Some Outstanding Positive Quotations

Some Outstanding Positive Quotations Compiled by mhoyt@geocities.com

For convenience, I have divided these favorite quotations into two basic categories:
        I. Enrichment [or Guidance or Self-Help or How-To] Quotations, each of which must:
                1. Be fundamentally (and preferably entirely) positive;
                2. Be a great, timeless, universal, endearing and often ideal truth which, when faithfully adhered to and practiced, inspires you to improve one or more basic aspects of your own life or the lives of others.
        II. Descriptive Quotations, each of which must:
                1. Be beautiful, edifying, enlightening and enjoyable to read and contemplate;
                2. Provide some profound and pleasant insight into humanity or nature.
All quotations listed here were gleaned primarily from old books, and hence believed to be fully exempt from all current United States copyright restrictions. They are a part of humanity's great heritage, and as such should be preserved and treasured. Of the tens of thousands of quotations at my disposal, only the very best of the best have been selected to appear here.
(Since I plan to expand and update this page, please check back regularly for more good quotes.)

Enrichment Quotations

        Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. [The Golden Rule.] Bible.
        Do unto another what you would he should do unto you, and do not unto another what you would not should be done unto you. Thou only needest this law alone; it is the foundation and principle of all the rest. We cannot observe the necessary rules of life, it there be wanting these three virtues: (1) Wisdom, which makes us discern good from evil. (2) Universal love, which makes us love all men who are virtuous. (3) That resolution which makes us constantly persevere in the adherence to good, and aversion for evil. Confucius.
        If you wish to be loved, love. Seneca.
        Love and be loved. Benjamin Franklin.
        Would you be loved, love and be lovable. Benjamin Franklin.
        If you'd be beloved, make yourself amiable. A true friend is the best possession. Benjamin Franklin.

John Wesley's Rule. Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.
        Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can. John Wesley.
        "Look upon the bright side of all things." S. W. W. and M. S. H.
        Be generous and pleasant-tempered, and forgiving; even as God scatters favors over thee, do thou scatter over the people. Saadi.
        Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many.... Dickens.
        Esteem all things that are good. Tibullus.
A SMILE A SMILE COSTS NOTHING, but gives so much. It enriches those who receive, without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it, and none is so poor but that he cannot be made rich by it. A smile creates happiness in the home, fosters goodwill in business, and is the countersign of friendship. It brings rest to the weary, cheer to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and it is nature's best antidote for trouble. Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile; give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give. —Anon A SMILE.         Who can tell the value of a smile? It costs the giver nothing, but is beyond price to the erring and relenting, the sad and cheerless, the lost and forsaken. It disarms malice, subdues temper, turns hatred to love, revenge to kindness, and paves the darkest paths with gems of sunlight. A smile on the brow betrays a kind heart, a pleasant friend, an affectionate brother, a dutiful son, a happy husband. It adds a charm to beauty, it decorates the face of the deformed, and makes a lovely woman resemble an angel in paradise. Tryon Edwards. The Right Mental Attitude Elbert Hubbard. Whenever you go out of doors, draw the chin in, carry the crown of the head high, and fill the lungs to the utmost; drink in the sunshine; greet your friends with a smile, and put soul into every hand-clasp.
Do not fear being misunderstood; and never waste a minute thinking about your enemies. Try to fix firmly in your mind what you would like to do, and then without violence of direction you will move straight to the goal.
Keep your mind on the great and splendid things you would like to do; and then, as the days go gliding by, you will find yourself unconsciously seizing upon the opportunities that are required for the fulfilment of your desire, just as the coral insect takes from the running tide the elements it needs. Picture in your mind the able, earnest, useful person you desire to be, and the thought you hold is hourly transforming you into that particular individual.
Thought is supreme. Preserve the right mental attitude—the attitude of courage, frankness and good-cheer. To think rightly is to create.
All things come through desire, and every sincere prayer is answered. We become like that on which our hearts are fixed. Carry your chin in and the crown of your head high. We are gods in the chrysalis. * * *

        Cultivate a spirit of love. Love is the diamond amongst the jewels of the believer's breastplate. The other graces shine like the precious stones of nature, with their own peculiar lustre, and various hues; now in white all the colors are united, so in live is centred every other grace and virtue; love is the fulfilling of the law. Rev. W. H. Milburn.
        Be loving, and you will never want for love; be humble, and you will never want for guiding. Miss Mulock.
        Learn to laugh. A good laugh is better than medicine. Learn to tell a story. A well told story is as welcome as a sunbeam in a sick room. Learn to keep your troubles to yourself. The world is too busy to care for your ills and sorrows. Learn to do something for others. Even if you are a bedridden invalid there is always something that you can do to make others happier, and that is the surest way to attain happiness for yourself. Anon.
        The rule is simple: Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. Franklin.
        Look to your health; and if you have it, praise God, and value it next to a good conscience. Izaak Walton.
        Follow your honest convictions, and be strong. Thackeray.
        Sow good services; sweet remembrances will grow from them. Mme. de Staël.
        Collect as precious pearls the words of the wise and virtuous. Abd-el-Kadar.
        Obey thy parents; keep thy word justly; swear not. Shakespeare.
        Adopt the pace of Nature: her secret is patience. Emerson.
        Strive, while improving your one talent, to enrich your whole capital as a man. Bulwer-Lytton.
        Make your best thoughts into action. Mme. Necker.
        Nurture your minds with great thoughts. Beaconsfield.
        Attach thyself to truth; defend justice; rejoice in the beautiful. That which comes to thee with time, time will take away; that which is eternal will remain in thy heart. Esaias Taylor.
        Keep true to the dreams of thy youth. Schiller.
        Cherish the love of peace. Buddha.
        Treat old age with great respect and tenderness. Zoroaster.
        Be very scrupulous to observe the truth in all things. Zoroaster.
        Multiply domestic animals, nourish them, and treat them gently. Zoroaster.
        If thy heart yearns for love, be loving; if thou wouldst free mankind, be free; if thou wouldst have a brother frank to thee, be frank to him. ... Be found with thine own conscience in that circle of duties which widens ever, till it enthrones all beings and touches the throne of God. Lydia Maria Child.
        Let every dawn of morning be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close:—then let every one of these short lives leave its sure record of some kindly thing done for others—some goodly strength or knowledge gained for yourselves. J. Ruskin.
        Perform a kind action, and you find a kind feeling growing in yourself, even if it was not there before. As you increase the number of your kind and charitable interests, you find that the more you do for them, the more you love them. Serve others, not because they are your friends, not because they are interesting, not because they are grateful. . . . Serve them because they are the children of your Father, and therefore are all your brethren, and you will soon find that the fervent heart keeps time with the charitable hands. W. B. O. Peabody.
        Keep thyself, then, simple, good, pure, serious, free from affectation, a friend of justice, a worshipper of the gods, kind, affectionate, strenuous in all proper acts. Short is life. There is only one fruit of this terrene life,—a pious disposition and social acts. Marcus Aurelius.
        Tread cheerfully every day the path in which Providence leads; seek nothing, be discouraged by nothing, see duty in the present moment, trust all without reserve to the will and power of God. Fénelon.
        Ah! be quick to love, make haste to be kind! Henry Amiel.
        Live for something. Do good, and leave behind you a monument of virtue that the storms of time can never destroy. Write your name in kindness, love, and mercy on the hearts of thousands you come into contact with year after year. Good deeds will shine as the stars of heaven. Thomas Chalmers.
        Write your name in kindness, love, and mercy on the hearts of thousands you come in contact with, year by year, and you will never be forgotten. Chalmers.
        When thou wishest to give thyself delight, think of the excellencies of those who live with thee. Marcus Aurelius.

Look Up! Look up! And not down; Out! And not in; Forward! And not back; And lend a hand. Edward Everett Hale's motto for The Lend-a-Hand Society.         If the sun has gone down, look up at the stars. If the earth is dark, keep your eyes on heaven. With God's presence and God's promises, you may always be cheerful. (No Author Given) Thank God Every Morning.         "Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that day which must be done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle never know." Charles Kingsley.
        Begin with a generous heart. Think how you can serve others. They you shall find resources grow. Your own portion shall not be left desolate. Strength shall be shed through you. Do the utmost with what you have, and it shall go far enough. O. B. Frothingham.
        Cultivate a thankful spirit! It will be to thee a perpetual feast. There is, or ought to be, with us no such thing as small mercies; all are great, because the least are undeserved. Indeed a really thankful heart will extract motive for gratitude from everything, making the most even of scanty blessings. J. R. MacDuff.
        Find your niche, and fill it. If it be ever so little, if it is only to be a hewer of wood and drawer of water, do something in this great battle for God and truth. Spurgeon.
                                "With every rising of the sun
                                  Think of your life as just begun." (No Author Given)
        Give strong thought to the happy side of your life and you will establish your life on the happy side. Christian D. Larson.
        Think beautiful thoughts and your loneliness will disappear. Christian D. Larson.
        Be glad of life, because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars. Henry van Dyke.
        Make yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts. John Ruskin.
        Live only in a great To-Day, whose happy thoughts weave golden hours. Josephine Rollett Wright.
        Live on the sunny side; count everything joy; believe most thoroughly that all things are working for greater and greater good to you, and be determined to prove it in greater and greater measure. Christian D. Larson.
        Will to be happy and you will be happy. Ossian Lang.
        If you want to be happy yourself, make others happy. If you want to make others happy, be first happy yourself. There you have the whole formula. Ossian Lang.
        Live in perpetual sunshine; in fact, be sunshine; be the very spirit of joy. Christian D. Larson.
        "The secret of happiness is ‘Do a kindness to some one every day.'" (No Author Given)
        Make the attainment of continuous happiness and greater happiness a permanent part of your strongest ambition. You will soon find results. Your unhappy moments will become less and less frequent, as well as less and less significant, while your happy moments will become so numerous as to almost become one continuous moment, and the richness of your joy will increase daily to a most satisfying degree. Christian D. Larson.
        Let 'Bright, Cheerful and Happy,' be your watchword, and try to live it out. (Thought Vibration.) William Walker Atkinson.
        Make it a point to be happy no matter what comes. Christian D. Larson.
        Learn to think that everything must come out better and better if you only do your best; then proceed to do your best. Have no fear of results so long as you do your best; and believe firmly that whatever comes to him who always does his best must of necessity be good. If it does not appear to be good, it is only temporarily disguised, and will soon reveal itself to be the greatest blessing that could have been desired. No person can be unhappy who lives in this thought; and he who lives constantly in this thought will not only become happier, and thus healthier, but he will also discover that things always turn out better and better when we do our best. Christian D. Larson.
        Obey; be loyal; do your work and do it well. This is the message of Nature, and the man cannot be long unhappy who imitates Nature's examples. Newell Dwight Hillis.
        Acquire the habit of expecting success, of believing in happiness. Nothing succeeds like success; nothing makes happiness like happiness. Lilian Whiting.
        Let us sometimes live—be it only for an hour, and though we must lay all else aside—to make others smile. The sacrifice is only in appearance; no one finds more pleasure for himself than he who knows how, without ostentation, to give himself that he may procure for those around him a moment of forgetfulness and happiness. Charles Wagner.
        Anyway, look cheerful, no matter how you feel. George Hodges.
        Look steadily on the bright side of life. Cultivate the grace of a good hope. Imitate the fine optimism of him of whom it is said that he could see stars where his neighbors saw only an unbroken expanse of clouds. George Hodges.
        Write it in your heart that every day is the best day of the year. Ralph Waldo Emerson.
        Learn to give, and not to take; to drown your own hungry wants in the happiness of lending yourself to fulfil the interests of those nearest and dearest. Henry Scott Holland.
        Seek to cultivate a buoyant, joyous sense of the crowded kindnesses of God in your daily life. Alexander MacLaren.
        Strive to realize a state of inward happiness, independent of circumstances. J. P. Graves.
        If you cannot be happy in one way, be in another; this facility of disposition wants but little aid from philosophy, for health and good humour are almost the whole affair. Sharp.
        Walk cheerfully and freely in God's service. St. Teresa.
        If you would be happy, dear friends, be loving,—loving, not only in feeling, but in expression, in language, tone, manner, bearing. . . . Begin with your children, at once. Teach them, while you teach them to walk, to love and to show their love. Enjoin it on them, that no treasure life will ever bring will be so precious as the love they may cultivate for and win from each other. Teach them that riches have wings, that ambition may be defeated even for art, literature, and every other pursuit, however refined. But love is a treasure that fades not; that earthly vicissitude impairs not, but shall only strengthen. . . . Love with our nearest ones must expand into benevolence toward all men, if it is to keep sweet, and enlarge and sanctify our hearts. Joseph May.
        Guard within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness. Know how to replace in your heart, by the happiness of those you love, the happiness that may be wanting to yourself. George Sand.
        Pour fourth all the odour, colour, charm, and happiness you have to all your friends, to your home, to your daily society, to the poor and sorrowful, the joyous and the prosperous. Charm the world by love. Brighten darkened lives, soften the rude, make a sunshine of peace in stormy places, cover the faults and follies of men with the flowers of love. Stopford A. Brooke.
        Set your shoulder joyously to the world's wheel. Havelock Ellis.
        Strew human life with flowers! save every hour for the sunshine! exalt your soul! widen the sympathies of your heart! make joy real now to those you love! Richard Jeffries.
        The melody in your soul will echo the melody you have sung or spoken. Persist in the practice, speaking always in kindly tones, looking out of kindly eyes, cherishing kindly feelings, and the habit of kindliness and good cheer will become a second nature. Your face will be transfigured by the spirit's high endeavour, and the light of it will comfort and stimulate yourself and others with the power of living sunshine. "Whoever is capable of joy may learn to maintain it. Wonderful are the results of training in enjoyment." Sara Hubbard.
        Resolve to see the world on the sunny side, and you have almost won the battle of life at the outset. Anon.
        Learn to smile, get into the habit of it; learn to sing, make it also a habit; and you will be surprised how much brighter it makes the world, not only to others, but to yourself! The smile and the song lessen the burden and light up the way. Anon.
        "Let us make our lives like songs, brave, cheery, tender and true, that shall sing themselves into other lives, and so help to lighten burdens and cares." (No Author Given)
        Let us seek the grace of a cheerful heart, an even temper, sweetness, gentleness, and brightness of mind, as walking in His light, and by His grace. Let us pray to Him to give us the spirit of ever-abundant, ever-springing love, which overpowers and sweeps away the vexations of life by its own richness and strength, and which, above all things, unites us to Him who is the fountain and the centre of all mercy, loving-kindness and joy. John Henry Newman.
        Happiness is through helpfulness. Every morning let us build a booth to shelter someone from life's fierce heat. Every noon let us dig some life-spring for thirsty lips. Every night let us be foot for the hungry and shelter for the cold and naked. Newell Dwight Hillis.
        Let us be glad of the good things we see and hear and feel, and forget what may appear disagreeable. Ossian Lang.
        Do right, and God's recompense to you will be the power of doing more right. Give, and God's reward to you will be the spirit of giving more: a blessed spirit, for it is the Spirit of God himself, whose Life is the blessedness of giving. Love, and God will pay you with the capacity for more love; for love is Heaven—love is God within you. F. W. Robertson.
        Have faith in yourself and you will always be at your best; you will constantly express the best that exists in your conscious nature, and your work will be the result of your greatest capacity and highest efficiency. Christian D. Larson.

