George MacDonald

“Attitudes are more important than facts.”

“It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen.”

“Man finds it hard to get what he wants, because he does not want the best God finds it hard to give, because He would give the best, and man will not take it.”

“It is our best work that God wants, not the dregs of our exhaustion. I think he must prefer quality to quantity.”

“How strange this fear of death is! We are never frightened at a sunset.”

“The principle part of faith is patience.”

“Forgiveness is the giving, and so the receiving, of life.”

“If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give.”

“The best preparation for the future is the present well seen to, and the last duty done.”

“To have what we want is riches but to be able to do without is power.”

“When we are out of sympathy with the young, then I think our work in this world is over.”

“To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.”

“Few delights can equal the presence of one whom we trust utterly.”

“The more I work with the body, keeping my assumptions in a temporary state of reservation, the more I appreciate and sympathize with a given disease. The body no longer appears as a sick or irrational demon, but as a process with its own inner logic and wisdom.”