Authority without wisdom is like a heavy ax without an edge -- fitter to bruise than polish.

My age I will not once lament, / But sing, my time so near is spent.

Wisdom with an inheritance is good, but wisdom without an inheritance is better than an inheritance without wisdom.

Some laborers have hard hands, and old sinners have brawny consciences.

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant.

Iron till it be thoroughly heated is incapable to be wrought; so God sees good to cast some men into the furnace of affliction, and then beats them on His anvil into what frame He desires.

Youth is the time of getting, middle age of improving, and old age of spending; a negligent youth is usually attended by an ignorant middle age, and both by an empty old age.