The quote database

Optimism that does not count the cost is like a house builded on sand.

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.

I can say with conviction that the struggle which evil necessitates is one of the greatest blessings. It makes us strong, patient, helpful men and women.

Life is a fair field, and the right will prosper if we stand by our guns.

With the dropping of a little word from another's hand into mine, a slight flutter of the fingers, began the intelligence, the joy, the fullness of my life.

do not hope to excite love except by love

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.

Love at its highest point--love sublime, unique, invincible--leads us straight to the brink of the great abyss, for it speaks to us directly of the infinite and of eternity.

Courage returns as we gaze; when we see what has been, we doubt no more that it can be again.

depend upon it, you will love your native hills the better for being separated from them

What wealth is it to have such friends that we cannot think of them without elevation!

Friends are as often brought nearer together as separated by death.

Though my life is low, if my spirit looks upward habitually at an elevated angle, it is as it were redeemed.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours

The doctrines of despair, of spiritual or political tyranny or servitude, were never taught by such as shared the serenity of nature.

Surely civilization is old enough, surely mankind is mature enough so that we ought in our own lifetime to find a way to permanent peace.

any person haled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him

It is a well-established principle of law that every wrong has a remedy.

This is a glorious region, and the air and life are intoxicating.

Let all our people, leaving behind them the battlefields of dead issues, move forward and in their strength of liberty and the restored Union win the grander victories of peace.

We may hasten or we may retard, but we can not prevent, the final reconciliation.

It is the high privilege and sacred duty of those now living to educate their successors and fit them, by intelligence and virtue, for the inheritance which awaits them.

Sorrow purifies and deepens the soul, and the extremity of sorrow is the prelude to Truth.

In short, we ought to do justice in a kindly spirit to all nations and require justice from them in return.