How goodness heightens beauty!
The constant habit of perusing devout books is so indispensable, that it has been termed the oil of the lamp of prayer. Too much reading, however, and too little meditation, may produce the effect of a lamp inverted; which is extinguished by the very excess of that ailment, whose property is to feed it.
Depart from discretion when it interferes with duty.
The wretch who digs the mine for bread, or ploughs, that others may be fed, feels less fatigued than that decreed to him who cannot think or read.
If faith produce no works, I see That faith is not a living tree. Thus faith and works together grow, No separate life they never can know. They're soul and body, hand and heart, What God hath joined, let no man part.
Genius without religion is only a lamp on the outer gate of a palace; it may serve to cast a gleam of light on those that are without, while the inhabitant sits in darkness.
Idleness among children, as among men, is the root of all evil, and leads to no other evil more certain than ill temper.
It is not so important to know everything as to know the exact value of everything, to appreciate what we learn, and to arrange what we know.
Love never reasons, but profusely gives; it gives like a thoughtless prodigal its all, and then trembles least it has done to little.
Luxury! more perilous to youth than storms or quicksand, poverty or chains.
Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
Going to the opera, like getting drunk, is a sin that carries its own punishment with it.
My plan of instruction is extremely simple and limited. They learn, on week-days, such coarse works as may fit them for servants. I allow of no writing for the poor. My object is not to make fanatics, but to train up the lower classes in habits of industry and piety.