Does not the soul, finding the heart of its suffering full of joy, forget the mere rough outside in which that heart of joy was folded?
Ideality, magnanimity and bravery – these are what make the heroes. The materialist, the sceptic and the coward – he cannot be a hero.
To believe is the true glory of existence. To disbelieve is to give ourselves into the power of death, and just so far to cease from living.
It is only in poor men and in the lower things that success increases self-conceit. In every high work and in men worthy of it, success is always sure to bring humility.
Our strength is measured by our plastic power… Bricks and mortar are mortar and bricks until the architect can make them into something else.
A man who lives right, and is right, has more power in his silence than another man by his words.
Oh! believe me that no man lives at his best to whom life is not becoming better and better, always aware of greater and greater forces, capable of diviner and diviner deeds and joys.
God is omnipotent, and man is immortal. Therefore be patient and work. The end shall certainly be joy, not sorrow. The stone shall roll away and the dead come forth.
Optimism is a belief in a great purpose underlying the world for good, absolutely certain to fulfil itself somewhere, somehow. That must have been what God saw when He looked upon the world and called it "good."
A hundred men stand on the shore and say: "There is no land beyond." One brave and trustful man like Columbus, believes that the complete world is complete, and sails for a fair land beyond the sea, and finds it.
Put your faith where it will be safe; and the only place where a faith ever can be safe is in the shrine of an action.
I must have
some notion in general
of what I am alive