If I could choose what of all things would be at the same time the most delightful and useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other blessing; for this makes life a discipline of goodness; creates new hopes when all earthly ones vanish; throws over the decay of existence the most gorgeous of all lights; awakens life even in death; makes even torture and shame the ladder of ascent to paradise; and far above all combinations of earthly hopes, calls up the most delightful visions of the future, the security of everlasting joys, where the sensualist and the skeptic view only gloom, decay, annihilation, and despair.
—Humphry Davy (British Chemist)
Among the sentiments of most powerful operation upon the human heart, and most highly honorable to the human character, are those of veneration for our forefathers and of love for our posterity.
—John Quincy Adams (American Head of State)
Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
—Abigail Adams (American First Lady)
By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.
—Nikos Kazantzakis (German Greek Philosopher)
Unhappy is the man who is not so much dissatisfied with what he has as with what the other fellow possesses.
—Chauncey Depew (American Businessperson)
This is all you have. This is not a dry run. This is your life. If you want to fritter it away with your fears, then you will fritter it away, but you won’t get it back later.
—Laura Schlessinger (American Children’s Books Writer)
Ideas are like wandering sons. They show up when you least expect them.
—Bert Williams