A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles

A father may turn his back on his child, brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, wives their husbands. But a mother's love endures through all

My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me

Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; a mother's secret hope outlives them all

The tongue is the only tool that gets sharper with use

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief...and unspeakable love

Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart

Christmas! 'Tis the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial fire of charity in the heart

There is nothing in England that exercises a more delightful spell over my imagination than the lingerings of the holiday customs and rural games of former times. They recall the pictures my fancy used to draw in the May morning of life, when as yet I only knew the world through books, and believed it to be all that poets had painted it and they bring with them the flavour of those honest days of yore, in which, perhaps with equal fallacy, I am apt to think the world was more home-bred, social, and joyous than at present

Whenever a man's friends begin to compliment him about looking young, he may be sure that they think he is growing old