Fear, either as a principle or a motive, is the beginning of all evil.

Fame is that which is known to exist by the echo of its footsteps through congenial minds.

Conflict, which rouses up the best and highest powers in some characters, in others not only jars the whole being, but paralyzes the faculties.

All my own experience of life teaches me the contempt of cunning, not the fear. The phrase "profound cunning," has always seemed to me a contradiction in terms. I never knew a cunning mind which was not either shallow, or on some point diseased.

Opinion has ever been stronger than law.

The moment one begins to solder right and wrong together, one's conscience becomes like a piece of plated goods.

Conversation may be compared to a lyre with seven chords-philosophy, art, poetry, love, scandal, and the weather.