Moral prejudices are the stopgaps of virtue; and, as is the case with other stopgaps, it is often more difficult to get either out or in through them than through any other part of the fence.

The thoughtful excitement of lonely rambles, of gardening, and of other like occupations, where the mind has leisure to must during the healthful activity of the body, with the fresh and wakeful breezes blowing round it.

There is a glare about worldly success which is very apt to dazzle men's eyes.

I could hardly feel much confidence in a man who had never been imposed upon.

We like slipping, but not falling; our real anxiety is to be tempted enough.

The feeling is often the deeper truth, the opinion the more superficial one.

Nature is mighty. Art is mighty. Artifice is weak. For nature is the work of a mightier power than man. Art is the work of man under the guidance and inspiration of a mightier power. Artifice is the work of mere man, in the imbecility of his mimic understanding.