No two things differ more than hurry and despatch. Hurry is the mark of a weak mind; despatch of a strong one.

It is a mortifying truth, and ought to teach the wisest of us humility, that many of the most valuable discoveries have been the result of chance rather than of contemplation, and of accident rather than of design.

Deliberate with caution, but act with decision and yield with graciousness, or oppose with firmness.

In civil jurisprudence it too often happens that there is so much law, that there is no room for justice, and that the claimant expires of wrong in the midst of right, as mariners die of thirst in the midst of water.

Sensibility would be a good portress if she had but one hand; with her right she opens the door to pleasure, but with her left to pain.

Bed is a bundle of paradoxes: we go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret.

Tyrants have not yet discovered any chains that can fetter the mind.