By steps we may ascend to God. [ Milton ]

Our pleasures and our discontents
Are rounds by which we may ascend. [ Longfellow ]

It is easier to descend than ascend. [ Proverb ]

Father! forgive the heart that clings
Thus trembling to the things of time,
And bid my soul, on angel's wings
Ascend into a purer clime. [ Jane Roscoe ]

Love is wont rather to ascend than descend. [ Proverb ]

The grave, where sets the orb of being, sets
To rise, ascend, and culminate above
Eternity's horizon evermore. [ Abraham Coles ]

Oh for a muse of fire that would ascend the highest heaven of invention! [ William Shakespeare ]

Descend a step in choosing thy wife; ascend a step in choosing thy friend. [ The Talmud ]

Life must be lived on a higher plane. We must go up to a higher platform, to which we are always invited to ascend; there the whole aspect of things changes. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]

In all societies, it is advisable to associate if possible with the highest; not that the highest are always the best, but because, if disgusted there, we can at any time descend; but if we begin with the lowest, to ascend is impossible. [ Colton ]

How the universal heart of man blesses flowers! They are wreathed round the cradle, the marriage altar, and the tomb; all these are appropriate uses. Flowers should deck the brow of the youthful bride, for they are in themselves a lovely type of marriage; they should twine round the tomb, for their perpetually renewed beauty is a symbol of the resurrection; they should festoon the altar, for their fragrance and their beauty ascend in perpetual worship before the Most High. [ Mrs. L. M. Child ]