The poet sees things as they look. Is this having a faculty the less? or a sense the more?

The cross was two pieces of dead wood; and a helpless, unresisting Man was nailed to it; yet it was mightier than the world, and triumphed, and will ever triumph over it.

We look to our last sickness for repentance, unmindful that it is during a recovery men repent, not during a sickness.

Is bread the better for kneading? so is the heart. Knead it then by spiritual exercises; or God must knead it by afflictions.

Most painters have painted themselves. So have most poets: not so palpably indeed, but more assiduously. Some have done nothing else.

If you wish a general to be beaten, send him a ream full of instructions; if you wish him to succeed, give him a destination, and bid him conquer.

They who disbelieve in virtue because man has never been found perfect, might as reasonably deny the sun because it is not always noon.