Friendship is almost always the union of a part of one mind with the part of another; people are friends in spots.
A string of excited, fugitive, miscellaneous pleasures is not happiness; happiness resides in imaginative reflection and judgment, when the picture of one's life, or of human life, as it truly has been or is, satisfies the will, and is gladly accepted.
Religion in its humility restores man to his only dignity, the courage to live by grace.
Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.
The actor is too prone to exaggerate his powers; he wants to play Hamlet when his appearance is more suitable to King Lear.
Art is the right hand of Nature. The latter has only given us being, the former has made us men.
Only those who have the patience to do simple things perfectly will acquire the skill to do difficult things easily.
All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second it is violently opposed. Third it is accepted as being self-evident.
Sleep is the interest we have to pay on the capital which is called in at death; and the higher the rate of interest and the more regularly it is paid, the further the date of redemption is postponed.
Medicine, law, business, engineering. These are noble pursuits. And necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love. These are what we stay alive for. (Dead Poet's Society)
A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.
The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character.
How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child's board. It is like an aged man reclining under the shadow of an oak which he has planted.
Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, And men below, and saints above: For love is heaven, and heaven is love.
He that climbs the tall tree has won right to the fruit, He that leaps the wide gulf should prevail in his suit.
O! many a shaft, at random sent, Finds mark the archer little meant! And many a word, at random spoken, May soothe or wound a heart that's broken!
Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.
Most advice on child-rearing is sought in the hope that it will confirm our prior convictions. If the parent had wished to proceed in a certain way but was made insecure by opposing opinions of neighbors, friends, or relatives, then it gives him great comfort to find his ideas seconded by an expert.
The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.
Behold a worthy sight, to which the God, turning his attention to his own work, may direct his gaze. Behold an equal thing, worthy of a God, a brave man matched in conflict with evil fortune.
We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.
No evil propensity of the human heart is so powerful that it may not be subdued by discipline.