To forgive freely, is what we owe to our enemy; to forget not, is what we owe to ourselves.

youth is always sure that change must mean something better.

... if fiction does not show us a better life than reality, what is the good of it?

Events that are predestined require but little management. They manage themselves. They slip into place while we sleep, and suddenly we are aware that the thing we fear to attempt, is already accomplished.

Solitude is such a potential thing. We hear voices in solitude, we never hear in the hurry and turmoil of life; we receive counsels and comforts, we get under no other condition.

Spiritual favors are not always to be looked for, and not always to be relied on.

... though mathematics may teach a man how to build a bridge, it is what the Scotch Universities call the humanities, that teach him to be civil and sweet-tempered.