In a calm sea every man is a pilot.
But all sunshine without shade, all pleasure without pain, is not life at all. Take the
lot of the happiest-it is a tangled yarn. Bereavements and blessings, one following
another, make us sad and blessed by turns. Even death itself makes life more loving. Men
come closet to their true selves in the sober moments of life, under the shadows of
sorrow and loss.
In the affairs of life or of business, it is not intellect that tells so much as
characters, not brains so much as heart, not genius so much as self-control, patience, and
discipline, regulated by judgment.
I have always believed that the man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to
live more simply without. In an age of extravagance and waste, I wish I could show to the
world how few the real wants of humanity are.
To regret one's errors to the point of not repeating them is true repentance. There is
nothing noble in the being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being
superior to your previous self.