         Touch your lips with gladness and go singing on your way,
              Smiles will strangely lighten every duty;
         Just a little word of cheer may span a sky of gray
              With hope's own heaven-tinted bow of beauty.

         Wear a pleasant face wherein shall shine a joyful heart,
              As shines the sun, the happy fields adorning;
         To every care-beclouded life some ray of light impart,
              And touch your lips with gladness every morning.
                                                              Nixon Waterman.

         Follow the joy of the sunny path,
              Wherever the joy may be;
         Tell to another what gladness hath
              A smile on the way for thee.
         Keeping the right evermore in sight,
         Follow the way to truth and light.
                                Frank Walcott Hutt.

Carry sunshine with you, Brother, as you go; Cheerfulness will lighten Many a weight of woe. Angels guard the pathway Darkened by our fears, Sunshine makes a rainbow Even of our tears. Carry sunshine with you; Skies are often gray; Then how one small sunbeam Brightens all the day! Sunshine shared with others Gives a warmer glow; You'll find those who need it Everywhere you go. Carry sunshine with you, All your heart will hold; ‘Twill give light in darkness, Warmth when winds blow cold; Gloom will flee its presence; Hope will turn aside With joy and contentment In it to abide. Carry sunshine, brother; Earthly suns go down; Shadows of the gloaming Veil the glory-crown; It will cheer and comfort Through the starless night, Then be lost in morning's Glad, eternal light. —Susan E. Gammons Thought Ralph Waldo Trine Thought is the great builder in human life: it is the determining factor. Continually think thoughts that are good, and your life will show forth in goodness, and your body in health and beauty. Continually think evil thoughts, and your life will show forth in evil, and your body in weakness and repulsiveness. Think thoughts of love, and you will love and will be loved. Think thoughts of hatred, and you will hate and will be hated. Each follows its kind.

But a small thing, apparently, is a kind look, word, or service of some kind; but, oh! who can tell where it may end? It costs the giver comparatively nothing; but who can tell the priceless value of him who receives it? The cup of loving service, be it merely a cup of cold water, may grow and swell into a boundless river, refreshing and carrying life and hope in turn to numberless others, and these to others, and so have no end. This may be just the critical moment in some life. Given now, it may save or change a life or a destiny. So don't withhold the bread that's in your keeping, but

"Scatter it with willing fingers, shout for joy to see it go." There is no greater thing in life that you can do, and nothing that will bring you such rich and precious returns. Ralph Waldo Trine.
        Let this great principle of service, helpfulness, love, and self-devotion to the interests of one's fellow-men be made the fundamental principle of all lives, and see how simplified these great and all-important questions will become. Ay, they will almost solve themselves. Ralph Waldo Trine.
"Help others to help themselves." Ralph Waldo Trine.
        We should fall asleep in the most cheerful and the happiest possible frame of mind. Our minds should be filled with lofty thoughts—with thoughts of love and of helpfulness—thoughts which will continue to create that which is helpful and uplifting, which will refresh the soul and help us to awake in the morning refreshed and in superb condition for the day's work.
        If you have any difficulty in banishing unpleasantness or torturing thoughts, force yourself to read some good, inspiring book—something that will smooth out your wrinkles and put you in a happy mood; something that will make you see the real grandeur and beauty of life; something that will make you feel ashamed of petty meanness and narrow, uncharitable thoughts. Anon.
        Open your heart; open it without measure, that God and His love may enter without measure. Fénelon.
        Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful....welcome it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower, and thank Him for it, who is the fountain of all loveliness, and drink it simply and earnestly with all your eyes; it is a charmed draught, a cup of blessing. Charles Kingsley.
        "Make the best of yourself. Watch, and plant and sow. Falter not, faint not! Perhaps you cannot bear such lordly fruit, nor yet such rare, rich flowers as others; but what of that? Bear the best you can. 'Tis all God asks." S. W. W. and M. S. H.
        Find your purpose and fling your life out to it; and the loftier your purpose is, the more sure you will be to make the world richer with every enrichment of yourself. Phillips Brooks.
        Set yourself earnestly to see what you were made to do, and then set yourself earnestly to do it...and the loftier your purpose is, the more sure you will be to make the world richer with every enrichment of yourself. Phillips Brooks.
        When happy thoughts come into your mind, let the thought of God come with them; and when you go into beautiful or attractive scenes, let the reconciled Presence go with you; till at last earth is suffused with Heaven, and with the immortal morning spread upon the mountains, death is done away, and the dark valley superseded. Jeanie A. Bates Greenough.
        The best things are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweet things of life. Jeanie A. Bates Greenough.
        If you think a thing is right, never mind what the many say, stick to it. Elbert Hubbard.
        Be moderate in the use of all things, save fresh air and sunshine. Elbert Hubbard.
        Keep the ray of reason! It is your only guiding star. Elbert Hubbard.

        Love for love's sake—there is nothing better.
        It sweetens ever act of life.
        Love grows by giving.
        The love we give away is the only love we keep.
        Insight, sympathy, faith, knowledge and love are the results of love—they are the children of parents mentally mated.
        Love for love's sake. Elbert Hubbard.

        Live one day at a time, do your work as well as you can, and be kind. Elbert Hubbard.
        Perform your work with a whole heart. Elbert Hubbard.
        Live right up to your highest and best! If you have made mistakes in the past, reparation lies not in regrets, but in thankfulness that you now know better. Elbert Hubbard.

The Value Of A Smile Wilbur D. Nesbit The thing that goes the farthest toward making life worth while, That costs the least, and does the most, is just a pleasant smile. The smile that bubbles from the heart that loves its fellowmen, Will drive away the clouds of gloom and coax the sun again. Its full of worth, and goodness, too, with human kindness blent— Its worth a million dollars, and it doesn't cost a cent. There is no room for sadness where we see a cheery smile; It always has the same good look—it's never out of style— It nerves us on to try again when failure makes us blue; The dimples of encouragement are good for me and you. Its worth a million dollars, and it doesn't cost a cent. A smile comes easily enough, a twinkle in the eye Is natural—and does more good than any long-drawn sigh; It touches on the heartstrings till they quiver, blithe and long, And always leaves an echo that is very like a song— So smile away! Folks understand what by a smile is meant; It's worth a million dollars, and it doesn't cost a cent.
        Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace. Salem Town and Nelson M. Holbrook, 1856.
        Resolve to do something useful, honorable, dutiful, and do it heartily. Frelinghuysen.
        Love one another; for love is of God. 1 John iv. 7.
        And then you have to learn Humility—to put a seal upon your lips and forget what you have done. After you have been kind, after Love has stolen forth into the world and done its beautiful work, go back into the shade again and say nothing about it. Love hides even from itself. Love waives even self-satisfaction. "Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up." Henry Drummond.
        Remember, God's loving eyes are upon you, amid all little worries and vexations, watching whether you take them as He would desire. Offer up all such occasions to Him; and if sometimes you are put out, and give away to impatience, do not be discouraged, but make haste to regain your lost composure. Francis De Sales.

         "Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever,
          Do noble things, not dream them all day long.
          And so make life, love and the great forever
          One grand, sweet song. Charles Kingsley.

        Be true, be noble, aim high, and God will give you strength to keep your ideals. Mabel Hale.
        Dream, but let the dreams be of usefulness and service, of purity and truth. Look away to the mountain-heights, and, after looking, climb, climb, climb. Make your dreams come true. You can do it, if they are the right kind. God bless the girl with dreams. Mabel Hale.
         We know but little now about the conditions of the life that is to come. But what is certain is that Love must last. God, the Eternal God, is Love. Covet, therefore, that everlasting gift, that one thing which it is certain is going to stand, that one coinage which will be current in the universe when all the other coinages of all the nations of the world shall be useless and unhonored. You will give yourselves to many things; give yourself first to love. Henry Drummond.
        You find yourself refreshed by the presence of cheerful people; why not make earnest efforts to confer that pleasure on others? You will find half the battle is gained if you never allow yourself to say anything gloomy. Lydia M. Child.
        Be happy, but be so with piety. Madame De Staël.

Hurt No Living Thing Christina G. Rossetti Hurt no living thing: Lady bird, nor butterfly, Nor moth with dusty wing, Nor cricket chirping cheerily, Nor grasshopper so light to leap, Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat, Nor harmless worms that creep.

Be cheerful. Give this lonesome world a smile.
We stay at longest, but a little while. Anon.

Look for goodness, look for gladness, You will meet them all the while; If you bring a smiling visage To the glass, you meet a smile. (No Author Given) Press On Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan, "Press on," has solved and always will solve the problem of the human race. —Calvin Coolidge Descriptive Quotations O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! Katherine Lee Bates, America the Beautiful.
         God is love. 1 John iv. 8.
         The sun, which ripens the corn and fills the succulent herb with nutriment, also pencils with beauty the violet and the rose. J. C. Abbott.
        God Almighty first planted a garden; and indeed it is the purest of human pleasures: it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man. Bacon.
        What a joy is there in a good book, writ by some great master of thought, who breaks into beauty as in summer the meadow into grass and dandelions and violets, with geraniums and manifold sweetness. Theodore Parker.
        A girl who is full of smiles and sunshine is a fountain of joy to all who know her. Mabel Hale. Seasons of Life Dr. Adams         At a festival party of old and young, the question was asked: Which season of life was the most happy? After being freely discussed by the guests, it was referred for answer to the host, upon whom was the burden of four-score years. He asked if they had noticed a grove of trees before the dwelling, and said, "When the spring comes, and in the soft air the buds are breaking on the trees, and they are covered with blossoms, I think, 'How beautiful is spring!' and when summer comes and covers the trees with its heavy foliage, and singing birds are among the branches, I think, 'How beautiful is summer!' When autumn loads them with golden fruit, and their leaves bear the gorgeous tint of frost, I think, 'How beautiful is autumn!' And when it is sear winter, and there is neither foliage or fruit, then I look up, and through the leafless branches, as I could never until now, I see the stars shine through."

