Since the generality of persons act from impulse, much more than from principle, men are neither so good nor so bad as we are apt to think them.

Better far off to leave half the ruins and nine-tenths of the churches unseen and to see well the rest; to see them not once, but again and often again; to watch them, to learn them, to live with them, to love them, till they have become a part of life and life's recollections.

Examples would indeed be excellent things were not people so modest that none will set, and so vain that none will follow them.

Nothing is farther than earth from heaven; nothing is nearer than heaven to earth.

Some people carry their hearts in their heads; very many carry their heads in their hearts. The difficulty is to keep them apart, yet both actively working together.

The power of faith will often shine forth the most when the character is naturally weak.

A mother should give her children a superabundance of enthusiasm; that after they have lost all they are sure to lose on mixing with the world, enough may still remain to prompt fated support them through great actions.