The French have a saying that whatever excellence a man may exhibit in a public station he is very apt to be ridiculous in a private one.

If the prodigal quits life in debt to others, the miser quits it still deeper in debt to himself.

Let those who would affect singularity with success first determine to be very virtuous, and they will be sure to be very singular.

Grant graciously what you cannot refuse safely and conciliate those you cannot conquer.

It is sufficiently humiliating to our nature to reflect that our knowledge is but as she rivulet, our ignorance as the sea. On points of the highest interest, the moment we quit the light of revelation we shall find that Platonism itself is intimately connected with Pyrrhonism, and the deepest inquiry with the darkest doubt.

The upright, if he suffer calumny to move him, fears the tongue of man more than the eye of God.

Like the rainbow, peace rests upon the earth, but its arch is lost in heaven. Heaven bathes it in hues of light--it springs up amid tears and clouds--it is a reflection of the eternal sun--it is an assurance of calm--it is the sign of a great covenant between God and man--it is an emanation from the distant orb of immortal light.