        A lovely countenance is the fairest of all sights, and the sweetest harmony is the sound of the voice of her whom we love. Bruyère.
        A beautiful woman is the paradise of the eyes. Fontenelle.
        The most beautiful object in the world, it may be allowed, is a beautiful woman. Macaulay.
        A beautiful and chaste woman is the perfect workmanship of God, and the true glory of angels, the rare miracle of earth, and the sole wonder of the world. Hermes.
        Inner sunshine warms not only the heart of the owner, but all who come in contact with it. J. T. Fields.
        A good laugh is sunshine in a house. Thackeray.
        Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, altogether past calculation its powers of endurance. Efforts, to be permanently useful, must be uniformly joyous,—a spirit all sunshine, graceful from very gladness, beautiful, because bright. Thomas Carlyle.
        A good conscience is the best looking-glass of heaven. Cudworth.
        Love is ever busy with his shuttle, is ever weaving into life's dull warp bright, gorgeous flowers, and scenes Arcadian. Longfellow.
        Every dewdrop and raindrop had a whole heaven within it. Longfellow.
        The dew of heaven is as much needed for the flowers as for the crops in the field. Lady Fullerton.
        Flowers are the beautiful hieroglyphics of Nature, with which she indicates how much she loves us. Goethe.
        Flowers belong to Fairyland: the flowers and birds and the butterflies are all that the world has kept of its golden age,—the only perfectly beautiful things on earth,—joyous, innocent, half divine,—useless, say they who are wiser than God. Ouida.
        Flowers, leaves, fruit, are the air-woven children of light. Moleschott.
        Flowers: Prophets of fragrance, beauty, joy, and song. Ebenezer Elliott.
        God, from a beautiful necessity, is love. Tupper.
        A cheerful temper, joined with innocence, will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful, and wit good-natured. Addison.
        Goodness: The sunshine of the mind. Bulwer-Lytton.
        Good-humor is always a success. Lavater.
        Goodness and love mould the form into their own image, and cause the joy and beauty of love to shine forth from every part of the face. Swedenborg.
        A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love. Pleasure bestowed upon a grateful mind was never sterile. Basil.
        Good deeds ring clear through heaven, like a bell. Richter.
        How goodness heightens beauty! Hannah More.
        Goodness is beauty in its best estate. Marlowe.
        The true and good resemble gold. Jacobi.
        Goodness is the only investment that never fails. Thoreau.
        All mankind are happier for having been happy; so that, if you make them happy now, you make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it. Sydney Smith.
        Health is the vital principle of bliss. Thomson.
        Health and cheerfulness mutually beget each other. Addison.
        Health and cheerfulness make beauty. Cervantes.
        A loving heart carries with it, under every parallel of latitude, the warmth and light of the tropics. It plants its Eden in the wilderness and solitary place, and sows with flowers the gray desolation of rock and mosses. Whittier.
        The heart, in the celestial sphere of love, is like the sun in its course. From the drop in the rose to the ocean, all is for him a mirror, which he fills and brightens. Richter.
        Our natural and happiest life is when we lose ourselves in the exquisite absorption of home, the delicious retirement of dependent love. Miss Mulock.
        Love is a canvas furnished by Nature, and embroidered by the imagination. Voltaire.
        Joy in this world is like a rainbow, which in the morning appears in the west, or towards the evening sky; but in the latter hours of day casts its triumphal arch over the east, or morning sky. Richter.
        Paradise is open to all kinds of hearts. Béranger.
        Kindness, the poetry of the heart. Aimé-Martin.
        Kindness gives birth to kindness, love to love. Mme. Necker.
        To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life. Dr. Johnson.
        Kind words are the music of the world. F. W. Faber.
        There is a vast deal of vital air in loving words. Landor.
        Four sweet lips, two pure souls, and one undying affection,—these are love's pretty ingredients for a kiss. Bovée.
        Eden revives in the first kiss of love. Byron.
        Kisses: The blossom of love. Ninon de Lenclos.
        Kisses are the messengers of love. Martin Optiz.
        When God formed the rose, he said, "Thou shalt flourish and spread thy perfume." When he commanded the sun to emerge from chaos, he added, "Thou shalt enlighten and warm the world." When he gave life to the lark, he enjoined upon it to soar and sing in the air. Finally, he created man and told him to love. And seeing the sun shine, perceiving the rose scattering its odors, hearing the lark warble in the air, how can man help loving? Grün.
        Love is the highest word; it is the synonyme of God. Lamartine.
        Love is the golden ladder upon which the heart mounts to heaven. Geibel.
        Love is the road to God; for love, endless love, is Himself. Sonnenberg.
        To embrace the whole creation with love sounds beautiful; but we must begin with the individual, and the nearest. Herder.
        Love is the purification of the heart from self; it strengthens and ennobles the character, gives higher motives and a nobler aim to every action of life, and makes both man and woman strong, noble, and courageous. Miss Jewsbury.
        The fountain of love is the rose and the lily, the sun and the dove. Heinrich Heine.
        Oh, how beautiful is love! Longfellow.
        A good woman is the loveliest flower that blooms under heaven; and we look with love and wonder upon its silent grace, its pure fragrance, its delicate bloom of beauty. Thackeray.
        Music is a thing of the soul, a rose-lipped shell that murmured of the eternal sea, a strange bird singing the songs of another shore. J. G. Holland.
        Music is the harmonious voice of creation, an echo of the invisible world, one note of the divine concord which the entire universe is destined one day to sound. Congreve.
        Gentleness and kindness will make our homes a paradise upon earth. Bartol.
        A good conscience is paradise. Arminius.
        The perfection of outward loveliness is the soul shinning through its crystalline covering. Jane Porter.
        Those are poets who write thoughts as fragrant as flowers, and in as many-colored words. Mme. De Krudener.
        Truth shines the brighter, clad in verse. Pope.
        Poetry is the blossom and the fragrance of all human knowledge, human thoughts, human passions, emotions, language. Coleridge.
        Politeness is a wreath of flowers that adorns the world. Mme. de Bassanville.
        The truest politeness comes in sincerity. Samuel Smiles.
        Politeness is as natural to delicate natures as perfume is to flowers. De Finod.
        True politeness is the spirit of benevolence showing itself in a refined way. It is the expression of good-will and kindness. It promotes both beauty in the man who possesses it, and happiness in those who are about him. It is a religious duty, and should be a part of religious training. Beecher.
        The genius, wit, and spirit of a nation are discovered in their proverbs. Bacon.
        Proverbs: Infinite riches in a little room. Marlowe.
        We must be purposely kind and generous, or we miss the best part of existence. The heart that goes out of itself gets large and full of joy. This is the great secret of the inner life. We do ourselves the most good doing something for others. Horace Mann.
        Every pure thought is a glimpse of God. Bartol.
        Purity of heart is the noblest inheritance, and love the fairest ornament, of woman. Matthias Claudius.
        Rainbow: Bright pledge of peace and sunshine. Henry Vaughan.
        Roses: The smiles of God's goodness. Wilberforce.
        Those who love with purity consider not the gift of the lover, but the love of the giver. Thomas à Kempis.
        A woman has two smiles that an angel might envy,—the smile that accepts a lover afore words are uttered, and the smile that lights on the first-born baby. Haliburton.
        A beautiful smile is to the female countenance what the sunbeam is to the landscape; it embellishes an inferior face, and redeems an ugly one. Lavater.
        Anything which elevates the mind is sublime. Greatness of matter, space, power, virtue or beauty, all are sublime. Ruskin.
        When the sun shines on you, you see your friends. It requires sunshine to be seen by them to advantage! Lady Blessington.
        Beautiful thoughts flit across the brain, like butterflies in the sun's rays, and are as difficult to capture. Anna Cora Mowatt.
        We should manage our thoughts as shepherds do their flowers in making a garland: first, select the choicest, and then dispose them in the most proper places, that every one may reflect a part of its color and brightness on the next. Coleridge.
        A delicate thought is a flower of the mind. Charles Rollin.
        Good thoughts are blessed guests, and should be heartily welcomed, well fed, and much sought after. Like rose leaves, they give out a sweet smell if laid up in the jay of memory. Spurgeon.
        Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever! Horace Mann.
        In heaven the trees of live ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines yield nectar. Milton.
        Truth is the source of every good to gods and men. He who expects to be blessed and fortunate in this world should be a partaker of it from the earliest moment of his life. Plato.
        The only amaranthine flower on earth is virtue; the only lasting treasure, truth. Cowper.
        The paths of virtue, though seldom those of worldly greatness, are always those of pleasantness and peace. Sir Walter Scott.
        Good sense, good health, good conscience, and good fame,—all these belong to virtue, and all prove that virtue has a title to your love. Cowper.
        Virtue is the beauty of the soul. Socrates.
        To worthiest things, virtue, art, beauty, fortune, now I see, rareness of use, not nature, value brings. Donne.
        The voice is the flower of beauty. Zeno.
        How sweetly sounds the voice of a good woman! It is so seldom heard that when it speaks, it ravishes all senses. Massinger.
        Of all pure things, purity in the acquisition of riches is the best. He who preserves purity in becoming rich is really pure, not he who is purified by water. Manu.
        Of earth's goods, the best is a good wife.... Simonides.
        All women are, in some degree, poets in imagination, angels in heart, and diplomatists in mind. Emmanuel Gonzales.
        Purity in heart is the noblest inheritance, and love the fairest ornament of woman. Matthias Claudius.
        There is on earth no greater treasure or more desirable possession for man, than a woman who truly loves him. Sainte-Foi.
        Woman is superlative; the best leader in life, the best guide in happy days, the best consoler in sorrow. Seume.
        There is a woman at the beginning of all great things. Lamartine.
        Woman: The crown of creation. Herder.
        Woman is the Sunday of man; not his repose only, but his joy; the salt of his life. Michelet.
        A woman's life is her love; she does not begin to live until she begins to love. Florence Marryat.
        Women have the genius of charity. E. W. Legouvé.
        Honor women; they strew celestial roses on the pathway of our terrestrial life. Boiste.
        She who dreams she is happy is happy. Mme. Deluzy.
        God has placed the genius of women in their hearts, because the works of this genius are always works of love. Lamartine.
        Woman: Her step is music, and her voice is song. Bailey.
        Fair words gladden so many a heart. Longfellow.
        Nothing is impossible to industry. Periander.
        Youth is life's beautiful moment. Lacordaire.

