be buried–the grave is...

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.

There is certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have often found in traveling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one’s position, and...

Others may write from the head, but he writes from the heart, and the heart will always understand him.

The idol of today pushes the hero of yesterday out of our recollection; and will, in turn, be supplanted by his successor of tomorrow.

A woman’s life is a history of the affections

I profess not to know how women’s hearts are wooed and won. To me they have always been matters of riddle and admiration.

There is in every true woman’s heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.

It is almost startling to hear this warning of departed time sounding among the tombs, and telling the lapse of the hour, which, like a billow, has rolled us onward towards the grave.

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

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

The only happy author in this world is he who is below the care of reputation.

The tongue is the only tool that gets sharper with use.

There is in every woman’s heart a spark of heavenly fire which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.

It is worthy to note, that the early popularity of Washington was not the result of brilliant achievement nor signal success; on the contrary, it rose among trials and reverses, and may almost be said...

Some minds seem almost to create themselves, springing up under every disadvantage and working their solitary but irresistible way through a thousand obstacles.

Acting provides the fulfillment of never being fulfilled. You’re never as good as you’d like to be. So there’s always something to hope for.

A tart temper never mellows with age; and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use

Sometimes he spent hours together in the great libraries of Paris, those catacombs of departed authors, rummaging among their hoards of dusty and obsolete works in quest of food for his unhealthy appetite. He was,...

Who ever hears of fat men heading a riot, or herding together in turbulent mobs? No – no, your lean, hungry men who are continually worrying society, and setting the whole community by the ears.

The tongue is the only instrument that gets sharper with use.

There is a sacredness in tears….They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition and of unspeakable love.

It embarrasses me to think of all those years I was buying silk suits and alligator shoes that were hurting my feet; cars that I just parked, and the dust would just build up on...

Whenever a man’s friends begin to compliment him about looking young, he may be sure that they think he is growing old

A woman never forgets her sex. She would rather talk with a man than an angel, any day.

Her mighty lakes, like oceans of liquid silver; her mountains, with bright aerial tints; her valleys, teeming with wild fertility; her tremendous cataracts, thundering in their solitudes; her boundless plains, waving with spontaneous verdure; her...

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

There is a healthful hardiness about real dignity that never dreads contact and communion with others however humble.

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she...

A sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener with constant use.

Christmas! ‘Tis the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial fire of charity in the heart

The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance, but, like all other landscapes, the charm fades on a nearer approach, and the thorns and briars become visible

There are certain half-dreaming moods of mind in which we naturally steal away from noise and glare, and seek some quiet haunt where we may indulge our reveries and build our air castles undisturbed.

A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.

Young lawyers attend the courts, not because they have business there, but because they have no business.

But a wide sea voyage severs us at once. It makes us conscious of being cast loose from the secure anchorage of settled life, and sent adrift upon a doubtful world. It interposes a gulf,...

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

A barking dog is often more useful than a sleeping lion.

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...

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

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.

The natural principle of war is to do the most harm to our enemy with the least harm to ourselves; and this of course is to be effected by stratagem.

Great minds have purposes; others have wishes.