Henry Ward Beecher

We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.

Good nature is worth more than knowledge, more than money, more than honor, to the persons who possess it.

The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy.

There will be a great loss of learning before the moon's full cycle is completed. Fire and floods will be fomented by ignorant rulers; much time will go by before it is rectified.

It's good to like yourself, and that only comes from hard work, from doing. But vanity is dangerous; it can trip you badly.

Exeter was, I suspect, more crucial in my life than in the lives of most members of my class, and conceivably, than in the lives of almost anyone else who ever attended the school.