House Plants and Flowers         Home should be bright and happy; it should have everything to make it cheerful and pleasant. Flowers are decorated with all the colors of the rainbow; plants breathe, and their breath is perfume. To cultivate these is not only a pleasant pastime; they give beauty to the house and garden. Henry Davenport Northrop.
        The love of the perfect man is a universal love; a love whose object is all mankind. Confucius.
        It is not enough to know virtue; it is necessary to love it—but it is not sufficient to love it; it is necessary to possess it. Confucius.
        If a man does what is good, let him do it again; let him delight in it; happiness is the outcome of good. Buddha.
        As the bee collects nectar and departs without injuring the flower, or its color or fragrance, so let the sage dwell on earth. Buddha.
        The virtuous man delights in this world, and he delights in the next. He delights, he rejoices, when he sees the purity of his own work. Buddha.
        Let no man think lightly of good, saying in his heart, it will not benefit me. Even by the falling of water-drops a water-pot is filled; the wise man becomes full of good, even if he gathers it little by little. Buddha.
        Better than sovereignty, better than going to heaven, better than lordship over all worlds, is the reward of the first step in holiness. Buddha.
        Like a beautiful flower, full of color, but without perfume, are the fine but fruitless words of him who does not act accordingly; but like a beautiful flower, full of color and full of perfume, are the fruitful words of him who acts accordingly. Buddha.
        All good thoughts, words and actions are the productions of the celestial world. Zoroaster.
        Good-nature is the beauty of the mind, and, like personal beauty, wins almost without anything else,—sometimes, indeed, in spite of positive deficiencies. Jonas Hanway.
        I cannot but think that the world would be better and brighter if our teachers would dwell on the Duty of Happiness as well as on the Happiness of Duty; for we ought to be as cheerful as we can, if only because to be happy ourselves is a most effectual contribution to the happiness of others. Sir John Lubbock.
        Love and wisdom are never given without equivalent; everything produces after its kind; love begets love—offices of love produce offices of love—smiles, smiles—gentleness, gentleness—activity, activity. It is just so with knowledge: let us tell what we know, and we are told unto: gifts go to the giver: the rich have the most presents, so the rich in knowledge learn the most, the rich in love are the most beloved: we always receive of that which we have, so true is that enigma of Jesus, "To him that hath shall be given." Always of that which we have the most do we receive the most; and, I think, this comes from the continual flux and reflux of spirit: the air rushes to full up the vacuum, and it always takes the form of the vacuum it fills. Eliza T. Clapp.
        Good deeds are very fruitful. Out of one good action of ours, God produces a thousand; the harvest whereof is perpetual. If good deeds were utterly barren and incommodious, I would seek after them from a consciousness of their own goodness; how much more shall I now be encouraged to perform them, that they are so profitable both to myself and others! Bishop Hall.
        Love is active, sincere, affectionate, pleasant, and amiable; courageous, patient, faithful, prudent, long-suffering, manly, and never seeking itself. For in whatever instance a person seeketh himself, there he falleth from love. Thomas À Kempis.
        Every good act is Charity. Giving water to the thirsty is charity. Removing stones and thorns from the road is charity. Exhorting your fellow-men to virtuous deeds is charity. Smiling in your brother's face is charity. Putting a wanderer in the right path is charity. A man's true wealth is the good he does in this world. When he dies, mortals will ask what property has he left behind him; but angels will inquire, "What good deeds hast thou sent before thee?" Mahomet.
        Pleasant Smiles; gentle Tones; cheery Greetings; Tempers sweet under a headache, or a business care, or the children's noise; the ready bubbling over of Thoughtfulness for one another,—and habits of smiling, greeting, forbearing, thinking in these ways. It is these above all else which makes one's home "a building of God, a house not made with hands"; these that we hear in the song of "Home, Sweet Home." William C. Gannett.
        Character is made up of small duties faithfully performed,—of self-denials, of self-sacrifices, of kindly acts of love and duty. The backbone of character is laid at home; and whether the constitutional tendencies be good or bad, home influences will, as a rule, fan them into activity. . . . Kindness begets kindness, and truth and trust will bear a rich harvest of truth and trust. There are many little trivial acts of kindness which teach us more about a man's character than many vague phrases. S. Smiles.
        Every one must have felt that a cheerful friend is like a sunny day, which sheds its brightness on all around; and most of us can, if we choose, make of this world either a palace or a prison. Sir John Lubbock.
        Pleasure is very reflective, and if you give it you will feel it. The pleasure you give by kindness of manner returns to you, and often with compound interest. Sydney Smith.
        Love, amid the other graces in this world, is like a cathedral tower, which begins on the earth, and at first is surrounded by other parts of the structure. But at length, rising above buttressed wall and arch and parapet and pinnacle, it shoots spire-like many a foot high into the air, so high that the huge cross on its summit glows like a spark in the morning light, and shines like a star in the evening sky, when the rest of the pile is enveloped in darkness. So Love here is surrounded by the other graces, and divides the honors with them; but they will have felt the wrap of night and of darkness, when it will shine luminous, against the sky of eternity. Henry Ward Beecher.
        Happy is the man who has it in his soul which acts upon the dejected as April airs upon violet roots. Gifts from the hand are silver and gold, but the heart gives that which neither silver nor gold can buy. To be full of goodness, full of cheerfulness, full of sympathy, full of helpful hope, causes a man to carry blessings of which he is himself as unconscious as a lamp is of its own shining. Such an one moves on human life as stars move over dark seas to bewildered mariners; as the sun wheels, bringing all the seasons with him from the south. Henry Ward Beecher.
        Brother men, one act of charity will teach us more of the love of God than a thousand sermons. Frederick W. Robertson.
        Taking the first footstep with the good thought, the second with a good word, and the third with a good deed, I entered Paradise. Zoroaster.
        Faith at most but makes a hero, but love makes a saint; faith can but put us above the world, but love brings us under God's throne; faith can but make us sober, but love makes us happy. John Henry Newmen.
        But bright thoughts, clear deeds, constancy, fidelity, beauty, and generous honesty are the gems of noble minds. Sir Thomas Browne.
        The joy of heaven is the joy of love. The key to it is in Christ, who for the joy that was set before Him endured all. Christ's was the joy of self-sacrifice, of giving up his life to another. But this is no joy save to those who love. James Hinton. Somebody. Somebody did a golden deed; Somebody proved a friend in need; Somebody sang a beautiful song; Somebody smiled the whole day long; Somebody thought "Tis sweet to live"; Somebody said "I'm glad to give"; Somebody fought a valiant fight; Somebody lived to shield the right; Was that "somebody" you? (No Author Given) Do It Now.         I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow human being let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. Stephen Grellet. Water.         Sweet, beautiful water—brewed in the running brook, the rippling fountain and the laughing rill—in the limpid cascade, as it joyfully leaps down the side of the mountain. Brewed in yonder mountain top, whose granite peak glitters like gold bathed in the morning sun—brewed in the sparkling dewdrop; sweet, beautiful water—brewed in the crested wave of the ocean deeps, driven by the storm, breathing its terrible anthem of the God of the sea—brewed in the fleecy foam and the whitened spray as it hangs like a speck over the distant cataract—brewed in the clouds of Heaven; sweet, beautiful water! As it sings in the rain shower and dances in the hailstorm—as it comes sweeping don in feathery flakes, clothing the earth in a spotless mantle of white. Distilled in the golden tissues that paint the western sky at the setting of the sun, and the silvery tissues that vein the midnight moon—sweet, health-giving, beautiful water! Distilled in the rainbow of promise, whose warp is the raindrops of Earth, and whose woof is the sunbeam of Heaven—sweet, beautiful water. John B. Gough.
        A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity to freshen into smiles. Irving.
        How beautiful this world would be if we always saw God in it as our friend and father. If we saw immortal love in all things, how joyful would work become, how easy all our duty grow, how simplified the problems of life! That would be the coming of the kingdom of God, the reign of the Prince of Peace. J. F. Clarke.
        "For every good deed of ours, the world will be better always. And perhaps no day does a man walk down a street cheerfully, and like a child of God, without some passengers being brightened by his face, and, unknowingly to himself, catching from its look a something of religion." (No Author Given)
        The greatest gift of our Heavenly Father is love, and of all gifts it is the most common. This alone is universal, and the humblest soul, in spite of the lack of opportunity, may so live that by sheer strength of love alone it may create for itself a heaven full of the presence of God, who is the Almighty Love. (No Author Given)
        Doing good is the only certainly happy action of a man's life. Sir Philip Sidney.
        All that is good, all that is true, all that is beautiful, all that is beneficent, be it great or small, be it perfect or fragmentary, natural as well as supernatural, moral as well as material, comes from God. John Henry Newmen.
        Every rose is an autograph from the hand of the Almighty God. On this world about us He has inscribed His thought, in those marvellous hieroglyphs which sense and science have been these many thousand years seeking to understand. The universe itself is a great Autograph of the Almighty. Theodore Parker.
        Think what it is to be full of love to every creature; to be frightened at nothing, to be sure that all things will turn to good, not to mind pain, because it is our Father's will; to know that nothing could part us from God who loves us, and who fills our souls with peace and joy, because we are sure that whatever He wills is holy, just and good. George Eliot.
        The first step toward happiness is to determine to be happy. George Hodges.
        Happiness is one of the greatest things in the world, and joy is indispensable to any or every high state of attainment. Therefore, whoever can produce happiness or give entertainment is doing a work that is equal in every respect to any of the so-called great works in human life. Christian D. Larson.
        To create some little bit of beauty every day, even if it is no more than rearranging the flowers in a jar or making a habitation more bright and clean; to serve goodness every day by even the smallest act of courtesy and kindness; and every day to learn some fresh fragment of pure truth—these are lines of the necessary procedure for those who seek naturalization and growth in the Dominion of Joy. Bliss Carman.
        The most satisfactory thing in all this earthly life is to be able to serve our fellow-beings—first, those who are bound to us by ties of love, then the wider circle of fellow-townsmen, fellow-countrymen, or fellow-men. To be of service is a solid foundation for contentment in this world. Charles W. Eliot.
        Happiness, rightly understood, is the most desirable and the most important thing in life. George Hodges.
        Happy is that man who feels that God cares for him, that he journeys forward under divine convoy, that his Father is regent of universal wisdom, and represents the whole commonwealth of love, who is all Nature, and who commands all Nature to serve His child. Newell Dwight Hillis.
        Happiness is the more accommodating of all things. It will come to a cottage as soon as to a palace. You need never wait for any outward pomp to come. As the sunshine of the Almighty will shine through a simple vine as richly as upon the velvet of a king of upon the gilded dome of a temple, so happiness falls with equal sweetness upon all whose minds are at peace and in whose hearts flow the good thoughts of good sentiments of life. David Swing.
        Life is richer, love stronger, truth more beautiful, nature fairer, music sweeter, art diviner, than we have ever dreamed. Henry Wood.
        The truly happy man is the man whose habits impose upon him the thinking of higher thoughts, dreaming the noblest dreams, exulting in the deepest joys. Newell Dwight Hillis.
        Cheerfulness accompanies patience, which is one of the main conditions of happiness and success in life. Samuel Smiles.
        There are two fundamental necessities for a happy life, namely, a useful occupation for mind and body, and an outlet for unselfish affection. Henry D. Chapin.
        Pleasure is a jewel which will only retain its luster when it is in a setting of work. W. M. Strickler.
        Those who cause beauty to gladden in the world are rewarded by the afterglow of happiness in themselves, so near is dust to dream, so truly are human achievements a part of the divine. Bliss Carman.
        There should be such gladness and joy in life that all may partake of it. Lilian Whiting.
        "A sense of humor is a saving grace, and happy is that woman who has been blessed by birth with that rare sixth sense of 'seeing the funny side.' If you have it naturally, be gladly grateful, for it is a greater gift than beauty or riches. It means cheerfulness, contentment, courage and, possessing it, you are equipped with a potent weapon against the blows of fate." (No Author Given)
        We may be sure that cheerful beliefs about the unseen world, framed in full harmony with the beauty of the visible universe, and with the sweetness of domestic affections and joys, and held in company with kindred and friends, will illuminate the dark places on the pathway of earthly life and brighten all the road. Charles W. Eliot.
        Mental sunshine makes the mind grow, and perpetual happiness makes human nature a flower garden in bloom. Christian D. Larson.
        He who is virtuous is wise; and he who is wise is good; and he who is good is happy. King Alfred's Boethius.
        The grateful heart is the mainspring of happiness. Ossian Lang.
        Happiness means a few gentle drops descending upon the heart like rain and dew. Contentment is a condition of the soul within. It is but little affected by few or many things without. Newell Dwight Hillis.
        We can encourage happy thoughts in ourselves and others. Samuel Smiles.
        One's birthright is happiness. It is as freely offered as the sunshine and the air. It is a spiritual state, and not conditioned by material limits. Lilian Whiting.
        A flower by the wayside, a moonrise over the roofs of the city, a quiet sunset among the purple hills, the sudden flash of a passing glance in the street, the scent of some remembered perfume, a breath of spring wind stirring the blind at an open window, the blessing of a beggar, the sight of a masterpiece in a museum, news of an old friend, a strain of music, the skill of an acrobat, or a seasonable word—any one of these ordinary occurrences, if we be capable of appreciating it, may transport us instantly to the borders of The Dominion of Joy, invest us with a cloak of happiness, and disclose to us a momentary glimpse of immortality. Bliss Carman.
        I am always content with that which happens; for I think that what God chooses is better than what I choose. Epictetus.
        Happiness seems made to be shared. Corneille.
        Where the hand does honest and honorable work, there the heart doth sing. Newell Dwight Hillis.
        By kindness, cheerfulness, and forbearance, we can be happy almost at will, and at the same time spread happiness about us on every side. Samuel Smiles. Look ye above! The Earth is glorious with its summer wreath; The tall trees bend with verdure; and, beneath Young flowers are blushing like unwhisper'd love. John G. Whittier

Our pleasures, like honey, should be extracted not from a few stately flowers, named and classic, but from the whole multitude, great and small, which God has sown with profuse hand to smile in every nook, and to make the darkest corners warm with their glowing presence. Henry Ward Beecher.

The fields in green array'd, The cheerful sunshine warm and bright, For our joy, for our joy, Our great Creator made. Tr. From the German by J. C. D. Parker
         My heart is fixed firm and stable in the belief that ultimately the sunshine and the summer, the flowers and the azure sky, shall become, as it were, interwoven into man's existence. He shall take form all their beauty and enjoy their glory. Richard Jeffries.
        Love turns to the brightest side of things, and its face is ever directed towards happiness. It sees 'the glory in the grass, the sunshine on the flower.' It encourages happy thoughts, and lives in an atmosphere of cheerfulness. It costs nothing, and yet is invaluable; for it blesses its possessor, and grows up in abundant happiness in the bosoms of others. Samuel Smiles.
        How often and often have I blessed God for the treasures and dear comforts of His natural world! Shall I ever be grateful enough for TREES! Henry Ward Beecher.
        Those who give their days and nights to the study and practice of beauty, to the creation of loveliness in any form, are thereby naturalized in the Dominion of Joy and take on unconsciously the guise of its gladsomeness. Bliss Carman.
        Happy is the man that loves flowers! Henry Ward Beecher.
        Every sort of beauty has been lavished on our allotted home; beauties to enrapture every sense, beauties to satisfy every taste; forms the noblest and the loveliest, colors the most gorgeous and the most delicate, odors the sweetest and subtlest, harmonies the most soothing and the most stirring; the sunny glories of the day; the pale Elysian grace of moonlight, the lake, the mountain, the primrose, the forest, and the boundless ocean; ‘silent pinnacles of aged snow' in one hemisphere, the marvels of tropical luxuriance in another; the serenity of sunsets; the sublimity of storms; everything is bestowed in boundless profusion on the scene of our existence; we can conceive or desire nothing more exquisite or perfect than what is round us every hour, and our perceptions are so framed as to be consciously alive to all. (Mr. Greg, in Pleasures of Life) Sir John Lubbock.
        The amount of honey which we accumulate from the years as they pass, depends not so much upon the number of flower-gardens through which we rove, as upon our powers of extraction. Henry Wood. A thing of beauty is a joy forever; Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness.     Keats.

