The first step toward greatness is to be honest, says the proverb; but the proverb fails to state the case strong enough.  Honesty is not only “the first step toward greatness,”—­it is greatness itself.—­Bovee.

Let honesty be as the breath of thy soul, and never forget to have a penny, when all thy expenses are enumerated and paid:  then shalt thou reach the point of happiness, and independence shall be thy shield and buckler, thy helmet and crown; then shall thy soul walk upright nor stoop to the silken wretch because he hath riches, nor pocket an abuse because the hand which offers it wears a ring set with diamonds.  —­Franklin.

Nothing really succeeds which is not based on reality; sham, in a large sense, is never successful.  In the life of the individual, as in the more comprehensive life of the State, pretension is nothing and power is everything.—­Whipple.

The more honesty a man has, the less he affects the air of a saint.  —­Lavater.

No man is bound to be rich or great,—­no, nor to be wise; but every man is bound to be honest.—­Sir Benjamin Rudyard.

An honest man’s the noblest work of God.—­Pope.

When men cease to be faithful to their God, he who expects to find them so to each other will be much disappointed.—­Bishop Horne.

If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.  —­Dr. Johnson.

All other knowledge is hurtful to him who has not honesty and good-nature.—­Montaigne.

No legacy is so rich as honesty.—­Shakespeare.

What is becoming is honest, and whatever is honest must always be becoming.—­Cicero.

Hope.—­All which happens in the whole world happens through hope.  No husbandman would sow a grain of corn if he did not hope it would spring up and bring forth the ear.  How much more are we helped on by hope in the way to eternal life!—­Luther.

“Hast thou hope?” they asked of John Knox, when he lay a-dying.  He spoke nothing, but raised his finger and pointed upward, and so died.—­Carlyle.

The riches of heaven, the honor which cometh from God only, and the pleasures at His right hand, the absence of all evil, the presence and enjoyment of all good, and this good enduring to eternity, never more to be taken from us, never more to be in any, the least degree, diminished, but forever increasing, these are the wreaths which form the contexture of that crown held forth to our hopes.—­Bishop Horne.

A religious hope does not only bear up the mind under her sufferings but makes her rejoice in them.—­Addison.

Hope is like the wing of an angel, soaring up to heaven, and bearing our prayers to the throne of God.—­Jeremy Taylor.