...best time

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now."

~ Chinese Proverb

...of superfluities

Beauty is the purgation of superfluities. 

-Michelangelo Buonarroti, sculptor, painter, architect, and poet (1475-1564)

...heaven is close by

Sometimes they seem like living shapes,
The people of the sky,
Guests in white raiment coming down
From heaven, which is close by. 

-Lucy Larcom, teacher and author (1824-1893)

...a pearl

A raindrop, dripping from a cloud,

Was ashamed when it saw the sea.
"Who am I where there is a sea?" it said.
When it saw itself with the eye of humility,
A shell nurtured it in its embrace.
-Saadi of Shiraz (c. 1200 AD)

....by bitter experience

The theory of democratic government is not that the will of the people is always right, but rather that normal human beings of average intelligence will, if given a chance, learn the right and best course by bitter experience.
-W.E.B. Du Bois, educator, civil rights activist, and writer (1868-1963)