        In teaching patience and perseverance, also Nature teaches us a secret of happiness. Newell Dwight Hillis.
        Nature provides without stint the main requisites of human happiness. Sir John Lubbock.
        Our humble lilies of the valley and our field sparrows are wise enough to tell us of Nature's overruling care, that makes happiness possible. Newell Dwight Hillis.
        The air seems made up of happiness, the clouds, the trees, the grass, the pathless birds, land and water,—all seem to pulsate happiness, to emit it, to breathe it forth upon us; and it falls upon us as dew upon flowers. Henry Ward Beecher.
        We have the command, to a great extent, over our own lot. At all events, our mind is our own possession; we can cherish happy thoughts there. Samuel Smiles.
        The unselfish person lives in an environment of happiness, surrounded by those whom he has helped to be happy, and who in return are endeavoring to bring happiness to him. George Hodges.
        The happy person is the one who finds occasions for joy at every step. He does not have to look for them, he just finds them. Ossian Lang.
        The soul was made for joy and good cheer. Newell Dwight Hillis.
        A sound Mind and a sound Body, is a short but full description of a happy State in this World. Locke.
        Some persons are always breaking into happiness, because everything is bringing them pleasure. It comes in at the eye, and at the ear, at the portals of smell, taste, and touch, in things little and great, in shapes and colors, in contrasts and analogies, in exactitudes, and in fanciful associations; in homely life, and in wild and grand life. Henry Ward Beecher.
        "That thou art happy, owe to God; that thou continuest such, owe to thyself." (No Author Given.)
        It is true that some of the most precious joys of life come to use in quiet moments when we have no companion but a book, or a green hill, or an expanse of shining water, or the sound of meditative music or the consciousness of the divine presence. George Hodges.
        To watch the corn grow, or the blossoms set; to draw hard breath over the ploughshare or spade; to read, to think, to love, to pray, are the things that make men happy. Ruskin.
        Happiness is inward, and not outward; and so it does not depend on what we have, but on what we are. Henry van Dyke.
        Mankind are always happier for having been happy; so that if you make them happy now, you make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it. Sydney Smith.
        That which is given us for our joy is ours as long as life shall last; not passing away with the moment of enjoyment, but dwelling with us, and enriching us to the end. The memory of a past pleasure, derived from any lawful source, is a part of the pleasure itself, a vital part, which remains in our keeping as long as we recognize and cherish it. Agnes Repplier.
        There is not a moment of any day of our lives when Nature is not producing scene after scene, picture after picture, and glory after glory, and working still upon such exquisite and constant principles of the most perfect beauty, that it is quite certain it is all done for us, and intended for our perpetual pleasure. Ruskin.
        To have given pleasure to one human being is a recollection that sweetens life. Agnes Repplier.
        It is worth every man's while to study the important art of living happily. Even the poorest man may by this means extract an increased amount of joy and blessing from life. Samuel Smiles.
        Happy are those whose sweet and gentle speech fills the common life with sweetness and light. Newell Dwight Hillis.
        A good man is happy within himself, and independent upon a fortune; kind to his friend, temperate to his enemy, religiously just, indefatigably laborious; and he discharges all duties with a constancy and congruity of actions. (Seneca's Morals.) Sir Roger L'Estrange.
        Happiness is not, like a large and beautiful gem, so uncommon and rare that all search for it is vain, all efforts to obtain it hopeless; but it consists of a series of smaller and commoner gems, grouped and set together, forming a pleasing and graceful whole. Samuel Smiles.
        Do you wish always to stray further? See, good lies as near; learn only to grasp happiness, for happiness is always there. Goethe.
        The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things. Henry Ward Beecher.
        Men become the happier when they realize that Nature is their partner and co-worker in every enterprise. Newell Dwight Hillis.
        Happiness is a sunbeam which may pass though a thousand bosoms without losing a particle of its original ray. Sir P. Sidney.
        What ripeness is to the orange, what sweet song is to the lark, what culture and refinement are to the intellect, that happiness is to man. Newell Dwight Hillis.
        Our life is lived in the midst of an environment which is the appropriate setting of the jewel of great joy. George Hodges.
        A thousand daily little things make their offering of pleasure to those who know how to be pleased. Henry Ward Beecher.

                         How lovely is this world!
                         How many joys to us are giv'n,
                         Blessings fall on us all;
                         How lovely is this world!
                  Tr. from the German by J. C. D. Parker.

                         Just being happy helps other souls along;
                         Their burdens may be heavy, and they not strong;
                                  And your own sky will lighten
                                  If other skies you brighten
                         By just being happy, with a heart full of song.
                                                            Ripley D. Saunders.

        It pays to be happy. Happiness is not a luxury, but a necessity. The beneficial effect of mental sunshine on life, ability, strength, vitality, endurance, is most pronounced. Christian D. Larson.
        It is the sum of the small daily pleasures that are taken and enjoyed as they come, that constitute the bulk of the happiness of life. Henry D. Chapin.
        Virtue is said necesarily to prduce its own happiness, and to be constantly and adequately its own reward. John Hawksworth.
        Cheerfulness depends not on our past acts, but on our wholesome view of life, and we get this by learning to understand it and to understand ourselves. H. E. Rives.
        Personal happiness comes, not by seeking it specifically, but by seeking that nobler quality of living that produces it as a result. Lilian Whiting.
        Happiness consists in the enjoyment of little pleasures scattered along the common path of life, which in the eager search for some great and exciting joy, we are apt to overlook. It finds delight in the performance of common duties, faithfully and honorably discharged. Samuel Smiles.
        Happiness comes from within, and outward circumstances have but little power over it. John Burroughs.
        The foundation of abiding happiness is one's chosen life work. Newell Dwight Hillis.
        We ought to be as cheerful as we can, if only because to be happy ourselves is a most effectual contribution to the happiness of others. Sir John Lubbock.
        "Kindness brings happiness." (No Author Given)
        Happiness comes to us not as a reward of merit, but as a proof of worth. It is not a recompense for abnegation, but a natural satisfaction in normal life, an incalculable result of real deserving. Bliss Carman.
        The cheerful man makes a cheerful world. Samuel Smiles.

                                         True happiness (if understood)
                                         Consists alone in doing good.
                                                                   Somerville.

        Happiness is a very beautiful thing,—the most beautiful and heavenly thing in the world,—but it is a result, a spiritual condition, and is not predetermined by a bank account or by the flattering incense of praise. Lilian Whiting.
        The true basis of cheerfulness is love, hope, and patience. Samuel Smiles.
        Now, happiness produces happiness. Enjoyment may be cultivated, and is, after all, largely a condition of habit. Precisely the same circumstances will yield delight to one and discontent to another, and no process of culture is so admirable as that which fosters the habitual mood of sunny enjoyment. Lilian Whiting.
        To live, we must conquer incessantly, we must have the courage to be happy. Amiel.
        We want moving knowledge to enable us to enjoy life, and we require to cultivate the art of making the most of the common means and appliances of enjoyment which lie about us on every side. Samuel Smiles.
        The best way to secure future happiness is to be as happy as is rightfully possible to-day. Charles William Eliot.
        Who that has truly tasted and fathomed human love in its dawning and crowning joys has not thanked God for a felicity which indeed "passeth understanding." Sir John Lubbock.
        To be thoroughly and abidingly happy is not only to get what we all instinctively desire, but to fulfil the purpose of our nature. George Hodges.
        Diamonds of shining joy lie glittering in every common highway, but most of the passers-by only stub their toes against them. George Hodges.
        Mental sunshine not only attracts the best from without, but it also cause the best to grow from within. We all prefer the sunshine, and we are naturally attracted wherever a sunbeam is in evidence. Christian D. Larson.
        If we opened our minds to enjoyment, we might find tranquil pleasures spread about us on every side. We might live with the angels that visit us on every sunbeam, and sit with the fairies who wait on every flower. Samuel Smiles.
        It is a matter of economy to be happy, to view life and all its conditions from the brightest angle. It enables one to seize life at its best. Horatio W. Dresser.
        If you feel cheerful and happy, it is very natural for you to laugh. And if you will laugh a little, you will begin to feel bright and cheerful. (Thought Vibration.) William Walker Atkinson.
        Probably the most lasting source of happiness is found in unselfish love. This keeps alive a constant interest in those who are the objects of affection, which, in turn, is naturally reflected into the relations of life. Henry D. Chapin.
        A serene face helps to make a serene soul; a smile on the lips induces a smile in the heart. George Hodges.
        A cultivated sense of humor directly adds to the happiness of life. Henry D. Chapin.
        The Dominion of Joy is as wide as the universe in which we dwell. Wherever the foot may tread and the soul subsist, there its beneficent power may extend. Its terminus is no nearer than the outmost star that glimmers within the sweep of vision. Bliss Carman.
        Cheerfulness is an excellent wearing quality. It has been called the bright weather of the heart. It gives harmony of soul, and is a perpetual song without words. Samuel Smiles.
        Pleasure, like all other truly precious things in this world, cannot be bought or sold. If you wish to be amused, you must do your part toward it; that is the essential. Charles Wagner.
        Happiness depends on helpfulness as health depends on air and food—because we are made that way. George Hodges.
        Our happiness as human beings, generally speaking, will be found to be very much in proportion to the number of things we love, and the number of things that love us. Samuel Smiles.
        To believe and go forward is the key to success and to happiness. Lilian Whiting.
        He who has done the best he can, has a right to be as happy in the hope of ultimate triumph as though he was already enthroned amidst that triumph. Newell Dwight Hillis.
        The very essence of happiness is honesty, sincerity, truthfulness. He who would have real happiness for his companion must be clean, straightforward, and sincere. The moment he departs from the right she will take wings and fly away. Orison Swett Marden.
        They who bring sunshine to the hearts of others cannot keep it from themselves. J. M. Barrie.
        The happiness that is earned lasts to make way for more happiness. David Starr Jordan.
        It is a great thing to cultivate the art of happiness, that we can get pleasure out of the common experiences of every day. Orison Swett Marden.
        Grant that these autumn days may be our harvest season; that our lives may reap the fruitage of a well-spent year. Let us be happy with the joy of the flaming hillsides, with the glory of the Indian summer, with the ecstasy of the ripening grain; happy in the harvest of our high hopes, in the garner of sweet memories, in the ripening of true friendships, in the reaping of bounteous blessings of the buoyant spring and brimming summer; happy in the knowledge of some little kindness done, some great good gained; happy in our new strength, our surer hope, our wider lives and loftier vision. Let these be our jubilant days, the days of our rejoicing. Edwin Osgood Grover.
        If our hearts do but keep fresh, we may still love those who are gone, and may still find happiness in loving them. Julius C. Hare.
        Happiness is the result of selection. Just as the farmers of Iowa have doubled their crop of corn by a scientific selection of seed, so human souls increase the sum of happiness, by a wise selection of thoughts. Good thoughts are the good seed of the soul. No man can be happy who is careless of his thinking. Much of life's misery would be eliminated at once if we would only think God's thoughts in God's way. God never doubts. He sees all truth and knows it to be such. The soul that accepts His revelations without reservation has unlocked the treasure house of happiness. D. C. Knowles.
        The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. Marcus Aurelius.
        Little kindnesses, pleasant words, little helps by the way, trifling courtesies, little encouragements, duties faithfully done, unselfish service, work that we enjoy, friendships, love and affection—all these are simple things, yet they are what constitute happiness. Orison Swett Marden.
        Joys shared with others are more enjoyed. Anon.
        Faith, hope and love are purifiers of the blood. They have a peptic quality. They open and enlarge all the channels of bodily vitality. As was learned long ago, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." And the self-control which keeps reason on the throne and makes passion serve is the best of all domestic physicians. Charles G. Ames.
       Happiness, like virtue, is acquired by practice. Anon.
       The true Christian joy can sing, or be silent, at all seasons. It is weatherproof. The storms cannot quench its fire. The summer heat cannot wilt its blossoms. It takes pleasure in the little things which please the child and loses itself in the wonder of God's sustaining presence. It can sing for lightness of heart in summer days and take courage to go on amid the wreck of all its hopes. To be lord of such a joy is surely a divine ideal for man and worth a lifetime's trouble. Anon.
        The Christian's song of gladness is a psalm of gratitude, the echoes of which may be heard from every object around him. He sympathizes with all the innocent joy on the earth; but he remembers that all this joy has a source, and he looks beyond earth and earthly things. He regards his happiness as given; and he is grateful, and seeks to impart of his abundance, and make others happy and cheerful and grateful. Greenwood.
        The greatest happiness comes from the greatest activity. Bovée.
        Happiness is a glory shining far down upon us, out of heaven. It is a divine dew which the soul, on certain of its summer evenings, feels dropping upon it from the amaranth bloom and golden fruitage of Paradise. Charlotte Bronte.
        Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles, and kindness and small obligations, given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart and secure comfort. Sir H. Davy.
        The grand essentials to happiness in this life are, something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. Anon.
        Our faces ought to reflect back the sunshine of heaven, and the joyful tones of our voices to seem the echo of its hallelujahs. F. P. Cobb.
        He is happy who knows his good fortune. Chinese Proverb.
        The more we limit and concentrate happiness, the more certain we are of securing it. Deverant.
        Those who have the most of happiness think the least about it. But in thinking about and in doing their duty happiness comes—because the heart and mind are occupied with earnest thought that touches at a thousand points the beautiful and sublime realities of the universe. Thackeray.
        To be of use in the world is the only way to be happy. Hans Andersen.
        The infallible receipt for happiness is to do good. Henry Drummond.
        Surely happiness is reflective, like the light of heaven; and every countenance bright with smiles, and glowing with innocent enjoyment, is a mirror transmitting to others the rays of a supreme and ever-shining benevolence. Washington Irving.
        The happy people are those who have work which they love, and a hobby of a totally different kind which they love even better. Arthur C. Benson.
        No one can smile genuinely, brightly, lovably, who does not possess inward joy. Anon.
        The world delights in sunny people. The old are hungering for love more than for bread. The air of joy is very cheap; and if you can help the poor on with a garment of praise it will be better for them than blankets. Henry Durmmond.
        Happiness seems made to be shared with others. Racine.
        There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behaviour, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us. Emerson.
        The sweetest and happiest homes—homes to which men in weary life look back with yearnings too deep for tears; homes whose recollections linger round our manhood like light and the sunshine and the sweet air, into which no base things can intrude—are homes where brethren dwell together in unity; where, because all love God, all love their brothers also; where, because all are very dear to all, each is dearer to each than to himself. Canon Farrar.
        Happy is he that serveth the happy. English Proverb.
        The perfect loveliness of a woman's countenance can only consist in that majestic peace which is founded in the memory of happy and useful years, full of sweet records; and from the joining of this with that more majestic childishness, which is still full of change and promise—opening always—modest at once, and bright, with the hope of better things to be won, and to be bestowed. There is no old age when there is still that promise. Ruskin.
        Mankind is always happier for having been happy; so that if you make them happy now, you make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it. Sydney Smith.
        He is truly happy who makes others happy. From the Cingalese.
        Happiness lies, first of all, in health. George William Curtis.
        Happiness is no other than soundness and perfection of mind. Antoninus.
        It is a matter of economy to be happy, to view life and all its conditions from the brightest angle; it enables one to seize life at its very best. It expands the soul. H. W. Dresser.
        Happiness belongs to those who are contented. Aristotle.
        You have a right to be happy. Benjamin Keech.
        Happiness has no limits, because God has neither bottom nor bounds, and because happiness is nothing but the conquest of God through love. Henri Frédéric Amiel.

