The child's murmuring is more and is less than words; there are no notes, and yet it is a song; there are no syllables, and yet it is language.... This poor stammering is a compound of what the child said when it was an angel, and of what it will say when it becomes a man. Victor Hugo.
The childhood shows the man / As morning shows the day. Milton.
The children of others we never love so much as our own; error, our own child, is so near our heart. Goethe.
The choicest thing this world has for a man is 15 affection. J. G. Holland.
The Christian doctrine, that doctrine of Humility, in all senses godlike, and the parent of all godlike virtue, is not superior, or inferior, or equal to any doctrine of Socrates or Thales, being of a totally different nature; differing from these as a perfect ideal poem does from a correct computation in arithmetic. Carlyle.
The Christian religion having once appeared, cannot again vanish; having once assumed its divine shape, can be subject to no dissolution. Goethe.
The Christian religion is an inspiration and life—God's life breathed into a man and breathed through a man. J. G. Holland.
The Christian religion is especially remarkable, as it so decidedly lays claim to mere goodwill in man, to his essential temper, and values this independently of all culture and manifestation. It stands in opposition to science and art, and properly to enjoyment. Novalis.
The Christian religion, often enough dismembered 20 and scattered abroad, will ever in the end again gather itself together at the foot of the cross. Goethe.
The Christian religion, once here, cannot again pass away; in one or the other form, it will endure through all time. As in Scripture, so also in the heart of man, it is written, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Carlyle.