Variation: If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he builds his house in the woods the world will make a beaten path to his door.

Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.

As soon as there is life there is danger.

To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting—a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

In order to learn the important lessons in life, one must each day surmount to fear.

The next thing to saying a good thing yourself, is to quote one.

There is a kind of latent omniscience not only in every man but in every particle.

It makes a great difference in the force of a sentence whether a man be behind it or no.