If we are not responsible for the thoughts that pass our doors, we are at least responsible for those we admit and entertain.

Let us move on, and step out boldly, though it be into the night, and we can scarcely see the way.

The ebb and flow of will is like the movements of the tides... if we cease our vain struggles and lamentations long enough to look away from the personal self...we realize life is going well with us after all.

The beginning of 1856 found me teaching in the family of a planter named Bryan, residing in Prince George County, Md., some fifteen or twenty miles from Washington.

One of his legs was shorter than the other one. But his spine was also crooked and it drew his hip up, so it evened out just enough that he didn't walk with a limp.

In October, 1865, occurred what was, in my eyes, the greatest event in the history of the observatory. The new transit circle arrived from Berlin in its boxes.