Friendship, of itself a holy tie, is made more sacred by adversity.

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.

Contemporaries appreciate the person rather than their merit, posterity will regard the merit rather than the person.

God is on the side of virtue; for whoever dreads punishment suffers it, and whoever deserves it, dreads it .

Jealousy is sustained as often by pride as by affection.

Times of great calamity and confusion have been productive for the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace. The brightest thunder-bolt is elicited from the darkest storm.

How small a portion of our life it is that we really enjoy! In youth we are looking forward to things that are to come; in old age we are looking backward to things that are gone past; in manhood, although we appear indeed to be more occupied in things that are present, yet even that is too often absorbed in vague determinations to be vastly happy on some future day when we have time.