a little misgiving in the beginning of things, means much regret in the end of them.

In all troublous events we may find comfort, though it be only in the negative admission that things might have been worse.

... 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.

There is much said about the wickedness of doing evil that good may come. Alas! there is such a thing as doing good that evil may come.

All changes are more or less tinged with melancholy, for what we are leaving behind is part of ourselves.

Oh, the soul keeps its youth!

A poverty that is universal may be cheerfully borne; it is an individual poverty that is painful and humiliating.