         Just being happy
          Is a fine thing to do;
         Looking on the bright side
          Rather than the blue;
         Sad or sunny musing
         Is largely in the choosing,
          By just being happy
         Is brave work and true.

         Just being happy
          Helps other souls along;
         Their burdens my be heavy;
          And they are not strong;
         And your own sky will lighten
         If other skies you brighten
          By just being happy
         When a heart is full of song!
                                           Anon.

        Happy is he that is happy in his children. English Proverb.
        There is only one thing greater than happiness in the world, and that is holiness. Henry Drummond.
        Enjoying each other's good is heaven begun. Lucy C. Smith.
        The only happiness a brave man ever troubled himself with asking about, was, happiness enough to get his work done. Carlyle.
        Our happiness in this world depends on the affections we are enabled to inspire. Duchesse De Praslin.
        Happy men shall have many friends. English Proverb.
        No life is successful until it is radiant. Lilian Whiting.
        One sure way to get into heaven, for a day at least, is to do a kind act to someone who does not like you. M. M. Pomeroy.
        If you wish to know whether you are a Christian inquire of yourself whether, in and for the love of God, you seek to make happy those about you by smiles and pleasant sayings. Are you a comfortable person to live with? Are you pleasant to have about? Gail Hamilton.
        Nature indeed provides without stint the main requisites of human happiness. "To watch the corn grow, or the blossoms set; to draw hard breath over ploughshare or spade; to read, to think, to love, to pray," these, says Ruskin, "are the things that make men happy." Sir John Lubbock.
        The happiest life is that which constantly exercises and educates what is best in us. Hamerton.
        There is no happiness in having and getting, but only in giving—half the world is on the wrong scent in the pursuit of happiness. Henry Drummond.
        God will reward a thankful spirit. Just as on earth, when a man receives with gratitude what is given we are more disposed to give again, so also, "the Lord loveth" a cheerful "receiver," as well as a cheerful "giver." Anon.
        Happiness, Heaven itself, is nothing else but a perfect conformity, a cheerful and eternal compliance of all the powers of the soul with the will of God. Samuel Shaw.
        Happiness is a wayside flower, free to all who will pluck it, not a rare orchid only to be purchased by the rich. There is a bit of joy in every floating, fleecy cloud, every golden sunset tint in each day's evening sky. There is music in the free winds of heaven if hearts are a-tune to catch the harmony. And, best of all, there is the thought of our Father's approving smile, that sunlight of His presence so sweet, so invigorating, so marvellous that we may learn to rejoice even "under the shadow." M. G. Woodhull.
        That action is best which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers. Hatcherson.
        A happy life is never quite a spontaneous growth. As a lily from a bulb need cultivation, the flower of happiness must have some form of gardening to bring it to perfection. Beatrice Whitby.
        The happiest thing that can befall us is to have work given us that requires us to be true to ourselves, and that will count in large benefits to others. There is little pleasure in a daily routine of toil which could be just as well performed by anybody else; but there is abundant happiness in taking up tasks for which we have prepared ourselves, and which would perhaps never be as well done by another. In other words, it is a great privilege to find our own work and to get leave to do it. Lucy Larcom.
        The habit of viewing things cheerfully, and thinking about life hopefully, may be made to grow up in us like any other habit. Anon.
        Happy he who can live in peace. French Proverb.
        Let it be our happiness this day to add to the happiness of those around us, to comfort some sorrow, to relieve some want, to add some strength to our neighbours' virtue. William Ellery Channing.
        It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness. Charles H. Spurgeon.
        All godlike things are joyous. They have touched God. F. W. Faber.
        Happiness is the natural flower of duty. Phillips Brooks.

        That beauty-loving, beauty-making power whom we call God, and whom Jesus taught us to call Father, will never fail. It is the sadness that is passing; the eternal verity is joy. For God is the eternal foundation, and he is the All-father, loving all his creatures.
                "And I smiled to think God's goodness flowed around our incompleteness,
                 Round our restlessness His rest." Mary Emily Case.

        The only way to get the happiness that is worth while is to life a straight, clean, pure, honest, useful life. Orison Swett Marden.
        Happiness does away with ugliness, and even makes the beauty of beauty. The man who doubts it, can never have watched the first gleams of tenderness dawning in the clear eyes of one who loves;—sunrise itself is a lesser marvel. In Paradise, then, everybody will be beautiful. Henri Frederic Amiel.
        To make some nook of God's creation a little fruitfuller,—to make some human heart a little wiser, manfuller, happier—it is work for a God. Carlyle.
        Happiness which comes unexpectedly will be the more welcome. Horace.
        God bless the good-natured, for they bless everybody else. Anon.
        He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his own home. Goethe.
        He who works for the good of the world holds the key to Happiness. Annie Rogers Noyes.
        Great effort from great motives is the best definition of a happy life. William Ellery Channing.
        Is not making others happy the best happiness? To illuminate for an instant the depths of a deep soul, to cheer those who bear by sympathy the burden of so many sorrow-laden hearts and suffering lives, is to me a blessing and a precious privilege. There is a sort of religious joy in helping to renew the strength and courage of noble minds. We are surprised to find ourselves the possessors of a power of which we are not worthy, and we long to exercise it purely and seriously. Henri Frederic Amiel.
        Happiness comes from the normal exercise of life's functions in any grade, doing, thinking, fighting, overcoming, planning, loving. It is active, positive, strengthening. It does not burn out as it glows. Happiness leaves room for more happiness. . . . Loving brings happiness only as it works itself out into living action. The love that would end in no helping act and no purpose or responsibility is a mere torture of the mind. David Starr Jordan.
        Only when the song of God's love is singing in our hearts are we ready for the day. J. R. Miller.
        What God has put into our power is the happiness of those about us, and that is largely to be secured by our being kind to them. Henry Drummond.
        It is a plain duty to make other glad. Christianity is the greatest joy-bringer the world has ever known, and those persons are not true to Christianity who do not daily bring gladness and joy into the lives of those around them. We are not to dictate to others; we are to seek to brighten their lives. "Not that we have lordship over your faith," wrote Paul, "but are helpers of your joy." What a heroic light-bearer the loving-hearted apostle was! Not a bit more so, however, than we can all be if we are willing to devote ourselves to lightening the loads, and brightening the lives of those near us. To keep our sorrows to ourselves in this effort is to find sure comfort for ourselves while we are making life joyful for others. Anon.
        Straightforward, honest work, a determined endeavour to do one's best, an earnest desire to scatter flowers instead of thorns, to make other people a little better off, a little happier because of our existence, these are the only recipes for real happiness. Orison Swett Marden.
        When man and wife are both given to thinking of each other's comfort and happiness, there is never any trouble in bringing up a houseful of children without discord, whereas one child is too many for an exacting wife or a domineering husband to bring up successfully. Anon.
        Happiness grows at our own fireside and is not to be picked in strangers' gardens. Douglas Jerrold.
        Home ought to be a little heaven on earth. It can be. It was meant to be. Anon.
        To be happy is properly the beginning of all schemes for making happy. Sarah W. Stephen.
        It ought to be the deliberate custom in every home to make the evening just as pleasant as possible, and to see to it that no member of the family retires in an unhappy mood. An evening happiness bath, a bath of love and good will toward every living creature, is more important than a water bath. Anon.
        No matter what comes, we should sing and be thankful, and should always keep sweet. J. R. Miller.
        The rewards of great living are not external things, withheld until the crowning hour of success arrives; they come by the way—in the consciousness of growing power and worth, of duties nobly met, and work thoroughly done. Joy and peace are by the way. Hamilton Wright Mabie.
        Summer brings to some of us a delightful sense of irresponsibility; but the veriest idler has a vacation if he consecrates the heritage of happiness he gets from the summer to making other people happy. Mr. J. M. Barrie has a little heroine in one of his short stories who gives to a certain beggar our of the largeness of her own happiness, and who goes out of her way when she is very happy to hear a coin jingle in his cup. Pleasure can never make anybody selfish when out of it springs this impulse to fill somebody's elses cup of happiness. We pass this way but once, and so many opportunities to gladden and brighten other people's lives disappear with the summer; it is only the little kindnesses that one can do that really abide; it is only the people one associates with some little kindness that one is sure to recall in one retrospect of a summer. Anon.
        Genuine happiness is a delicate perfume of a holy life. The sanctified soul exhales happiness as the flowers emit sweet odours. Heaven is a tropical garden of conscious spirits, and its atmosphere is laden with happiness as the normal product of their purity. D. C. Knowles.
        "One of the things that I am thankful for every day that I live is for my share in the world's work," said a wise and busy woman. "I am thankful that my hands are full." the blessing of the full hands and the full days is one that we sometimes fail to appreciate until illness or some misfortune forces us to stand aside for a time while the eager, useful procession passes by without us. A vital part of the world we live in, a head and a hand for its work, a heart for its needs, its joys, its burdens, and faith for its outlook—these are the best gifts that can be ours for healthful and happy days. Anon.
        Happy and strong and brave shall we be—able to endure all things, and to do all things—if we believe that every day, every hour, every moment of our life is in His hands. Anon.
        Happiness is everywhere, and its spring is in our own hearts. Ruskin.
        To take and to live always in the attitude of mind that compels gladness, looking for and thus drawing to us continually the best in all people and all things, being thereby the creators of our own good fortunes. Ralph Waldo Trine.
        Each of us has the power of making happier, sunnier, the little spot wherein our daily life is spent. Archbishop of Canterbury.
        As we look at the best things, loving and following them, power enters into us from them—a power not our own, but give to our use. It has been found in even the primary schools that a "gem" of lovely verse taught to a little child keeps that child from temptation and unhappiness in a most surprising way. "I said my gem over, and everything went right," said one boy to his teacher after an experience of injustice. Priscilla Leonard.
        Happiness, content, and right satisfaction, all doubts answered, all dark places lighted up, heaven begun here—this is the reward of loving God. In this world, tribulation; yes, but good cheer in spite of that. George Hodges.
        True beauty must come, must be grown, from within. Ralph Waldo Trine.
        Love's secret is to be always doing things for God, and not to mind because they are such very little ones. F. W. Faber.
        The only way to make our life continuously beautiful, and to keep it ever sweet with love, is to insist on judging ourselves day by day. J. R. Miller.
Loving itself blesses us. It opens our heart and enriches our life. It teaches us the true meaning of life; for to live truly is to love. J. R. Miller.
        Love is more than a mere sentiment; it is also a life. The proof of it must be in acts. J. R. Miller.
        Every fragment of loveliness we see in a human life is a heavenly vision sent to woo us upward. Wherever we see beauty which attracts us, and kindles in us desires and aspirations for higher attainments, it is a vision from God, whose mission is to call us to a higher life. We should make sure that we do not prove disobedient to any heavenly vision, but that we follow every one as an angel sent from heaven to woo us nearer God. J. R. Miller.
        There is a power for good in everything; in everything something may be found that has true value and real worth; something that can add value to the welfare of man; but this something is found, not on the surface, but with the soul of things. It is therefore necessary to enter into perfect touch with the inner life of everything to secure the best from everything; and this is possible only through faith. Christian D. Larson.
        Fields, forests, mountains, smiling valleys, and sunny seas are not more full of creatures than of happiness; and from the deep bass of ocean to the ringing carol of the lark, Nature forms one choir and chants her hymns to Him. Dr. Gurthrie.

