Those who have the strength and the love 

to sit with a dying patient 

in the silence that goes beyond words 

will know that this moment is neither frightening nor painful, 

but a peaceful cessation of the functioning of the body.

Life is a long preparation 

for something that never happens.

Beauty is the promise of happiness.

We are to admit no more causes of natural things 

than such as are both true and sufficient 

to explain their appearances.

Religions get lost as people do.

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; 

it is thinking that makes what we read ours.

Happiness is not an ideal of reason, 

but of imagination.

What is wanted is not the will to believe, 

but the will to find out, 

which is the exact opposite.

Skill is the unified force of experience, intellect and passion in their operation.

He who possesses art and science has religion; 

he who does not possess them, needs religion.

The merit of originality 

is not novelty; 

it is sincerity.

Our duty, 

as men and women, 

is to proceed 

as if limits to our ability did not exist. 

We are collaborators in creation.

Reason is not what decides love.

The life of the dead 

is placed 

in the memory of the living.

Where the senses fail us, 

reason must step in.