“So many gods, so many creeds, So many paths that wind and wind, While just the art of being kind Is all the sad world needs.”

“There's one sad truth in life I've foundWhile journeying east and west -The only folks we really woundAre those we love the best.We flatter those we scarcely know,We please the fleeting guest,And deal full many a thoughtless blowTo those who love us best.”

“One ship drives east and another drives westWith the selfsame winds that blow.Tis the set of the sailsAnd not the galesWhich tells us the way to go.Like the winds of the seas are the ways of fate,As we voyage along through the life:Tis the set of a soulThat decides its goal,And not the calm or the strife. ”

“We flatter those we scarcely know,We please the fleeting guest;And deal full many a thoughtless blow,To those who love us best.”

“Thank God, I say, for while I love you so, With that vast love, as passionate as tender, I feel an exultation as I know I have not made you a complete surrender. Here is my body; bruise it, if you will, And break my heart; I have that something still. You cannot grasp it”

“I hold it true that thoughts are thingsEndowed with bodies, breath, and wings,And that we send them forth to fillThe world with good results - or ill.That which we call our secret thoughtSpeeds to the earth's remotest spot,And leaves its blessings or its woesLike tracks behind it as it goes.It is God's law. Remember itIn your still chamber as you sitWith thoughts you would not dare have known,And yet made comrades when alone.These thoughts have life; and they will flyAnd leave their impress by-and-by,Like some marsh breeze, whose poisoned breathBreathes into homes its fevered breath.And after you have quite forgotOr all outgrown some vanished thought,Back to your mind to make its home,A dove or raven, it will come.Then let your secret thoughts be fair;They have a vital part and shareIn shaping worlds and moulding fate --God's system is so intricate.”

“Laugh, and the world laughs with you;Weep, and you weep alone;For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,But has trouble enough of its own.”