The Joy of Life How beautiful it is to be alive! To wake, each morn, as if the Maker's grace Did us afresh from nothingness derive, That we might sing, "How happy is our case! How beautiful it is to be alive!" To read in some good book, until we feel Love for the one who wrote it; then to kneel Close unto Him whose love our soul doth shrive; While every moment's joy doth more reveal How beautiful it is to be alive. Thus ever towards man's height of nobleness Striving some new progression to contrive,— Till, just as any other friend's, we press Death's hand; and, having died, feel none the less How beautiful it is to be alive. —Henry Septimus Sutton.

        Happiness is reflective like the light of Heaven: and every countenance bright with smiles, and glowing with innocent enjoyment, is a mirror transmitting to others the rays of a supreme and ever shining benevolence. Irving.
        True glory consists in so living as to make the world happier and better for our living. Pliny.
        "There never was a day that did not bring its opportunity for doing good that never could have been done before and never can be again. It must be improved then or never." S. W. W. and M. S. H.
        Each of us is bound to make the little circle in which he lives better and happier; each of us is bound to see that out of that small circle the widest good may flow; ... That out of a single household may flow influences which shall stimulate the whole commonwealth and the whole civilized world. Dean Stanley.
        How beautiful this world would be if we always saw God in it as our friend and father. If we saw immortal love in all things, how joyful would work become, how easy all our duty grow, how simplified the problems of life! That would be the coming of the kingdom of God, the reign of the Prince of Peace. J. F. Clarke.
        "We dream of doing great things, when we have need only to be content with doing little things close at hand." S. W. W. and M. S. H.
        "For every good deed of ours, the world will be better always. And perhaps no day does a man walk down a street cheerfully, and like a child of God, without some passengers being brightened by his face, and, unknowingly to himself, catching from its look a something of religion." S. W. W. and M. S. H.
        The Infinite Goodness is not far off, but near us; ...the evening shade, the guarded sleep, the morning resurrection, every bounty that falls from heaven, every bounty that spring from earth, every loving heart that blesses us, every sacred example that wins us, all these are the revelation, the manifested love of the One, all-holy, all-perfect, whom to know is life. Dr. Dewey.
        It is well to think well. It is divine to act well. Horace Mann.
        The greatest gift of our Heavenly Father is love, and of all gifts it is the most common. This alone is universal, and the humblest soul, in spite of the lack of opportunity, may so live that by sheer strength of love alone it may create for itself a heaven full of the presence of God, who is the Almighty Love.
S. W. W. and M. S. H.
        There cannot be a more glorious object in creation, than a human being, replete with benevolence, meditating in what manner he might render himself most acceptable to his Creator, by doing most good to His creatures. Fielding.
        You must love, in order to understand love. One act of charity will teach us more of the love of God than a thousand sermons. One act of unselfishness, of real self-denial, will tell us more of the meaning of the Epiphany than whole volumes of theology. F. W. Robertson.
        Beautiful is the activity which works for good, and beautiful the stillness which waits for good: blessed the self-sacrifice of the one, and blessed the self-forgetfulness of the other. Robert Collyer.
        Doing nothing for others is the undoing of one's self. We must be purposely kind and generous, or we miss the best part of existence. The heart that goes out of itself gets large and full of joy. This is the great secret of inner life. We do ourselves the most good doing something for others. Horace Mann.
        There are glimpses of Heaven granted to us by every act, or thought, or word, which raises us above ourselves—which makes us think less of ourselves and more of others, which has taught us of something higher and truer than we have in our own hearts. Dean Stanley.
        Loving God is but letting God love us,—giving welcome, that is, to God's love, knowing and believing the love God hath for us.... Horace Bushnell.
        The measure of the love of God is to love without measure. Saint Francis de Sales, 1567-1622.
        Happiness is the only possible good, and all that tends to the happiness of man is right, and is of value. All that tends to develop the bodies and minds of men; all that gives us better houses, better clothes, better food, better pictures, grander music, better heads, better hearts; all that renders us more intellectual and more loving, nearer just; that makes us better husbands and wives, better children, better citizens—all these things combined produce what I call Progress. Robert Ingersoll.
        We must breathe more, laugh more and love more. Elbert Hubbard.
        Paths of kindness are paved with happiness. Elbert Hubbard.
        Love for its own sake, with honesty and truth for counsel and guide, is the highest good. It is the supreme endowment of God. And under these conditions he who loves most is most blessed. Elbert Hubbard.
        True life lies in laughter, love and work. Elbert Hubbard.
        The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today; the best preparation for life is the hereafter is to live now. Elbert Hubbard.
        Success is the result of mental attitude, and the right mental attitude will bring success in everything you undertake. Elbert Hubbard.
        He who imparts cheerfulness is adding to the wealth of the world. Elbert Hubbard.
        Love is all. I say to you that man has not sufficient imagination to exaggerate the importance of love. Elbert Hubbard.
        To benefit others you must be reasonably happy: there must be animation through useful activity, good-cheer, kindness and health—health of mind and health of body. Elbert Hubbard.
        Cheeriness is a thing to be more profoundly grateful for than all that genius ever inspired or talent ever accomplished. Next best to natural, spontaneous cheeriness is deliberate, intended and persistent cheeriness, which we can create, can cultivate, and can so foster and cherish that after a few years the world will never suspect that it was not a hereditary gift. Helen Hunt Jackson.
        The best way to secure a happy home is to be happy yourself. One really happy person is enough to create a delightful, pervasive atmosphere of happiness. To have a happy home, set the example of self-sacrifice, love, service, of ministering rather than expecting to be ministered unto—and see what comes of it! The Congregationalist.
        There are persons so radiant, so genial, so kind, so pleasure-bearing, that you instinctively feel in their presence that they do you good, whose coming into a room is like bringing a lamp there. Henry Ward Beecher.
        Mirth is God's medicine. Everybody ought to bathe in it. ... Blessed is he who has a sense of the humorous. He has that which is worth more than money. Henry Ward Beecher.
        The best fence against care is a ha! ha! Wherefore take care to have one all round you wherever you can. Tom Hood.
        Pleasure comes of its own accord in the right way of life, and the simplest, the cheapest, and the most inevitable pleasures are the best. Carl Hilty.
        If we look out for our duties, pleasures like flowers will grow up around our feet. Thomas K. Beecher.
        Have you ever had your day suddenly turn sunshiny because of a cheerful word? Have you ever wondered if this could be the same world, because someone had been unexpectedly kind to you? You can make to-day the same for somebody. It is only a question of a little imagination, a little time and trouble. Think now, "What can I do to-day to make someone happy?" Maltbie D. Babcock.
        There is only one way to be happy and that is to make somebody else so. ... When you rise in the morning form a resolution to make the day a happy one to a fellow-creature. Sidney Smith.
        If each one of us can say: "I am going to make at least part of my purpose in living to make this world a little better and happier place for others, to bring all the joy I can into others' lives who need it much, to sympathize with some one outside my own social circle, and try and enter into his life a little, and try to see if I cannot, by friendly interest, help this man I have shunned"; if each one of us can say that, he has got the exact point of this beautiful story [of Jesus and Zaccheus]. Frederick Lynch.
        As jewels are treasured in the casket, to be brought forth on great occasions, so should we preserve the remembrance of our joys, and keep them for seasons when special consolations are wanted to cheer the soul. James Kirkpatrick.
        Every good thought, word, or deed is a movement heavenward.... Rev. Everett S. Stackpole, D.D.
        Flowers are the alphabet of angels, whereby they write on the hills and fields mysterious truths. Benjamin Franklin.
        There is in man a higher than love of happiness; he can do without happiness, and instead thereof find blessedness! Thomas Carlyle.
        If we love God, the reward promised us is nothing less than the sight of God Himself, face to face; not transiently, not as a glorious flash of light, but an abiding vision, a glory and a gladness, a marvelous rapture of the will, forevermore. Think how such a reward transcends all the expectations, all the possibilities even, of our nature! How God must love us, and how, too, He must love our love, to have prepared for us such joys as these, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor man's heart conceived! F. W. Fuller.
        Joy is a prize unbought, and is freest, purest in its flow, when it comes unsought. No getting into Heaven, as a place, will compass it. You must carry it with you, else it is not there. You must have it in you, as the music of a well-ordered soul, the fire of a holy purpose, the welling up out of the central depths of eternal springs that hide the waters there. Horace Bushnell.
        Loving God is but letting God love us,—giving welcome, that is, to God's love, knowing and believing the love God hath for us.... Horace Bushnell.
        Of all mortal joys, the joy of action is the most intense; indeed, there is no other joy. And the higher the action, the intenser the joy. Life is blessedness. The life of the lower nature we call pleasure,—the blessedness of the bird and the butterfly. The life of the social nature we call happiness,—the blessedness of the fortunate and the successful. The life of the spiritual nature,—activity in usefulness, care, duty,—we call joy. O. B. Frothingham.
        If you trust in God and yourself, you can surmount every obstacle. Prince Bismarck.
        Love, faith, and obedience are sides of the same prism. George MacDonald.

For the earth and all its beauty, The sky and all its light,— For the dim and soothing shadows That rest the dazzled sight,— For unfading fields and prairies Where sense in vain has trod,— For Thy world's exhaustless beauty I thank Thee, O my God. —Lucy Larcom.
         On no country have the charms of nature been more prodigally lavished, than upon America. Behold her mighty lakes, like oceans of liquid silver; her mountains, bright with aerial tints; her valleys, teeming with fertility; her tremendous cataracts, thundering in their solitudes; her boundless plains, waving with spontaneous verdure; her broad, deep rivers, rolling in sullen silence to the ocean; her trackless forests, where vegetation puts forth all its magnificence; and her skies, kindling with the magic of summer clouds and glorious sunshine! Salem Town and Nelson M. Holbrook, 1856.
        There is nothing purer than honesty; nothing sweeter than charity; nothing warmer than love; nothing richer than wisdom; nothing brighter than virtue; nothing more steadfast than faith. Salem Town and Nelson M. Holbrook, 1856.
        A good moral character, and a sound education, with habits of industry, qualify men for eminent usefulness. Salem Town and Nelson M. Holbrook, 1856.
        The splendor of the firmament, the verdure of the earth, the fragrance of the flowers, and the music of the birds, conspire to elevate the affections, and captivate the heart. Salem Town and Nelson M. Holbrook, 1856.
        Beauty is like the flower of spring; virtue is like the stars of heaven. Salem Town and Nelson M. Holbrook, 1856.

          My Country.—Anon. [Corrected]
    I love my country's pine-clad hills,
    Her thousand bright and gushing rills,
         Her sunshine and her storms;
    Her rough and rugged rocks that rear
    Their hoary heads high in the air,
         In wild, fantastic forms.

    I love her rivers deep and wide,
    Those mighty streams that seaward glide,
         To seek the ocean's breast;
    Her smiling fields, her pleasant vales,
    Her shady dells, her flowery dales,—
         Abodes of peaceful rest.

    I love her forests, dark and lone,
    For there the wild bird's merry tone
         I hear from morn till night;
    And lovelier flowers are there, I ween,
    Than e'er in Eastern lands were seen
         In varied colors bright.

    Her forests and her valleys fair,
    Her flowers that scent the morning air,
         All have their charms for me;—
    But more I love my country's name,
    These words that echo deathless fame—
         The Land of Liberty.

All the oriental luster of the richest gems, all the enchanting beauties of exterior shape, the exquisite of all forms, the loveliness of color, the harmony of sounds, the heat and brightness of the enlivening sun, the heroic virtue of the bravest minds, with the purity and quickness of the highest intellect, are emanations from the Supreme Deity. Salem Town and Nelson M. Holbrook, 1856.
A well-spent youth is the only sure foundation of a happy old age. Bigland, Advantages of a Well-Cultivated Mind.

              Gentle Words
    More precious than the honeyed dew,
    From flowers distilled of saffron hue,
    Of rosy tint, or azure blue,
         Are gentle words.

