The wisest man may be wiser to-day than he was yesterday, and to-morrow than he is to-day. Total freedom from change would imply total freedom from error; but this is the prerogative of Omniscience alone.

There were moments of despondency when Shakespeare thought himself no poet, and Raphael no painter; when the greatest wits have doubted the excellence of their happiest efforts.

True goodness is not without that germ of greatness that can bear with patience the mistakes of the ignorant.

Hope is a prodigal young heir, and experience is his banker.

We submit to the society of those that can inform us, but we seek the society of those whom we can inform. And men of genius ought not to be chagrined if they see themselves neglected. For when we communicate knowledge, we are raised in our own estimation; but when we receive it, we are lowered.

Many books owe their success to the good memories of their authors and the bad memories of their readers.

There are only two things in which the false professors of all religions have agreed--to persecute all other sects and to plunder their own.