The difference between those whom the world esteems as good and those whom it condemns as bad, is in many cases little else than that the former have been better sheltered from temptation.

Seeking is not always the way to find.

The praises of others may be of use in teaching us, not what we are, but what we ought to be.

There are men whom you will never dislodge from an opinion, except by taking possession of it yourself.

People cannot go wrong, if you don't let them. They cannot go right, unless you let them.

Histories used often to be stories: the fashion now is to leave out the story. Our histories are stall-fed: the facts are absorbed by the reflexions, as the meat is sometimes by the fat.

I bid you conquer in your warfare against your four great enemies, the world, the devil, the flesh, and above all, that obstinate and perverse self-will, unaided by which the other three would be comparatively powerless.