    More joyous than the merry thrill,
    When warbling sounds the woodlands fill,
    Or parting streamlet, brook, or rill,
         Are gentle words.

    Sweeter than music's hallowed strains,
    To cheer old age when memory wanes,
    And lull to rest its aches and pains,
         Are gentle words.

    Holy as friendship's gifted name,
    Burning with bright unquivering flame,
    That on through time remains the same,
         Are gentle words. Salem Town and Nelson M. Holbrook, 1856.

        We cannot honor our country with a reverence too deep; we cannot love her with an affection too fervent; we cannot serve her with an energy of purpose too steadfast, nor a zeal too enthusiastic. Salem Town and Nelson M. Holbrook.
        Nature has laid out all her art in beautifying the face. She has touched it with vermilion; planted in it a double row of ivory; made it the seat of smiles and blushes; lighted it up, and enlivened it with the brightness of the eyes; hung it, on each side, with curious organs of sense; given it airs and graces that cannot be described; and surrounded it with such a flowing shade of hair as sets all its beauties in the most agreeable light. Salem Town and Nelson M. Holbrook.
        We should estimate a man's character more by his goodness, than by his wealth. Salem Town and Nelson M. Holbrook.
        Pleasure is a shadow; wealth is vanity; and power is a pageant: but knowledge is intrinsic enjoyment, perennial fame, unlimited space, and infinite duration. In the performance of its sacred office, it fears no danger, spares no expense, omits no exertion. It scales the mountain, looks into the volcano, dives into the ocean, perforates the earth, wings its flight into the skies, encircles the globe, explores sea and land, contemplates the distant, examines the minute, comprehends the great, and ascends the sublime. No place, too remote for its grasp, no heavens, too exalted for its touch. Salem Town and Nelson M. Holbrook.

           Gayety and Cheerfulness
    O this is the beautiful month of May,
         The season of birds and of flowers!
    The young and the lovely are out and away,
    ‘Mid the up-springing grass and the blossoms, at play;
    And many a heart will be happy to-day,
         In this beautiful region of ours.

    Sweet April, the frail, the capriciously bright,
         Hath passed like the lovely away;
    Yet we mourn not her absence, for swift at her flight
    Sprang forth, her young sister, the angel of light;
    And fair as a sunbeam that dazzles the sight,
         Is beautiful, beautiful May.

    What scenes of delight, what sweet visions she brings,
         Of freshness, of gladness, and mirth,
    Of fair sunny glades, where the buttercup springs,
    Of cool, gushing fountains, of rose-tinted wings,
    Of birds, bees, and blossoms, all beautiful things,
         Whose brightness rejoices the earth!

    How fair is the landscape! o'er hill-top and glade,
         What swift-varying colors are unrolled!
    The shadows now sunshine, the sunshine now shade,
    Their light-shifting hues for the green earth have made
    A garment resplendent with dew-gems o'erlaid,
         A light-woven tissue of gold.

    These brighten the landscape, and softly unroll
        Their splendors by land and by sea;
    They steal o'er the heart with a magic control,
    That lightens the bosom and freshens the soul;
    O this is the charm that enhances the whole,
         And makes them so lovely to me.
    Salem Town and Nelson M. Holbrook.

Creation is a display of supreme goodness, no less than of wisdom and power. How many clear marks of benevolent intention appear everywhere around us! What a profusion of beauty and ornament is poured forth on the face of nature! What a magnificent spectacle presented to the view of man! What supply contrived for his wants! What a variety of objects set before him to gratify his senses, to employ his understanding, to entertain his imagination, to cheer and gladden his heart! Indeed, the very existence of the universe is a standing memorial of the goodness of the Creator. Salem Town and Nelson M. Holbrook.

        Night kissed the young rose, and it bent softly to sleep. The stars, shrined in pure dew-drops which hung upon its blushing bosom, watched its sweet slumbers. Morning came with her dancing breezes, and they whispered to the young rose, and it awoke, joyous and smiling. Lightly it danced to and fro in all the loveliness of health and youthful innocence.
        Then came the ardent sun-god sweeping from the east, and he smote the young rose with his golden shaft, and it fainted. Deserted and almost heart-broken, it dropped to the dust in its loneliness.
Now the gentle breeze, who had been gamboling over the sea, pushing on the light bark, sweeping over hill and dale, by the neat cottage and the still brook, turning the old mill, fanning the fevered brow of disease, and tossing the curl of innocent childhood, came tripping along on her errands of mercy and love; and, when she saw the young rose, she hastened to kiss it, and fondly bathed its forehead in cool, refreshing showers, and the young rose revived, looked up and smiled, and flung out its ruddy arms as if in gratitude to embrace the kind breeze; but she hurried quickly away; her generous task was performed; yet not without reward, for she soon perceived that a delicious fragrance had been poured on her wings by the grateful rose; and the kind breeze was glad in her heart, and went away singing through the trees.
        Thus, true charity, like the breeze which gathers a fragrance from the humble flower it refreshes, unconsciously reaps a reward in the performance of its offices of kindness and love, which steals through the heart like a rich perfume. Salem Town and Nelson M. Holbrook.

        Happiness, my son, has not its seat in honor, pleasure, or riches. To be happy is in the power of every individual; to all, our beneficent Creator has given wisely; and those only who receive what he gives with thankful hearts, and are content, are happy. Contentment is the substance, and happiness her shadow; those who possess the one, have the other. Salem Town and Nelson M. Holbrook.
        Religion is the daughter of heaven, parent of our virtues, and source of all true felicity; she alone giveth peace and contentment, divests the heart of anxious cares, burst on the mind a flood of joy, and sheds unmingled and perpetual sunshine in the pious heart. By her the spirits of darkness are banished from the earth, and angelic ministers of grace thicken, unseen, the regions of mortality. She promotes love and good-will among men, lifts up the head that hangs down, heals the wounded spirit, dissipates the gloom of sorrow, sweetens the cup of affliction, blunts the sting of death, and wherever seen, felt, and enjoyed, breathes around her an everlasting spring, and attunes the heart and voice to mingle with the hosts of heaven, in that last and sweetest anthem that ever mortals or immortals sung. Salem Town and Nelson M. Holbrook.
        "The greatest thing," says some one, "a man can do for his Heavenly Father is to be kind to some of His other children." I wonder how it is we are not all kinder than we are. How much the world needs it! How easily it is done! How instantaneously it acts! How infallibly it is remembered! How superabundantly it pays itself back, for there is no debtor in the world so honorable, so superbly honorable, as Love. Henry Drummond.
        "To obtain eternal life, all I am to do is reduced to one world only, and that is ‘love." This is the first and great command, which comprehends all others. The love of God is a grace rather felt than defined. It is the general tendency and inclination of the whole man, of all his heart and soul and strength, of all his powers and affections, and of the utmost strength of them all, to God as his chief and only and perfect and infinite good." Ken.
        Oh! that men would accept the testimony of Christ touching the blessedness of giving! He who sacrifices most, loves most; and he who loves most, is most blessed. Love and sacrifice are related to each other like seed and fruit; each produces the other. The seed of sacrifice brings forth the fragrant fruit of love, and love always has in its heart the seeds of new sacrifice. (No Author Given.)
        Every earnest prayer that is breathed, every cross that is carried, every trial that is well endured, every good work for his fellow-man lovingly done, ever little act that is conscientiously performed for Christ's glory helps to make the Christian character beautiful, and to load its broad boughs with "apples of gold" for God's "baskets of silver." T. L. Cuyler, D.D.
        I do not know when I have had happier times in my soul, than when I have been sitting at work, with nothing before me but a candle and a white cloth, and hearing no sound but that of my own breath, with God in my soul and heaven in my eye. I rejoice in being exactly what I am,—a creature capable of loving God, and who, as long as God lives, must be happy. I get up and look out of the window and gaze at the moon and start and think myself one of the happiest beings in the universe. A Poor Methodist Woman, 18th Century.
        Eternity will be one glorious morning, with the sun ever climbing higher and higher; one blessed spring-time, and yet richer summer—every plant in full flower, but every flower the bud of a lovelier.
Rev. W. H. Milburn.
        What a desolate place would be this world without a flower! It would be a face without a smile,—a feast without a welcome! Are not flowers the stars of the earth? and are not our stars the flowers of heaven? Rev. W. H. Milburn.
        The glory of the country is in its homes, which contain the true elements of national vitality, and are the embodied type of heaven. Rev. W. H. Milburn.
        To walk with the breeze upon one's brow, to trample the level grass exuberant with freshness, to climb upon the mountain, to follow through the meadows some thread of water gliding under rushes and water-plants,—I give you my word for it, there is happiness in this. At this contact with healthy and natural things, the follies of the world drop off as drop the dead leaves when the spring spa rises and the young leaves put forth. Rev. W. H. Milburn.
        The very soul seems to be refreshed on the bare recollection of the pleasure which the senses receive in contemplating, on a fine vernal morning, the charms of the pink, the violet, the rose, the honey-suckle, the hyacinth, the tulip, and a thousand other flowers, in every variety of figure, scent, and hue; for Nature is no less remarkable for the accuracy and beauty of her works than for variety and profusion. Rev. W. H. Milburn.
        Nothing is better able to gratify the inherent passion of novelty than a garden; for Nature is always renewing her variegated appearance. She is infinite in her productions, and the life of man may come to its close before he has seen half the pictures which she is able to display. Rev. W. H. Milburn.
        What shall we say of flowers—those flaming banners of the vegetable world, which march in such various and splendid triumph before the coming of its fruits? Rev. W. H. Milburn.
        The poems which have lingered in the ear for generations have been clear-cut crystals, flashing with varied brightness—ideas set in gold of cunning workmanship. Rev. W. H. Milburn.
        Every girl is a lover of beauty. Beautiful homes, beautiful furnishings, beautiful flowers, beautiful fruits, beautiful faces—anything wherein beauty is found, there will be found girls to admire it. Mabel Hale.
        Everywhere purity and cleanness are admired and appreciated. Pure air, pure water, pure food, pure associations, pure ideals, pure aspirations—all are needed for perfect living. Mabel Hale.
        A thing of beauty is a rose in full bloom. What a pleasure to hold in the hand a perfect rose andmire its soft, velvety petals, to smell of its rich fragrance, and to feast upon its beauty of coloring! One would be tempted to say, "In this Nature has done her best." But Nature, and the God of Nature, gives us many beautiful and glorious things. Mabel Hale.
        There is no work so good for any woman as making a good, true home for somebody. Every truly beautiful character is its best at home. Mabel Hale.
        Of all unseen things, the most radiant, the most beautiful, the most divine, is character. Henry Drummond.
        "Love is the fulfilling of the Law." It is the rule for fulfilling all rules, the new commandment for keeping the old commandments, Christ's one secret of the Christian life. Henry Drummond.
        I wonder why it is we are not all kinder than we are? How much the world needs it! How easily it is done! How instantaneously it acts! How infallibly it is remembered! How superabundantly it pays itself back! For there is no debtor in the world so honorable, so superbly honorable, as Love. Henry Drummond.
        Patience, kindness, generosity, humility, courtesy, unselfishness, good-temper, guilelessness, sincerity,—these make up the supreme gift, the stature of the perfect man. Henry Drummond.
        There is a difference between trying to please and giving pleasure. Give pleasure. Lose no chance of giving pleasure. For that is the ceaseless and anonymous triumph of a truly loving spirit. Henry Drummond.
        It is a good thing to think; it is a better thing to work. It is a better thing to do good. Henry Drummond.
        The beauty of the country surpasses all the grandeur of the city. In the city there are gardens cultivated with floral skill; but they are not half so lovely even as the fields, whose swelling gain waves, and nods, and trembles to the whisking wind. Rev. W. H. Milburn.

Little Things Isaac Watts Little drops of water, Little grains of sand, Make the mighty ocean And the pleasant land. Little deeds of kindness, Little words of love, Make this earth an Eden Like the heaven above. Happy Thought                                             The world is so full of a number of things
                                            I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings. (No Author Given)
        Love turns to the brightest side of things, and its face is ever directed towards happiness. It sees
'the glory in the grass, the sunshine on the flower.' It encourages happy thoughts, and lives in an
atmosphere of cheerfulness. It costs nothing, and yet is invaluable; for it blesses its possessor, and
grows up in abundant happiness in the bosoms of others. Samuel Smiles.
All Things Bright (Cecil Frances Alexander, 1823-1895) All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all. Each little flower that opens, Each little bird that sings, He made their glowing colors, He made their tiny wings. The purple-headed mountain, The river running by, The sunset and the morning, That brightens up the sky. The cold wind in the winter, The pleasant summer sun, The ripe fruits in the garden— He made them every one. The tall trees in the greenwood, The meadows where we play, The rushes by the water, We gather every day. He gave us eyes to see them, And lips that we might tell How great is God Almighty, Who has made all things well.

You are visitor number <img src="/cgi-bin/counter"> Please visit this updated site again. Thank you.