“Ask God to give thee skill For comfort’s art, That thou may’st consecrated be, And set apart Unto a life of sympathy! For comforters are needed much Of Christ-like touch.” For he that wrongs his friend Wrongs himself more, and ever bears about A silent court of justice in his breast, Himself the judge and jury, and himself The prisoner at the bar, ever condemned. --_Tennyson._ The sense of humor is the oil of life’s engine. Without it, the machinery creaks and groans. No lot is so hard, no aspect of things is so grim, but it relaxes before a hearty laugh.--_G. S. Merriam._ The happiest heart that ever beat Was in some quiet breast, That found the common daylight sweet And left to Heaven the rest. --_John Vance Cheney._ “Of all work,” said the Bishop of Exeter, “that produces results, nine-tenths must be drudgery. There is no work, from the highest to the lowest, which can be done well by any man who is unwilling to make that sacrifice.” It is a hard thing to close up a discourse and to cut it short, when you are once in, and have a great deal more to say. There is nothing wherein the strength and breeding of a horse is so much seen as in a round, graceful, and sudden stop.--_Montaigne._ Greatly begin! though thou have time But for a line, be that sublime-- Not failure, but low aim, is crime. --_James Russell Lowell._ Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes; work never begun.--_Christina Rossetti._ When we feel a strong desire to thrust our advice on others, it is usually because we suspect their weakness; but we ought rather to suspect our own.--_Colton._ Sorrow is the mere rust of the soul. Activity will cleanse and brighten it.--_Dr. Johnson._ Efforts to be permanently useful, must be uniformly joyous--a spirit all sunshine--graceful from very gladness, beautiful because bright.--_Carlyle._ Read the philosophers, and learn how to make life happy; seeking useful precepts and brave and noble words which may become deeds.--_Seneca._ “I pray the prayer of Pluto old; God make thee beautiful within, And let thine eye the good behold In everything save sin.” Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.--_St. Francis de Sales._ Oh! square thyself for use; a stone that may Fit in the wall is left not in the way. --_R. C. French._ The best piece of good fortune which can come to one is opportunity for intimacy with a leader, in whatever line of life he may be engaged.--_Edward Everett Hale._ God has delivered yourself to your care, and says: “I had no fitter to trust than you.”--_Epictetus._ I gazed on the throng of hurrying faces, Some in tatters and some in laces, And I said to myself, “How will it be, When the soul of each is at last set free?”