A wise man may be duped as well as a fool; but the fool publishes the triumph of his deceiver; the wise man is silent, and denies that triumph to an enemy which he would hardly concede to a friend; a triumph that proclaims his own defeat.

Mystery is not profoundness.

It is not so difficult a task as to plant new truths, as to root out old errors

Were we as eloquent as angels we still would please people much more by listening rather than talking.

A semi-civilized state of society, equally removed from the extremes of barbarity and of refinement, seems to be that particular meridian under which all the reciprocities and gratuities of hospitality do most readily flourish and abound. For it so happens that the ease, the luxury, and the abundance of the highest state of civilization, are as productive of selfishness, as the difficulties, the privations, and the sterilities of he lowest.

Our actions must clothe us with an immortality loathsome or glorious.

Sometimes the greatest adversities turn out to be the greatest blessings.