Of gifts, there seems none more becoming to offer a friend than a beautiful book.

There is virtue in country houses, in gardens and orchards, in fields, streams and groves, in rustic recreations and plain manners, that neither cities nor universities enjoy.

A birthday is a good time to begin a new; throwing away the old habits, as you would old clothes, and never putting them again.

Experience converts us to ourselves when books fail us.

Opposition strengthens the manly will.

Time ripens the substance of a life as the seasons mellow and perfect its fruits. The best apples fall latest and keep longest.

There are truths that shield themselves behind veils, and are best spoken by implication. Even the sun veils himself in his own rays to blind the gaze of the too curious starer.