The present is never the mark of our designs. We use both past and present as our means and instruments, but the future only as our object and aim.

We sometimes learn more from the sight of evil than from an example of good; and it is well to accustom ourselves to profit by the evil which is so common, while that which is good is so rare.

Let us weigh the gain and the loss, in wagering that God is. Consider these alternatives: if you win, you win all, if you lose you lose nothing. Do not hesitate, then, to wager that he is.

Things are always at their best in their beginning.

We must make good people wish that the Christian faith were true, and then show that it is.

Those whom we call ancient were really new in all things, and properly constituted the infancy of mankind.

Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.