Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought.

The reasons which any man offers to you for his own conduct betray his opinion of your character.

Do not shun this maxim because it is common-place. On the contrary, take the closest heed of what observant men, who would probably like to show originality, are yet constrained to repeat. Therein lies the marrow of the wisdom of the world.

The thing which makes one man greater than another, the quality by which we ought to measure greatness, is a man's capacity for loving.

People resemble still more the time in which they live, than they resemble their fathers.

Tolerance is the only real test of civilization.

It has been said with some meaning that if men would but rest in silence, they might always hear the music of the spheres.